The Boston Globe
The clip, which was shared to X, confirmed newly-built infrastructure that was cheekily billed as an inconceivable feat right here within the US. Some folks have been tricked, however others have been fast to name out the joke.
It was the form of video footage that always offers American cyclists pangs of jealousy.
A motorbike lane the place cyclists journey in their very own part of sidewalk, away from automotive site visitors, with color-coded asphalt? And sign lights particularly for bikes in the midst of a busy downtown space?
It was clearly infrastructure straight from the streets of Europe, assets that car-obsessed US cities may by no means muster the desire — or funding — to construct.
Or was it?
The clip of a motorbike lane that was cheekily billed as being from “the Netherlands” and posted on X, previously often called Twitter, had folks doing a double take this week. That’s as a result of it wasn’t filmed in a famously bike-friendly metropolis like Amsterdam in any respect — it was taken in Cambridge’s Inman Sq., which just lately welcomed a community of protected bike lanes in a busy intersection.
The video was recorded by Somerville resident Aaron Greiner, 27, who usually shares scenes of his bike rides alongside newly constructed paths. However this time he determined to “have a bit of extra enjoyable” when posting it on-line, and tried to make some extent about bike infrastructure within the course of.
“My buddy simply despatched me this video from the Netherlands,” he wrote, attempting to cross it off as a perk from abroad. “It’s so irritating we [can’t] do stuff like this within the US.”
Greiner, govt director of CultureHouse, a Somerville-based city design nonprofit, assumed “everybody would understand it was a joke.”
However what occurred as an alternative was typical of how info is commonly processed on-line: Folks took it at face worth, or thought he was deliberately attempting to mislead them.
“I used to be truly fairly stunned on the variety of people who didn’t” get it, he mentioned of the video, which was “favored” greater than 2,000 occasions.
The submit struck a nerve, as scores of individuals rushed to both lament the shortcomings of American bike lanes, or debunk the video by stating clear indicators — an MBTA bus passing by, for instance — that it was in Massachusetts.
So many have been confused by Greiner’s joke that customers added a “group be aware,” a characteristic that helps dispel misinformation, and clarified that it had certainly been filmed in Cambridge.
Many, although, understood the purpose of his tongue-in-cheek submit, and took it as a second to have a good time the venture’s completion.
“Good job Cambsterdam!” one individual wrote.
Even officers from Somerville’s Division of Infrastructure chimed in on X to congratulate Cambridge on its “worldwide appreciated redesign.”
Attending to the purpose the place Inman Sq.’s bike lanes may trick folks on the web into pondering they have been a part of a European metropolis identified worldwide for its bike-friendliness was not simple.
The neighborhood’s redesign course of dates again to 2016 and included eliminating left turns on the intersection of Cambridge, Springfield, and Hampshire streets, an space that was usually treacherous for cyclists.
The trail depicted within the video was a part of a building venture that consists of shortened crosswalks and a brand new public plaza, in addition to lighting and utilities enhancements. It took greater than 4 years and $12 million to finish.
Not everyone seems to be thrilled concerning the Netherlands-like modifications. The venture has confronted pushback from some residents and enterprise homeowners who provide the decidedly American critique that they shouldn’t should sacrifice parking spots for the advantage of bikes.
Greiner hopes his video can present motivation to cyclists in different elements of the nation to push for formidable — European, even — bike lane initiatives of their dwelling cities.
“I believe the extra that folks see examples of excellent infrastructure within the US, the excuse of, ‘It may’t occur right here,’ will get a bit of bit more durable,” he mentioned. “Seeing an instance of it taking place is a extremely highly effective approach to counteract that.”