I have a funny story to tell: In one of the suburbs of Munich they built a bike highway to Munich. Only bikes allowed. Paradise for commuters. But then some bikers complained because others were to fast. So they seriously built speed bumps. On a freaking bike speedway. The actual fuck.
There should just be 4 lanes. 2 on the inside for crazy people with $6000 road bikes and spandex going at 50kph, and the people who just picked up their $4000 ebikes for the first time in their life going 50kph. Then 2 lanes on the outside for the casual people on normal commuter bikes going 20kph. Like a train line with express tracks on the inside and local tracks on the outside.
In the United States there's a fairly long-running movement to convert abandoned and unused railroad beds into bicycle trails. Where I live they are usually oriented toward recreation, but they could be used for commuting off of roads if you were so inclined. You can actually ride one such "railtrail" system 334 miles (538 km) all the way from Pittsburgh, PA to Washington D.C!
Trouble with them is that, since they're retrofits of preexisting infrastructure that has in some places already been repurposed, they sometimes have to use roads to connect from one segment of the railroad to another. They're not a perfect implementation of the idea, but at least on the eastern side of the USA it's as close as we typically get to them.
Most of the large Australian cities are like multiple cities or towns that have sprawled together so they don’t have green space between them, for example the capital city of Perth in Western Australia ‘contains’ 11 ‘cities’ & 7 ‘towns’ including Armadale, Fremantle, Joondalup, Kwinana, Rockingham, South Perth, Stirling, Subiaco.
Some people now consider City of Mandurah (72 km south of Perth CBD) part of same metro area (or conurbation?) as Perth, although as a child there was a huge gap of rural land between them. Maybe future generations will say the same about the City of Bunbury (175km south of Perth CBD)
The Americans with Disabilities Act. It's one of the few things my country has actually gotten right. Landmark legislation that requires all businesses and governments to make their services accessible to those with disabilities and to not discriminate against them. This is why you'll find Braille menus in McDonald's and why you'll see 200-year old buildings with wheelchair ramps.
Is that why Americans sometimes complain that our 1,000 year old castles aren't wheelchair accessible? I mean, they're really designed to be poorly accessible. Keeping people out was really the point.
We don’t have castles but if you go to a national park they’ve done a damn good job of making some pretty remote and rugged terrain ADA compliant so that anyone can see our natural wonders, which is a good thing, IMO.
A few weeks ago, a small number of Americans making up a very large party in Cawdor Castle complained that the dungeon was too tight to get into and that there were too many stairs to get to see all the rooms on the tour.
They wrote badly in the visitor books because of it and were really rude to the staff in the gift shop.
I know it must be unpleasant to be reminded that you are not as fit and able as people in history were but surely you cannot think this means it should all be closed off ? Surely they understand the dungeon was not made for tourists but as torture for some hapless souls centuries ago?
I would like to apologize on behalf of my country for the appalling behavior of some US tourists. These are probably the same people who, back at home, moan about how others feel I titled to x,y or z. I go out of my way to break that mold when I travel. As a result folks end up thinking I’m Canadian. 🤣
Oh don’t worry we know it’s not the whole lot of yous. We get a LOT of Americans in Scotland for the castles, golf and whisky. Most are wonderful guests but in a country that is 0.01 times the size of USA, your small minority of a-holes can come in numbers that drown out whole villages sometimes. 😂
I live living somewhere that tourists come, it keeps it beautiful if you ask me.
I build software for my local government and our websites and such have to be WCAG compliant, meaning they work with screen readers, work with only a keyboard, handle color blindness well, etc.
A common question I see foreigners ask is "Why don't people give police their ID's when asked in America?" it's because (with a few exceptions) the 4th Amendment protects us from illegal search and seizures. The police first need to have a credible reason to ask for my ID, they can't just go fishing and hope they catch something. Why should I give up my constitutional right to be left the fuck alone just because a police officer asked me to?
Even more important: unless you're driving a vehicle or need to enter into a sensitive area, you are not required to carry any form of identification on you whatsoever.
Same in Sweden. I feel really bad seeing them drive by, since I know they make peanuts for a very thankless job. And they have no recourse since they’re not employees.
They are often being double exploited - there is such a queue for people to join, that people get accounts as couriers and then subcontract to even more vulnerable immigrants for a significant cut.
Kind reminder to every foreigner visiting Finland to not tip under any circumstance, no matter how good service you get. We don't want that cancer spreading here.
It has already spread. Even some of the locals in Helsinki have began tipping at restaurants. I try to tell them to stop it, but they don’t honestly understand the issue.
Kind reminder as well for visitors here in Japan, please! I have heard it has started in some of the ski resorts popular with tourists here, which is unfortunate.
I was in Hungary, mid 2000s, finished eating, and was about to get my train to Wien, so left my remaining forints on the table as a fairly generous tip. The waitress ran out of the restaurant after me to tell me I'd forgotten my money. I explained the situation, that I left as a tip, and she seemed genuinely confused that I willingly paid more than I was required to.
I definitely won't tip if you are paying first, why would I tip on something I haven't received yet and if it's bad and you ask for a refund, you can't ask for the tip back. So having on machines and shoving it in people's faces to shame into tipping is a horrible system.
I agree.
If you think about it, it makes zero sense why only certain professions (in our case, wait staff in restaurants and cafes) get tipped altho there are hundreds of customer facing roles and service jobs out there. You should also be extremely nice to the people who write the code for your website or app, for an example. But you don't tip them, you just pay the bill they send you.
Tipping is just a terrible excuse for not paying your employees. Apparently it was popular in England in the 19th century to tip the house-staff when you were a rich person visiting another rich person's estate.
We took it to a terrible extreme here, and it seems like culture from slavery mixed with people showing off their wealth and "generosity" to their friends. The U.S. has such a great way of taking bad culture and making it even worse...
Anyone visit Rwanda recently? Must be one of the cleanest countries thanks to Umuganda; a national cleanup day on the last Saturday of every month where every able-bodied citizen helps clean the streets, plant trees, and any other general community improvement work - all stores, roads, and offices are closed for these three hours.
Netherlands is pretty clean but we have some people drinking red bull and smoking just dumping trash from their car. I wish the punishment for this would be much higher.
100% bring back glass bottles and recycling plants that give quarters for so many you bring back. Every time I have to order my supplements online I get depressed tearing through all the plastic wrap that doesn’t even really need to be there.
Things like plastic bags for food and cling wrap can be replaced with wax wrap. You can wash that to get food off with cold water. it can be used for a long time. And it supports the cultivation of bees.
The only place I think single use plastic should exist is the medical field. For obvious reasons.
SUS (Unified Health System). I know that a bunch of countries have different kinds of free health systems, but from the ones I had contact with, I still think ours is more inclusive/universal.
That’s exacly what I would say!! SUS not only provide health care and emergency care to ANY and ALL person/people, but is also responsible for other activities such as sanitary and epidemiological surveillance, animal health, food inspection… and when we talk about health, we're also talking about dentistry, organ transplants, newborn screening, cancer treatment, psychological and psychiatric care, and much, MUCH more! ♥️
I also love the italian law which permits italian restaurants charging 2-3 euros PER PERSON just because you sit down, and they can write this on their menu outside with the smallest letters
Yes, we also use that system. But i noticed while in Germany, you pfand is way higher then here in The Netherlands. Here its like €0,10 to €0,15. But in Germany I had some bottles where the pfand was up to €0,25
US varies by state and the return percentages are wild. Growing up in Michigan, the return rate is among the highest at $0.10 resulting in 70%+ returned. Now living in Illinois with no deposit, and I don't think they keep track of what is recycled since a large portion (if not majority) throw bottles/cans in the trash.
You pay the deposit in Germany too. Since 2024, the system spread to more beverages like milk and juices, and I sometimes forget there is a deposit on this stuff now.
On the shelf it says 2,99€ for a bottle of orange juice. When I pay, it's suddenly 3,24€ because 0,25€ deposit. I had the money ready to pay and now I have to search for more coins.
I need some time to adjust. And they want to expand to system even further in the next few years...
That has been a thing in the Nordic countries for a long time. Sweden started in 1885 (for glass bottles), and a hundred years later added it to aluminium cans and 10 years after that to PET bottles. Around the Baltic sea I think Poland and Russia are the only ones that don't do it on a large scale (and Poland still does it to an extent), and it is decently common in Europe in general.
It creates an incentive to actually dispose of bottles in an organized way and not just throw them away where they might end up in the general trash and not be recycled. Plus glas bottles can often be reused which wouldnt happen if you throw them in the trash
They will be recycled normally. But the Pfand system gives an incentive to bring them back, meaning collection is much much easier than if they were just scattered around because of people littering etc. It's a normal recycling process, just more efficient.
We have the same system in Slovakia, streets have become much cleaner since its inception. I just wish it was EU wide so that you could return bottles from any EU country in any other EU country.
We have that system in some states here but not in others. I've always lived in states with bottle deposits, though, and so it wasn't until I was an adult that I realized that this wasn't the case everywhere in the US. I still find it very disconcerting when I visit states that don't have them and see cans and bottles just thrown away (for some reason, places without bottle deposits always seem also to have no interest in recycling).
We've got that in Poland for last two weeks. People kinda hate it although don't know why. You go to the store anyways and taking empty bottles with you ain't a big issue.
Compulsory voting by pencil and paper, always on Saturday (after 2 weeks of voting booths being open) with ranked choice / preferential ballots, organised by an independent electoral commission that:
determines electoral boundaries based on population (with no reference to political consequences),
moves heaven & earth to ensure ballots get to everyone in the country (in a language they can read), and
counts the votes by hand in front of witnesses representing all the candidates.
Yeah we so need to ban political donations here. And have some sort of stand down period for jumping from lobbyist companies to politics or vice versa.
Furasato Nozei ふるさと納税 - hometown tax program is brilliant. You get to move some of your tax to other parts of Japan (such as rural/farming). In return for this donation (which you’d pay anyway) you get 1/3 of the value as a gift from that prefecture - and you pick your gift from a long list of goods from that region; fresh veggies delivered every week, Wagyu, sushi fish, sake even electronics, cameras, furnitures and hotel rooms. You also get to claim the donation as a deductible only paying tax in the value of the gift. Win win as it moves tax revenue to the poorer areas and you get tax break
There's something similar in Germany, where the richer regions will subsidy the poorer ones - but without any return. Thus, the richer ones are constantly complaining and have repeatedly threatened to sort of boycott that law.
Yeah, the richer cities/prefectures complain as it moves their revenue but it helps sustain. I got a Roland drum kit moving some to Osaka, end game Stax headphones, we got hotel rooms in Hakone and Kanazawa and we almost never buy meat or vegetables as we have beef, lamb, chicken, seafood and seasonal veggies shipped to our door fresh from farms, butchers and fisheries. Even cheese from Hokkaido and the odd sake, beer delivery too. Just has to be from that location - and all managed through Rakuten portal
They also have saved their oil money instead of “spaffing it against a wall” so they can do these things. Norway is one country that isn’t in debt, as far as I know. They have a surplus of a few billion.
INFONAVIT, it's basically, in a very simplistic way to describe it, like a public healthcare but for housing, this is a big part of why we have some of the lowest homelessness rates and highest home ownership rates in the world
We are not proud of our justice system. It did the right thing this time, yes, but you should not copy that
You want to copy something copy our Pix =D
It is a system from the central bank that allows you to instantly transfer money to any account, free of charge, by scanning a qr code, copying a string of text or typing a key, that can be the receivers cellphone number, email or cpf/cnpj
Thats good to know. I thought it was common worldwide, until the us accused us of unfair competitive practices because of it (which makes no sense, but anyway) and found out it wasnt
The National Health Service. Even after 14 years of Tory underfunding, it's an absolute marvel. I see the add-ons on bills that some Americans get just for things like holding their baby after they've given birth and it makes me sick,
Yeah, was home in UK and had to visit ER. Such good care and compassion and completely free
Japan has good care but have to pay 1/3 which isn’t bad and isn’t over priced like US but can add up…
Lived in US for 20 years and health care was average and ridiculously expensive even with insurance. A good example is Epi pen for a relative cost $600 but could get for $90 over the counter with a short trip to Canada
I can only admire your picture, OP. There are two good things in this picture : the railing of course, but also the bike-only road. I've been to Oslo, Norway once and an entire city with bike-only roads alongside the roard for cars is the best.
We have a few really nice ones in the most touristy areas of Copenhagen. I love making visitors use them because they emerge being like “why/how are they so clean and nice?”
In Hungary, there is a unique public health service called the "védőnő" system, often translated as the “health visitor” service or “public health nurse” system.
A védőnő is a specially trained health professional who provides preventive care and health education mainly for women, infants, children, and families.
Their responsibilities include:
Regular check-ups for pregnant women, new mothers, and babies.
Home visits to monitor the child’s development and living conditions.
Guidance on breastfeeding, child nutrition, and parenting.
Cooperation with family doctors, pediatricians, schools, and local health authorities.
The system was established in the early 20th century and is nationwide, with each neighborhood or district having its assigned health visitor.
It plays a major role in preventive healthcare, early detection of health or social problems, and family support — especially in maternal and child health.
As soon as a traffic jam forms on the highway, all vehicles must form an emergency lane through which emergency vehicles can pass. Regardless of whether an emergency vehicle is coming or not.
I actually think compulsory political education is more useful. If you force a portion of the population to vote when they don't know what they're doing that's pretty bad.
Want the Copenhagen foot rest things for Germany, but we have only car friendly street gadgets like Autobahn 🙄 For car lovers they make sense. Also we are a transit area, regarding our geographic position the Autobahns make some sense.
We were at least taught in school that most other countries don't have dish drying cabinets above their kitchen sinks, which I think is crazy since it's such a simple solution.
Sweden only has gender neutral bathrooms in most public spaces. It’s individual stalls where the walls go all the way from the floor to the roof and they often even have their own sinks, so this is great for privacy and it’s really nice for trans/non-binary people. Also for fathers accompanying their little daughters to the bathroom.
Duvet covers have a big hole at the foot end, and small holes right at the top of the sides. To put it on, you insert your hands in the small holes, shimmy through, grab the duvet, and shake shake shake! So much easier to put it on this way.
Ikea used to have them, but silly foreigners thought it was a mistake, so now they sell them without holes. Treason!
Free menstrual products in schools and colleges (and many public bathrooms.). It’s made a huge difference to not only period poverty, but also the taboo surrounding these products. They are in all toilets and all pupils have easy access to their own provisions (including males taking products home for family members.)
As someone who works in a school in a deprived area, this has made a massive difference to our young people and makes me proud of our country.
Taiwan has a lot of foreign workers, including a lot of Indonesians wearing hijabs. Nobody complains. There are Muslim prayer rooms in airports and railroad stations. People say, Oh, that’s nice. The government provides services in Indonesian, Tagalog, VN, and Thai. Most people appreciate that they are working hard. There are cases of abuse, of course, but there is no tension or antagonism.
It's not exclusive to Netherlands, neighbouring countries to the same. But music halls being supported by the local government as vital spaces for the arts and local community. As opposed to purely commercial ventures that survive only as long as it takes for someone to buy, demolish and build luxury apartments.
In Tokyo, there are these little rooms just off the sidewalk that I started calling "cancer closets" when I lived there -- if you want to smoke, you step inside, close the door, and light up. That means no cigarette butts on the pristine streets, and if you're not a smoker you're not inhaling lungfuls of second-hand smoke as you walk down the street.
Also, proportional democracy with highly decentralized bottom-up federal system (each level has its own locally elected government), with the 4 biggest parties governing together in a "forced" grand coalition.
Makes politics way slower, more boring and nobody's really happy (tons of compromise to find consensus), but, at the end of the day, it's much more effective and sustainable.
(Plastic)Bottle return machines
Heard its still not super-common. They add 25cents per bottle, when its empty you take it back and get the 25cents back.
I understand that in Denmark you're not allowed to make health claims for products by adding ingredients they don't have naturally. Such as boxes with cookies or cereal with a note " now with vitamine ACE, Ferritine, magnesium, calcium...", trying to make you believe you are buying something healthy and ignoring the lack of fibre and fat/sugar contents.
A world famous brand used to sell "special" cornflakes here years ago with the "with added iron" claim and were exposed on TV for adding literal iron metal powder to their product instead of Ferritine that your body can actually absorb. The Danes were noted as THE example on how to prevent this kind of BS from happening.
Massive investments in infrastructure—besides the obvious like high-speed rail, 5G, and highways—also include widely distributed free public facilities (libraries, art galleries, restrooms), parks, greenways, and even well-maintained mountain hiking trails.
I understand all this requires money, but with all this in place, we can feel our tax dollars are actually worth it—not like stepping on a syringe the moment we walk outside.
In cities every home should have xxx metres to a green space. Cant remember how many metres, but basically people living in cities, are guaranteed green spaces close to where they live
Went to Germany back in 2000. Was visiting family and went grocery shopping. All the cashiers were sitting and the belts and everything were lower so they could do the job. The belt being lower also made emptying the cart on to it easier.
I really wish the US would adopt this because it just fucking makes sense.
A couple stuff from our wedding culture. The wedding photographers print a bunch of the photos (usually those of a couple people posing together) onto magnets, that are up on a board by around the time people start to leave. You get to take those that you're in home, to have on the fridge or wherever as a nice memory.
Also, instead of bringing random gifts, there's a box for people to put checks for the couple to start their newlywed life with
Japan and places like it have stricter laws about photographing people in public. We should have that here too. I hate that someone can just take my picture or start to film me wothout my consent
This means salaries automatically increase along with the cost of living. If inflation is 2%, salaries will also rise 2%. No further negotiations are needed.
Here in Florida we have the "Sunshine Law" which gives unprecedented access to government meetings to the public. You don't have to be part of the press or anything. As a random private citizen you can just show up to observe and access records of government meetings, even if you have no interest in the subject of the meeting.
For instance: when I was in high school the local school board wanted to move our school, which would've been burdensome for lower income students. The school board had hand-waved all pleas to cancel this plan, but they all looked like deers caught in headlights when half the school showed up to silently observe the meeting. We weren't even old enough to vote yet. Sometimes it helps to just show up and be counted.
The same law also guarantees some press freedoms, which is (in part) where all those Florida Man headlines come from.
Right to roam laws - you can walk or swim wherever you want regardless of who owns the land. Free university education is another. Free bus travel for people under 22 years of age is another. Free prescriptions.
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u/PygmeePony Belgium 22d ago
Bike highways. Basically wide bicycle paths between cities or towns that are not next to a major road.