These crazy, bicycle riding, northern European hippies talking about recycling, 'health, safety & security', exceptional quality of life! You communists!
Give me my car, suburban house, gun, and private healthcare. Give me my freedom back!
</sarcasm>
Good for Stockholm and Sweden. I only wish cities and companies valued these as much as many of us do. Focusing on making cities more liveable, easy to move around, safe, etc are big problem/concerns off people's backs; and there is a direct economic benefit to all of these.
As someone who once upon a time worked as a bike riding mailman in Sweden, it's largely fine. :)
There's a good amount of bike lanes, and they are largely snowy in the winter rather than icy (due to not as much traffic as the main roads), or they are graveled when there is ice, so it's rare that it is too slippery (biking on snow is fine, ice can be messy). You have to go a bit slower than normal, sure, but it's hardly a problem.
Cold isnt a problem - you do fine with like a fleece down to minus 10 or so, and most places aren't colder than that very often (unless you are very far north).
Rain is the same as anywhere - no problem as long as you have some protective gear.
Thats just the winter though - summer it is perfect.
If you live in a city, the bicycle roads will be plowed regularly. Get a wind stopping jacket and pullover for your trousers. Use two pair of gloves. (You will get warm from bicycling, don't use a too warm jacket.)
And use winter tires for the bicycle, they are pure magic.
So maybe we won't need to wait for the "decade or two" you mentioned. But for what it's worth, while living there (in Umeå, actually) for half a year I got the feeling that people really do set priorities differently. I'm hoping Swedish society will more or less stay that way. Even if that society is based on "peer-pressured conservative egalitarianism". For I like to know that there's a place I can go when I've had enough of peer-pressured competitive consumerism.
I've lived/worked in many cities/counties around Europe and have also lived in Boston, and one thing is for sure, there is no one perfect country – I don't take all of what the video says at face value. We (humans) think it is always greener on the other side, but it is rarely the case. Regardless, some of things that work, work very well, and are big problem solvers for citizens. See the case of public healthcare all around Europe.
Some people have already mentioned some of the downsides to Sweden (weather, job permits, etc), but to say that what Stockholm (and by extension Sweden) has achieved is "based in peer-pressured conservative egalitarianism" is being short sighted – the same could be said of Russia and other eastern European countries, and yet here is Sweden. What has made this possible are the people, who have made it pretty clear what their priorities as a society are on healthcare, environment, energy, education, etc. This doesn't happen because a country closed their borders (I take it you have a bad view on immigration), and by a stochastic process all this goodness happened. This has happened by design (and yet it is no problem-free, only better).
These crazy, bicycle riding, northern European hippies talking about recycling, 'health, safety & security', exceptional quality of life! You communists!
Give me my car, suburban house, gun, and private healthcare. Give me my freedom back!
</sarcasm>
Good for Stockholm and Sweden. I only wish cities and companies valued these as much as many of us do. Focusing on making cities more liveable, easy to move around, safe, etc are big problem/concerns off people's backs; and there is a direct economic benefit to all of these.