We should all be celebrating street crews and truckers!

Hot on the heels of my last post and comments to the local survey about bike infrastructure, I found this really well done video about Brussels.  We in the US automatically assume that European cities are all cycling literate and have well developed commuter cultures,

 but Brussels looks more like LA or Chicago at rush hour.  

The video is 20 minutes long but well worth it.  There are subtitles in some spots, because it was made in Belgium so some parts are spoken in their native Belch.  Two really impressive points are made; one that the "relentless promotion" of automobiles as a necessity has to stop, and cities must discourage auto use in order to reduce it.  

In the meantime I have been impressed with the service by both the road crews and park departments.

After this past blizzard the MUP's were cleared immediately

 and the roads were all passable right away.

The park departments did screw up when they piled snow all around the entrances.
This once was, as the sign says, a "barrier free" entrance.  Now...more barrier than free.
There was something else today which was  beyond the realm of decency in a perfect world.  I was commuting this morning in the dark and on the one stretch of busy thoroughfare I ride, I was passed by a semi-tractor and trailer.  The big ole' 16 wheeler went around me, then stopped, blocking my lane 2 blocks ahead.  Traffic was light and I eased around him and  his flashing emergency lights .  I must admit I was concerned and expecting some trucker diatribe to be leveled on me as I passed.  No.  He sat there as I continued on for 2 1/2 blocks, then when it was safe for me to take a left across 3 lanes and get off that street, he started back up and proceeded on.  
He was blocking for me!
I have never seen anybody that nice.  Yes, the world is changing.