Cempaka Belanda: Dutch cycling utopia threatened by own success

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013.
They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."

"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: The Humanization of God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,..... etc.)

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Dutch cycling utopia threatened by own success

Google – AFP, Jan Hennop (AFP), 7 November 2012

The Dutch have run out of space to accommodate the five million cyclists

who take to the road every day (AFP/File, Jan Hennop)

AMSTERDAM — Problems all-too familiar to car drivers the world over, from traffic jams to road-rage and lack of parking, are now also threatening to turn the Dutch dream of bicycling bliss into a daily hell.

In a small country where bicycles outnumber people by 1.2 million, the Dutch have simply run out of space to accommodate the five million cyclists who take to the road every day, turning commuting in major cities into a nightmare.

In Amsterdam alone 490,000 freewheeling "fietsers" take to the road to cycle a staggering two million kilometres (1.25 million miles) every day, according to statistics released by the city council this week.

"Bicycles are an integral mode of transport in our city," Amsterdam's council said, but, in a worrying trend, "the busiest bicycle paths are too small for the growing stream of daily cyclists."

"Cyclists have increased dramatically over the last few years," Wim Bot of the Dutch Cycling Association (Fietsersbond) agreed.

"The busiest bicycle paths are too small

for the growing stream of daily cyclists,"

Amsterdam's council said (AFP/File,

Jan Hennop)

"In a small country like the Netherlands where almost every square metre is accounted for, we've run out of space," added Bot, whose "cyclists' union" was founded in 1975 and today represents 35,000 paid-up members.

"It's become a headache," he told AFP.

The Dutch first fell in love with cycling in the late 1880s when the first two-wheeled contraptions appeared in big cities.

Two decades later the first bicycle paths were laid in this country so flat that is often described as "specially created for cyclists."

After a slump and brief love affair with cars following World War II -- occupying Nazis confiscated bicycles to take back to Germany to be melted down to feed the war effort -- cycling had come back into vogue by the mid-1970s.

Today there are around 18 million bikes -- or 1.3 bicycles per citizen old enough to ride in a country less than half the size of the US state of Maine. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is often seen cycling to work.

New bike sales topped 1.3 million last year, raking in an estimated 9.7 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in sales.

Some 35,000 kilometres of bike path now criss-cross the flat landscape. These trademark red tarmac roads are purpose built, regularly maintained and come with their own set of road signs and traffic lights.

Some 35,000 kilometres of bike path

now criss-cross the flat landscape (AFP

/File, Jan Hennop)

But having invested heavily in bicycle infrastructure, the Dutch are now paying the price for pedal-power's rise in popularity.

The Dutch newspaper Trouw recently said that in places like Amsterdam and Utrecht, the increase in bicycles is giving rise to new phenomena like bicycle traffic jams, pile-ups, parking problems and bicycle rage.

Around major stations such as Amsterdam and Utrecht Central, tens of thousands of bicycles parked legally and illegally hog public space and restrict pedestrian access, while leaving cyclists scratching their heads to try to remember where they parked their steeds.

More cyclists on the road means more congestion and "bicycle rage" often flies across the handlebars.

"Sometimes its a madhouse out there," Jan van der Tuin, 59, a bicycle shed parking attendant just outside Utrecht's busy central station told AFP.

"There's been no fist-fights, but harsh words are often being spoken," he said with a sigh as he took a drag from his hand-rolled cigarette.

"We have big problems," agreed Marleen van der Wurff, 58, as she frantically looked for a bicycle parking spot in Utrecht before having to run for a train.

"It's plainly becoming a dangerous situation," said Wurff, who is solely reliant on her bicycle to get around the city.

The statistics show just how dangerous it has become: a quarter of all deadly accidents in the Netherlands involve cyclists, the Cycling Association said.

Some 200 cyclists died on Dutch roads last year, the majority of them elderly, the Dutch central statistics office said, an increase of 28 from 2010.

And the problem is getting worse since the Dutch authorities decided to broaden bike path use to include over a million mopeds, which are allowed to zoom past cyclists as long as they stay under a speed limit of 25 km/hour.

Thousands of bicycles are parked in a cycle parking lot near Delf Station

(AFP/File, Jan Hennop)

"Cyclists and moped riders ride at different speeds in a small shared space, -- and that's a recipe for disaster," Bot said.

Bicycle overload has become such a problem that some 180 top city planners convened a conference recently in the central university city of Utrecht to talk about the issue.

Proposed solutions were remarkably similar to those previously used to deal with car congestion, ranging from building multi-storey underground "mega" bicycle sheds to impounding badly-parked bikes.

Municipal workers in The Hague alone have impounded 2,400 illegally parked bicycles since August.

And Amsterdam this week announced a mega 120-million-euro ($154 million) investment plan to provide 38,000 new bicycle parking spots and 15 extra kilometres of red bicycle path in the city.

But "this is not something that will be solved next week," Bot said. "It's a medium to long-term problem."

In the meantime, said Bot, the best way of dealing with the bicycle bedlam is patience and not getting too flustered.

"Sometimes it helps to just be Dutch and have a thick skin out there," he said.