this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2026
177 points (98.4% liked)

Europe

8661 readers
1951 users here now

News and information from Europe πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί

(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)

Rules (2024-08-30)

  1. This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
  2. No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
  3. Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
  4. No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism. We follow German law; don't question the statehood of Israel.
  5. Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
  6. If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
  7. Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in other communities.
  8. Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
  9. No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)
  10. Always provide context with posts: Don't post uncontextualized images or videos, and don't start discussions without giving some context first.

(This list may get expanded as necessary.)

Posts that link to the following sources will be removed

Unless they're the only sources, please also avoid The Sun, Daily Mail, any "thinktank" type organization, and non-Lemmy social media (incl. Substack). Don't link to Twitter directly, instead use xcancel.com. For Reddit, use old:reddit:com

(Lists may get expanded as necessary.)

Ban lengths, etc.

We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.

If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 7 or 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.

If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the primary mod account @EuroMod@feddit.org

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 12 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] jenesaisquoi@feddit.org 1 points 22 hours ago

Bruxelles baise ouais!

[–] tserts@lemmy.tserts.com 29 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Hills and distance are secondary, it's the infrastructure that allows this beatiful stat.

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 10 points 1 day ago

And e-bikes, which is probably the main factor that changed in the last 5 years.

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

The most scientifically rigorous and trustable carbon credit market possible is a system where people are bribed to bicycle to work instead of driving their car.

Would it still be a market full of people bullshitting and taking the bribe while still driving to work? Probably. Would people end up enjoying the benefits of bicycling so much they don't even need to be bribed? Probably but is that actually technically even a fail state of a carbon credit system? Even considered in the worst light a Carbon Credit Bicycle Bribing System would still be an order of magnitude less full of bullshit and fraud than in the currently existing carbon credit markets so I think it would it be a net benefit to the earth to abandon current fantasies and refocus entirely on bribing people to bicycle to work.

[–] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I live in Belgium. We have that system. For some reason, VRT didn't think it was "important enough" to say, but I guess it is pretty ubiquitous here. This + electric bikes are the real reason so many bike to work.

We do get paid per km for biking to work. Tax-free to a maximum of something like 0.37€/km or so. 3690€ per year. Some people live an hour away from work and will buy one of those 8-10k€ strΓΆmer 45km/hr speed bikes and can hit that max if they live farther from work. Often you can also lease a bike or speedpedelec tax-free through your work.

15€/day biking every day to hit that max is biking 41km/day, or around a half hour each way at an average of 40km/hr.

I only live 5km from work (we get 0.26/km I think, so around 2.60€/day) so I bike to work every day on my normal electric bike. I used to live 16km from work and that was less doable if it was pouring rain or icy.

[–] Chee_Koala@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

You can do it in other ways too. You can get great tax credits here every 5/7 years or whatever to buy a bike to get to work. And having a good bike ready to go motivates (gasp). It's still a bribe, just not a carbon credit.

[–] thedarkfly@feddit.nl 2 points 1 day ago

And as a result, the Ecologist party at the initiative of the project got obliterated during the last election πŸ™ƒ

[–] Gsus4@feddit.nl 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Up to 10k with a hill or two is fine to cycle every day.

[–] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 3 points 1 day ago

I did 16km each way (32km) per day for a few years. Decent low-intensity exercise with an electric bike, but losing 1h40 per day in addition to work was not as nice.

Fietsvergoeding is awesome though.

[–] Illecors@lemmy.cafe 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I do 16k with 1.5 hill - still definitely doable!

[–] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I do 12Km with a lot of hills, but I have an e-bike so it's pretty easy

[–] tserts@lemmy.tserts.com 4 points 1 day ago

Typical commute 20k, 500m ele, MTB, my doctor was asking if I take statines when he saw my blood tests...