12/3/2023 0 Comments Create square video facebook![]() Not everyone is thrilled about the Netherlands-like changes. It took more than 4 years and $12 million to complete. The path depicted in the video was part of a construction project that includes shortened crosswalks and a new public plaza, as well as lighting and utilities improvements. The neighborhood’s redesign process dates back to 2016 and included eliminating left turns at the intersection of Cambridge, Springfield, and Hampshire streets, an area that was often treacherous for cyclists. ![]() Getting to the point where Inman Square’s bike lanes could trick people on the internet into thinking they were part of a European city known worldwide for its bike-friendliness was not easy. “Nice job, Cambsterdam!” one person wrote.Įven officials from Somerville’s Department of Infrastructure chimed in on X to congratulate Cambridge on its “worldwide appreciated redesign.” Many, though, understood the point of his tongue-in-cheek post, and took it as a moment to celebrate the project’s completion. So many were confused by Greiner’s joke that users added a “community note,” a feature that helps dispel misinformation, and clarified that it had indeed been filmed in Cambridge. The post struck a nerve, as scores of people rushed to either lament the shortcomings of American bike lanes, or debunk the video by pointing out clear signs - an MBTA bus passing by, for example - that it was in Massachusetts. “I was actually quite surprised at the number of people that didn’t” get it, he said of the video, which was “liked” more than 2,000 times. Greiner, executive director of CultureHouse, a Somerville-based urban design nonprofit, assumed “everyone would know it was a joke.”īut what happened instead was typical of how information is often processed online: People took it at face value, or thought he was intentionally trying to mislead them. “It’s so frustrating we do stuff like this in the US.” “My friend just sent me this video from the Netherlands,” he wrote, trying to pass it off as a perk from overseas. But this time he decided to “have a little more fun” when posting it online, and tried to make a point about bike infrastructure in the process. The video was recorded by Somerville resident Aaron Greiner, 27, who often shares scenes of his bike rides along newly constructed paths.
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