Please Bring This to America: Heated Bike Lanes

While we’re still debating in the United States whether and where to build bike lanes at all, here comes yet another cycling innovation from Northern Europe to stoke your seething jealousy. Towns in the Netherlands are hoping to pilot-test heated bike lanes, or geothermal infrastructure at 20,000-40,000 euros a kilometer that would melt the snow and ice from your morning commute.

These Dutch policymakers are obviously tackling a different problem from their North American counterparts. On this side of the Atlantic, advocates just want to get people on bikes, period. There, politicians are trying to figure out how to keep them there year-round. What’s most amazing, according to the BBC, is that the Dutch are having a serious conversation about the costs and benefits of such a pricey investment: