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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 6h

Screen grab from www.cathytuttle.nl

Screenshot from my postcard store features a dozen or so cargo and family bikes.

Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

This is the route of the Dutch National Bike Messenger race -- lots of back & forth between stations -- and of course a sandwich on the side. Bike messengers always seem to be eating!

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The start of the Dutch Cycle Messenger Championships! About 100 contestants on either fixies or human-powered cargo bikes racing to pick up their trip manifests and start the 3-hour race.

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Enthusiastic Deputy Mayor of Ghent, @filipwatteeuw.bsky.social, was the visionary behind Gent's circulation plan. With a 6-year term and just €6 million, he implemented a circulation plan focused on people rather than cars. He got it done + has been re-elected 2x since. Here's his story at #CRBAM26

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Simply removing most cars from many central downtown streets in Ghent, Belgium has dramatically transformed and improved the city. Pro tip: Any city anywhere can decide to do this. #belgium #bike #cargobike #urbanism

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The rich and powerful have sunk trillions into concrete, steel & fossil fuels that benefit them, not us. Our lives and our bodies are on the line. Car culture kills & maims millions of us every year, especially our children & people who are poor or old or disabled. We must win this #WARonWALKING

Two people walking in a street in the Rainier Valley of Seattle. Cars are parked on the street. One of the people is carrying groceries, the other looks like a teen coming home from school. There are no sidewalks, but wide roads and a collection of oddly placed wooden and metal poles.

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Wishing you all a sweet new year.

A red apple in the foreground on a tree with many apples in the background on trees behind it.

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Paris is a city that's been WINNING the WAR ON WALKING. In the past decade city leaders built 300+ School Streets, launched a 15-minute city and reclaimed their downtown waterfront. It's a place people can enjoy an evening outside on what used to be a car freeway. This is what every city deserves.

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Biking builds trust. Great bike streets build friendships. In another city, this cluster of middle-aged guys might each be driving their own SUV to the pub or the grocery store. On bikes in #Utrecht NL these guys can relax, talk, and get to know each other.

6 men in a group biking along a street with red asphalt that indicates it is a fietsstraat, a bicycle-priority street.

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

YES! The city aggressively "controlled" them and instituted fines for feeding them. Pigeons are also not well-adapted to increasingly intense summer heat. I miss the pigeons of Venice.

Two pigeons wilting on hot pavers in Venice.

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

#BirdOfTheDay theme is #Pigeons Pigeons used to flock to Venice. Now they're just an occasional tourist.

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

By definition, cities are places for people. The best cities are walking cities. The WAR ON WALKING is anti-city, and an attack on our future life on earth.

Two women walking with a bicycle between them.

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Hetty asked me to design the cover of her 80th birthday photo album. She wanted me to paint her first ride she ever took with her husband, sitting in front of him on his bike because she didn't have the balance to sit behind him on a bike. www.cathytuttle.nl/store/p/w3sr...

painting of Hetty's first imagined ride with her husband 60 years ago in the polders of the Netherlands. https://www.cathytuttle.nl/store/p/w3srafoz36g9e9tnuedphmpqtkseuh-jalzf-lrex2-gwkht-d5fz2-wc2s8

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

"When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds." Wendell Berry 1934-2026

Bike path next to farm and meadow polders just north of Utrecht, Netherlands.

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

DOLLY is the third most popular family cargo bike in the Netherlands, after Urban Arrow and Bakfiets.nl.

The word DOLLY on the side of a DOLLY cargo bike

A DOLLY cargo bike locked up to a bench in a park-like setting (it's actually the bike parking area of an Utrecht hospital).

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Dolly Parton ran the Imagination Library, a foundation that has mailed over 300 million free books to young children since 1995. A life well lived. imaginationlibrary.com

Home page of the Imagination Library with a picture of Dolly Parton

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Cities aren't loud. Cars are loud. Your city doesn't have too much traffic. Your city has too many cars. #Utrecht rush hour 🚲❤️ Steden maken geen lawaai. Auto's maken lawaai. Er is niet te veel verkeer in jouw stad. Er zijn te veel auto's in jouw stad. #Utrecht spits 🚲❤️

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Cities (and streets and sidewalks) for people, and other living things. Original video by Moscow photographer Alena Malodushnaya on Instagram: www.instagram.com/p/DcLv5Ors6oB/

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Anyone have some good bike eclipse photos? The Netherlands did not get a full eclipse but it was a fun event!

Shadows cast by my bike riding home after the apogee

Using a handmade box to watch the eclipse next to the Werkspoorkathedraal

People sharing a single set of eclipse glasses to watch with their bikes nearby

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

The Dutch have been studying bio-resilient cities for the past decade, protect existing trees in paving projects (often taking car lanes to give #trees more room to grow), and have added 1000s of new trees when improving bike lanes. The result in Utrecht is a cooler, more beautiful city to bike in.

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

I wish @postnl.bsky.social made bicycle postage stamps. I can print my own for a fee, but it would be nice to see more bike culture in everyday Dutch art. 🚲❤️ Ik zou willen PostNL postzegels met fietsen. Het zou leuk zijn om meer fietscultuur terug te zien in alledaagse Nederlandse kunst.

PostNL delivery bike on a postage stamp. Image from cathytuttle.nl

Girl in a red jumpsuit riding behind an adult on a bike. painting by cathy@cathytuttle.nl

Man texting while standing next to his parked by. He's dressed in warm winter clothes inlcuding a bright orange cap. cathytuttle.nl image

Woman in a yellow dress rides in front of a man on a bike. Title of the painting is Hetty and Henry on a bike. cathytuttle.nl

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Happy 250th Birthday America Bicycles Are Freedom

A drawing of. a young child sitting in front of an adult on a bike. They are biking past an American flag that the child is pointing to.

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

𝗠𝘆 𝟱 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗩𝗲𝗹𝗼-𝗖𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲, 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗥𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶 𝗜𝘁𝗮𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 docs.google.com/document/d/1... @velo-city-conference.com @bloombergdotorg.bsky.social @ecf.com @thewaroncars.bsky.social @bikeleague.org @dutchcycling.nl @fietsersbond.nl @ianwalker.bsky.social @americanfietser.bsky.social

Photo of 3 people on bikes plus this text "My 5 takeaways from Velo-City Rimini 2026

The European Cyclists’ Federation organizes Velo-City – a gathering of advocates, researchers, and folks from the government and the bike industry. The conference has been held on every continent except Africa. (Next year in Ehime, Japan!)

Velo-City started in 1980. I’ve only been to four Velo-City conferences since my first in Vancouver, Canada in 2012. What I’ve seen over the past 14 years has been a major shift: from biking as an advocacy proposition to biking as an industry. Velo-City 2026 made it clear more money, more decision-makers, and more urgency are flowing into cities ready to change. Cities are waking up to the fact that car culture is exhausting their resources – and that makes people eager to transform the places they love into clean, green bike cities.

That said, Velo-City isn’t ever going to be anything like a car industry show, funded by the fumes of the fossil fuel industry. There’s a sense of lightness and joy at Velo-City, from deliberately long breaks for informal chats, to the traditional mid-week Bike Parade with thousands of local folks plus conference attendees meeting each other and circling through the host city, to nightly dance parties, and after-parties and after-after-parties. It’s a lively, loving group united in bringing the promise and the joy of biking to the world.

Some Americans on the Velo-City Rimini Bike Parade
Selfie by Doug Gordon (co-host, The War on Cars). With Bill Nesper (ED, The League of American Bicyclists) and Cathy Tuttle (Bicycle Watercolor Postcards)

So here are my five takeaways from the conference, from going to and giving talks, to wandering the exhibits, to my informal chats during Velo-City 2026.
Bottom line, the shift to bikes is real.

TEXT that says, "Bikes are transportation. Full stop. Stop calling bikes “Alternative Transportation”. Why? Because it’s too easy for decision makers to put “alternatives” on the chopping block.

Bike transportation needs real investments of money and space. Both money and space. If cities aren’t willing to take away any space occupied by cars, bike infrastructure ends up costing a ton more money and usually not working very well.

It’s surprising which cities and countries are on-board (and which are not). Not all Northern European cities are bike cities and there are excellent mayors everywhere who are all-in on bikes – including the 2026 Velo-city host city of Rimini Italy.

Secure bike parking is a rapidly growing business. It’s not surprising when you think about how much money and space is devoted to car parking. Of course secure parking is necessary for a successful bike city. Bike parking was the subject of several tracks of Velo-City presentations, and there were a large number of bike parking exhibitors. Other exhibitors included bike share, planning and counting, bike tourism, road surfacing, street furnishings, innovative and special use bikes, and safety materials for protecting bike lanes. When you stop and think about it, the needs of a bike city are very minimal compared to the expense of outfitting a city for cars.

Transportation equity begins with bikes. A city that prioritizes bicycle transportation gives all people access to their city. Numerous panels highlighted how a lack of safe places to bike was a form of mobility poverty, particularly impacting the rights of access for disabled people and children. And Velo-City, with funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies and European Cyclist Federation, brought researchers, activists, and government officials from Africa, eastern Europe, Asia, and South America to present work on how bicycles are a solid economic, climate, and public health solution. Bloomberg launched their (free download check it out!)…

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Highlights Day 2 at the @velo-city-conference.com -- and of course, always, amazing break-time with #velocitizens

A presentation on Transport Terminology with the words, The Road is Closed large on the screen.

A number of talks during the day, many on mobility justice and mobility poverty.

Evening party after the bike parade through Rimini with a man holding a beer and a postcard with fatbikes.

People biking and walking back home after the after-after party in Rimini.

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Highlights Day 1 @velo-city-conference.com -- and of course amazing break-time with #velocitizens

Opening Plenary - Delivering the Urban Dream

Slide from a session with Thomas Deweer
It's all about the space, stupid.

Velo-city 2027 Ehime flyers folded into origami cranes

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

And women on bikes! Both women and old folks are indicators of a very useable bike system!

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Both Vienna and Prague have many 𝙎𝙩𝙤𝙡𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙚, 4" stumbling stones, memorializing the homes of Jewish, Roma, LGBTQ+, dissidents who were removed & murdered by the Nazi regime. Is there a group in the US collecting names & locations of people being disappeared now in America for a similar project?

One 4" brass marker in the Czech Republic for Karel Mautner. Stolpersteine (literally "stumbling stones") is a decentralized, grassroots art project initiated by German artist Gunter Demnig in 1992. It is the world’s largest decentralized memorial, consisting of small brass-capped cobblestones placed in the pavement in front of the last freely chosen residences of victims of Nazi and Fascist persecution.

Stones for Chajerivka Gerzonova and Izak Gerzon. More than 107,000 stones have been laid across over 1,900 municipalities in 30 countries throughout Europe.

Stones for Otto Freund, Vlasta Freundova, and Barbora Freundova. The project is financed by donations, and stones are placed following historical research conducted by local historians, students, and family members. Stones cost around $200 to install. Here is the website describing this decentralized memorial project.

Stones for Leopold Klager, Moritz Guttman, Charlotte Nasch, and Moritz Nasch. Because Stolpersteine are specific to exact addresses, they return a sense of individual identity and history directly to the neighborhoods where targeted citizens once lived. https://www.stolpersteine.eu/en/

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

I've only been in Rimini for a few hours but color me impressed with its bike infrastructure! I look forward to learning more at @velo-city-conference.com about how local leaders came to embrace a robust transportation network for people outside of cars.

Bikes and bike charging stations and bike paths right at the entrances to the Central Train Station of Rimini. Rimini’s Bicipolitana network is almost 200km. Rimini's population is about 150,000

I just liked the sentiment of this sign outside of Rimini's Central Train Station.

On my short walk to my hotel I saw many women on bikes, people with kids, and significantly, people comfortable enough to bike without helmets. Basically, a large number of everyday bikers and very few people in cars. Here's a map of the cycle paths and downtown streets for bikes. https://riminiturismo.it/guida-pratica/come-arrivare/mappe/rimini-sostenibile

In just a short 20 minute walk I saw so many women on bikes! Truly the indicator of a very healthy bike system!

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Vienna has terrific transit but its bike infrastructure is just a tad better than Prague's. Even this little bit of infrastructure is enough. I saw tourists, women, people with kids on bikes. Vienna has enormously wide streets, more than enough space for a fully separated bike network.

Door zone bike lane. Bike parking in foreground. Person scooting in mid-ground.

In center city Vienna there are literally more horses than people on bikes. Four horses and one person biking in this photo.

Children riding on a longtail bike in downtown Vienna, where there is a wiggly bike network.

As in Prague, Vienna has an enviable transit network. With a equally great bike network on its over-wide streets, Vienna has the potential to be a great city for people without cars.

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Prague trams are the lifeblood of the city, but the very few people on bikes are food delivery workers. Prague seems ideal for bikes, particularly in the flat center city.

Food delivery biker in Prague. Most (90%?) of people on bikes were delivery workers. I didn't see any women biking.

A rare non-food delivery person on a bike in Prague. Note the Lime bikes in the background. Didn't see many people using these bikes. This man on the bike climbed a very steep very long hill with bike symbols on it.

Food delivery bike rider in Prague. In addition to being all male riders, everyone wore helmets. There is road capacity for protected bike lanes here for sure!

Prague, Praha transit map. The trams and buses run smoothly, are clean, and frequent. Five star transit. One star for bikes.

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

A bicycle city at midnight. Friends can talk, streets are designed to support people moving around, city life is comfortable. Utrecht, NL

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

People need trees. The best human habitats include trees, particularly in rapidly warming cities. There's always room for trees.

People biking on a side road lined with huge London Plane trees in Utrecht.

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Happy 15th Birthday Seattle Streets Alliance! If you're in Seattle you can still get free tickets to celebrate the future of streets with @streetsalliance.bsky.social! Sat June 6, 3-6PM Barbara Bailey Way @ Capitol Hill Light Rail www.streetsalliance.org/get-involved...

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Happy 15th Birthday Seattle Streets Alliance! Here are 2 messages for you from Utrecht, NL If you're in Seattle you can still get free tickets to celebrate streets w @streetsalliance.bsky.social! Sat June 6, 3-6PM Barbara Bailey Way @ Capitol Hill Light Rail www.streetsalliance.org/get-involved...

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Here's a typical Utrecht residential fietsstraat. Cars do park on it (and pay a lot to do so) but there aren't many cars being driven other than to park at any time of day. Where's the street in your example? Commercial fietsstraat in Utrecht have truck delivery hours & VERY limited vendor parking.

High density residential area in north Utrecht with 3-story housing in foreground, 14-story apartments in the background. Parked cars line the street which is paved with red asphalt, indicating it is a fietsstraat, a bicycle priority street.

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Utrecht's roses, climbing up the walls of narrow row houses, are beautiful at this time of year. The bikes, parked in front of the houses, are beautiful year-round.

Pink climbing roses on the brick walls of row houses. Parked bikes including colorful children's bikes in the foreground.

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

I ❤️ my volunteer work w/ DeFietsmeesters.nl, teaching mainly adult immigrant women, most who have never biked before, how to bike + the rules of the road in the Netherlands during a 10-session course. We start in parks or car-free spaces. Today a group went for a ride out on the road. So inspiring!

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Bikes relieve stress in so many ways. Parents can relax with their children walking through a parking lot of people & their bikes, instead of a parking lot of cars.

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Thinking @ getting around without a car? More importantly, do you vote for people who fund transit & biking in cities? What our streets prioritize is up to us, not car lobbyists. According to AAA annual cost to own & maintain a car is $11,577 (calculated before fuel prices started to skyrocket)

NY Times 6 May 2026 map of all the states of the USA with the cost of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline superimposed on each state. The lowest is $3.96 in Oklahoma, the highest at $6.19 is California.

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Pizza delivery in Utrecht, a city that is built to meet the needs of people who bike.

Pizza chain delivery by a bike rider in branded helmet, shirt, and pizza's in a front box. The biker is traveling along a brick-paved street lined with trees.

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Citywide markets & celebrations feel accessible, safe and inviting to people of all ages when a city gets around by bike Bikes use 1/20 the space of car parking, people who walk & bike don't need to worry about drunk or speeding drivers, it's quiet enough to talk to neighbors. #Koningsdag #Utrecht

A young child on a strider bike dressed up in an orange suit and boots and a crown in honor of Koningsdag, the King (or Queen's) birthday.

(In NL if you type Koninginnedag today April 27 in Google you get a shower of orange symbols.)

A child on the back of a bike in orange cape and headbands worn in honor of April 27 Koningsdag

A person in an orange jumpsuit and hat pedals past parked bikes and a 3-story house decorated with orange bunting and Dutch flags.

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Snacks on the back of the bike? Last minute hair touch-up? Excellent parenting is not only possible, but often better while biking. #Utrecht

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Happy Earth Day from our nearest neighbor.

Watercolor painting of the Earth with most of the moon in the foreground based on a photo from Artemis 2. Cathy Tuttle painting.

Watercolor painting of the Earth with the surface of the moon in the foreground based on a photo from Artemis 2. Cathy Tuttle painting.

Watercolor painting of Earthrise (or maybe Earthset?) with the moon in the foreground based on a photo from Artemis 2. Cathy Tuttle painting.

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Cathy Tuttle @cathytuttle.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Just an ordinary Saturday afternoon, waiting in line at the Utrecht Transfer Station. #CarryShitOlympics

A neatly dressed person on a cargo bike, probably an Urban Arrow, loaded down with a large mattress and box springs, behind other vehicles waiting in line at the transfer station.

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