Bicycles Everywhere!

It's a wonder that I wasn't killed or injured by a bicycle in Amsterdam. I know there were at least three occasions that I thought it was a miracle that I didn't step out in front of one. You look left, then you look right, you wait for the cyclists coming from your right to pass and you'd better look left again because more will have come out of nowhere.

Just to get a feel for how many bicycles were in Amsterdam, Mark and I conducted a highly scientific study. We sat at a cafe near an intersection and counted the vehicles going through the intersection (in any direction). We classified them into the following categories: Bicycles, Motorized Bikes/Scooters, and Cars. We set the timer for five minutes. During that time we counted 36 bicycles, 6 motorized bikes and 13 cars. A total of 55 vehicles and 36 of them were bicycles. That's 65%!

On the main streets, bicycles had their own lanes - a narrow lane in between the cars and the pedestrian sidewalk. On the side streets, all vehicles, motorized or otherwise managed to coexist. It's important to stay on the sidewalk and not drift off into the bicycle lane when you're walking. But if you did, the bicycles all seemed to have bells, which are really far less startling than horns.

About the bikes - these were not the flashy 10-speed bikes that are so popular around here. These are good, old-fashioned bicycles - the kind I had when I was a kid. And the kind I would feel more comfortable on now if I could actually find one. Some were equipped with baskets and some even had compartments attached for carrying one or more children. These were utility vehicles - used for transportation not recreation. No one was wearing bike shorts and very few were wearing helmets. There were more women riding bicycles in high heels than there were wearing helmets. I was amazed!

 And in all the time we were in Amsterdam, I never saw anyone crash a bicycle into anything - not a car, not a pedestrian, not another bicycle. Amazing. But one day we took the train to Arnhem. Not so many people ride bikes in Arnhem as in Amsterdam. In fact, we only saw two people on bicycles - and they crashed into each other. I had to laugh.