It’s hard not to think of the Netherlands without associating it with cycling.
31% of the Dutch cycle daily.
70% of all travel is done on 2 wheels.
Bike safety is taught as part of school curriculum.
In some schools, 90% of children cycle.
They spend $600 million a year on their network of 35,000km of paths. Remember the Netherlands is the size of Eastern Ontario, 2 hr driving in any direction gets you to the border.
There are more bikes than people.
And parking lots abound, some underground as well.
Our buddy Hilco for example, has four bikes. It wasn’t always so bike oriented. In 1971 the car ruled just as it still does in North America. but that year 3000 people were killed in car accidents, 450 of them kids. Since then, urban planners have completely re-designed streets. Bikes now have the right of way, even in roundabouts.
In 2011 road fatalities were still high, but only 200. That same year, more than 2000 Canadians died in car accidents, never mind cycle fatalities. Cycling is not a rich or poor, young or old activity. Seemingly everybody is into it. From seniors to women in designer outfits. Speaking of outfits, no one is geared up in lycra( are you listening, Marc?).
People are content to ride in whatever suits their final destination. Jessica for example always showed up in her bike looking fantastic.
Most bikes are what we’d call junk…old, rusty, rattling, reverse pedal brakes, fendered. But this means they’re less likely to be nicked…though 450,000 are reported stolen each year. For a while I searched for the junkiest looking bike, but most are tied for that distinction.
I became rather smitten with the ordinariness of the Dutch daily grind surrounding cycling. It seems to define them the way snow does us. For us it’s either recreational or for the very few, transportation. Most locals probably thought it odd that I took so many pictures.
I think I creeped out this woman.
Imagine, a healthy, safe activity becomes so ingrained into a culture that it becomes ordinary.
I couldn’t take my eyes off the never ending stream of bikes, and how people carried on with whatever while casually pedalling along. Or in this case labouring along….
While cycling, they also smoke, hold umbrellas, carry groceries, infants, guitars, and of course talk on the phone.
To be honest they remind us of the crazy motor bike traffic of Hanoi. Like Vietnam, you have waves of two wheels seemingly oblivious to anything on two feet. No one has a helmet, nor much of a night light. Yet they seem unhurried, self-assured and definitely more at ease on the road than we do either driving or cycling.
So did this mountain and road biker dip my feet into some pedals? Let’s just say the artist chose to remove himself from the subject.
ADDENDUM:
I did rent a bike in Amsterdam. Some neon lime clunker that had tourist written all over it. To hide my embarrassment I rode with one hand, occasionally passing others while scratching my nose.
Sitting straight, with cars and walkers giving you loads of space, it was perhaps the safest urban ride in a strange town, ever.
Something about pedalling backwards to brake liberates a hand, so I started playing with my phone. Hope nobody noticed.
