Some Features of Cycling in Amsterdam
- Nobody wears helmets.
- Often more than one person on a bike. Many bikes have been converted to trailers for children, dogs and equipment
- Bikes colourful but generally low tech, simple gear mechanisms for essentially flat roads.
- There are an estimated 800,000 bikes in Amsterdam.
- Huge range of people use bikes.
Video of How Amsterdam became very popular for cycling
see also: Cycling in Holland
There is an interesting set of pictures and observations about cycling in Amersterdam at this page:
Hey, David. I thought the factor of two was an underestimate but I was too lazy to look it up, and I’d sooner be corrected upwards than downwards.
Something I forgot to mention is that although cycling in Cambridge is nowhere near as prevalent, it has the same property that people cycle in all kinds of gear, from the sportives and tourers in their lycra, to the students and academics going to Formal in their suits *and gowns*.
You’re right, except about the funding. The Dutch spend much more than twice the amount per head compared with the UK.
In the city I live in, Assen in the North of the Netherlands, capital spending on cycling amounts to about 1.8M Euros per year. There are 65000 people here, so that amounts to around 27 Euros per person per year which is around £21 at the current exchange rate. Maintenance comes from a different budget, and there is also plenty of the equivalent of S106 money available to build new cycle paths as a result of the new developments.
Cycling England’s recently increased budget gives it around £1 per person per year. Local government tends to give about the same amount.
Your other points are perfectly valid. That’s why we came here. We’ve a truly splendid example of a brand new bridge carrying a dual carriageway over a cycle path just a few hundred metres from our home. Photos of the bridge, of sign posts showing shorter distances for cycling than for driving and of the treatment of cyclists around roadworks can, amongst others, be found on our website.
Another thing that the original poster doesn’t mention is that there are also a huge number of rather nice fast bikes too. Cycle sport is very popular here, but in sheer numbers those sport bikes are overwhelmed by utility bicycles.
There are some important points he doesn’t mention about cycling in the Netherlands.
* Highway Authority spending on cycle facilities is about twice as much per head as in the UK, and increasing faster than spending on roads.
* There are high-quality, off-road, wide, smooth, well lit, well maintained, clearly marked cycle tracks everywhere.
* Cycle tracks between towns are designed to be more direct than the roads.
* Roads are often given bridges where they cross cycle tracks so that there is no junction and the cycle track remains flat; when there are junctions, traffic lights tend to give priority to cyclists and often default to green for cyclists.
* There are no “Cyclists dismount” signs, even when there are roadworks, unless it’s absolutely unavoidable.