Cycling in Amsterdam

Riding in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is both the most bicycle-friendly capital city in the world and, with an urban area population of over 1.1 million people, it is also the most bicycle-friendly city with over a million people in the world.[1] In Amsterdam, over 60% of trips are made by bike in the inner city and 40% of trips are made by bike overall in the greater city area.[2]

Nevertheless, though people outside of the Netherlands consider Amsterdam to be one of most famous and important centres of bicycle culture worldwide, the city itself is actually not at the top in terms of bike-friendliness compared to many smaller Dutch cities. This is reflected in the fact that Amsterdam is not on the short-list for the Fietsstad 2014 (BikeCity 2014) awards, announced by the Dutch Fietsersbond (Cyclists' Union): the cities of The Hague, Eindhoven and Almere were nominated for the Fietsstad 2014 awards, while the Netherlands' most bicycle-friendly city of Groningen won the award back in 2001.[3] It should be made clear that for bicycle-friendliness, one must consider the Netherlands as whole.

The basics

As is common in Dutch cities, Amsterdam has a wide net of traffic-calmed streets and world-class facilities for cyclists. All around are bike paths and bike racks, and several guarded bicycle parking stations (Fietsenstalling) which can be used for a nominal fee. In 2006, there were about 1,000,000 bicycles in Amsterdam.[4]

Bicycles are used by all socio-economic groups because of they are quick from A to B, their convenience, Amsterdam's small size, the 400 km of bike paths,[5] the flat terrain, and the arguable inconvenience of driving an automobile: driving a car is discouraged, parking fees are expensive, and many streets are closed to cars or are one-way.[6] Amsterdam's bike paths (Fietspad) are coloured brown, in order to differentiate it from a footpath.

Amsterdammers ride a wide variety of bicycles including the traditional Omafiets - the ubiquitous Dutch roadster with a step-through frame - to anything from modern city bikes, road bikes, mountain bikes, and even recumbent bikes.

Many tourists discover Amsterdam by bike, as it is the typical Dutch way to get around the city. Bicycle tour groups offers a guided bike tour through the city. Bicycle traffic, in fact traffic in general, is relatively safe: in 2007, Amsterdam had 18 traffic deaths, of all types, in total.[7]

Bicycle theft in Amsterdam is widespread: in 2005, about 54,000 bicycles were stolen and every year between 12,000 and 15,000 bicycles are retrieved from the canals.[8][9]

Possible issues

By 2012, cycling in Amsterdam had grown tremendously in popularity — up by some 40% in the previous twenty years.[10] The city had 490,000 fietsers (cyclists) take to the road to cycle 2 million kilometres every day according to statistics of the city council. This has caused some problems as, despite 35,000 kilometers of bicycle paths, the country's 18 million bicycles (1.3 per citizen old enough to ride) were clogging Amsterdam's streets at peak times and parked bicycles were overcrowding train stations and other areas. This is being addressed by building even more bike lanes and bicycle parking stations with much greater capacity to tackle a problem many other cities in the world would envy, that of bicycle traffic congestion.

Gallery

Crossing a bridge. 
Parking at Fietsflat,near Centraal Station. 
Parking at Fietsflat,near Centraal Station. 
Bicycles in Amsterdam on a summer's day. 

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bicycles in Amsterdam.

References

  1. ↑ "The Dutch Prize Their Pedal Power, but a Sea of Bikes Swamps Their Capital". New York Times. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
  2. ↑ "Bicycle Cultures Are Man-Made". Amsterdamize.com. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
  3. ↑ Elzi Lewis (30 July 2013). "Fietsstad 2014 - which Dutch cycling city is best?". IamExpat.nl website. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
  4. ↑ Research and Statistics Division. "Introduction". Traffic and Infrastructure (in Dutch). City of Amsterdam. Retrieved 2008-10-04.
  5. ↑ "Cycling in Amsterdam". amsterdamtips.com. Retrieved 2010-08-11.
  6. ↑ "Amsterdam Fietst" (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 2007-08-06. Retrieved 2007-04-19.
  7. ↑ Research and Statistics Division. "Core Numbers in Graphics: Fewer Traffic Deaths". Safety and Nuissance (in Dutch). City of Amsterdam. Archived from the original on 2008-08-22. Retrieved 2008-10-04.
  8. ↑ Research and Statistics Division. "Core Numbers in Graphics: Fewer Bicycle Thefts". Safety and Nuissance (in Dutch). City of Amsterdam. Archived from the original on 2008-08-22. Retrieved 2008-10-04.
  9. ↑ "Many bicycles end up in the canals of Amsterdam". Dutchamsterdam.nl. Retrieved 2013-07-02.
  10. ↑ "Summary: Long-term Bicycle Plan, 2012-2016 (PDF, 301 kB)" (PDF). Amsterdam.nl. The City of Amsterdam. Retrieved 4 December 2013.

External links