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Melissa Adams
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 For any of you considering a visit to Holland, riding a bike in this country known for its tulips and windmills may be among your travel plans. If so, there are things you’ll want to know about its pedaling culture before you carry your passion for cycling across the pond. Those who’d like to look like a cloggie will want to leave all day-glow jerseys, spandex shorts, camelbacks, cycling shoes and certainly helmets at home—unless you want to appear like a clueless alien in this bike-obsessed land, who hasn’t yet gotten used to its customs.
For more than a century, the Dutch have worshipped their bikes or fietsen, as they call them—probably because that’s what powers them! To this day, it’s not unusual to witness an angry Dutchie approaching a German, demanding, “Give me back my bicycle”—a reference to the Nazis’ confiscation of Dutch bicycles during World War II. There’s some debate as to whether the Krauts filled the canals with the 2-wheeled machines or melted them into tanks, but the upshot is the same: considerable anti-German sentiment that lives on in Amsterdam today, despite the fact that the war’s been over for more than 60 years.
With its small bit of flat, sea-level terrain, Holland seems to have been put on the planet to be a bike-friendly country; its horizontal topography makes it perfectly suited for the single speed 2-wheelers on which average riders might be daunted were they to come across hills like those in San Francisco or mountainous European regions where gears can be both a lifesaver and a sweat-saver. The steepest grade Dutchies have to climb is the gentle rise of a bridge spanning any of Amsterdam’s canals. In this tiny elf-land, riding a bike is like breathing.
Observing their progress in what appears to be an autonomic activity, I always feel as if I’m watching a well-choreographed albeit chaotic ballet. Yet neither dance nor topography can adequately explain the number of bicycles swarming around the Netherlands—a country that boasts one of the highest densities of carbon-free transport in the world. In bicycles per capita, only China can compete.
Ever since the French invented the pedal bike in the 1860s, the Dutch have embraced a cycling-oriented lifestyle. There are now more than 17 million bicycles in the Netherlands, a nation of just over 16 million people. Some 700,000 can be found creaking around Amsterdam (population 750,000) alone, a city in which more than 90% of all families own at least one bicycle. In contrast to the U.S., where cycling excursions comprise less than .5% of commuter trips, virtually everyone, from toddlers to grandparents, high-powered executives, moms with babies and prostitutes on their way to Red Light District windows, rides a bike in Holland.
To serve cycling commuters, close to 5,000 miles of bike lanes line most main streets in the Netherlands. There are bike-specific traffic lights and cyclists are expected to follow the rules of the road. As skyrocketing gas prices have Americans thinking about trading in their Hummers and SUVs, Dutchies happily pedal past gas pumps charging the euro equivalent of $5 a gallon.
A recent University of Central Florida study entitled “28 Reasons to Bike” notes the Dutch are healthier and less likely to die in accidents thanks to their compulsive bike use. Their obesity rate is 10% versus 34% for Americans, as reported in a 2007 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. While reducing girth, cycling also helps control urban sprawl—something the Dutch can’t accommodate in their teeny patch of Earth. A single-occupant car takes up 20 times as much urban space as a bicycle. And an urban freeway costs 2,500 times more than an urban bike path.
Dutchies go EVERYWHERE on two wheels, and the hypnotic cadence of bicycles, cars, trams, taxis and pedestrians on their roads is poetry in motion. While it may seem like a game of human vs. metal dodge ball, it’s played by experts who know the rules well, who understand how to keep things moving in mesmerizing motion. Since they’ve been practicing for so long, Dutch bike riders are experts at evading tram tracks, cars and other road hazards.
Like most Americans, I think about enjoying exercise and the great outdoors when I roll out on two wheels. This is not the way Dutchies think; they think practical transportation. They go to work, school, stores, theatres, day care centers, churches and even weddings on bikes. In contrast to how Americans use bicycles, typically as recreational toys, the Dutch use them as goods carriers, people taxis and limousines that carry them on mundane errands as well as to fancy occasions. Since they are the only transport many cloggies own, they ride them rain or shine.
An Amsterdam tourist explained the disparity between American and Dutch bike culture with this story:
“One night, strolling in the evening air, I happened by a theater as a play was letting out. A crowd of distinguished Amsterdammers poured onto the sidewalk. The men wore blazers and ties, the women wore dresses and cardigans. Most of these theater-goers were in their 50s and 60s, with wrinkles and bifocals and graying beards.
“It looked like a scene you might witness any night in Manhattan, when a throng of well-dressed New Yorkers emerges from a downtown playhouse. But there was a key difference: The New Yorkers would stride toward the curb with one arm in the air, hailing a taxi. The Amsterdammers, by contrast, were unlocking their bicycles from nearby racks, hopping up on the pedals with a little 2-step, and riding away.
“I can't tell you how absurd it looked—and how utterly gleeful it made me—as these older couples, in prim evening wear, mounted their bikes and rode side-by-side into the night. They whooshed past me, pedaling with ease, and their conversations carried on undisturbed. The women's dresses fluttered about their ankles; the men's cigarette smoke trailed behind them.
“‘There’s something about riding a bike that makes you feel like you’re 5 years old,’ my American friend Carey, who lives and works here in Amsterdam,’ said to me. Indeed, these proper Dutch couples outside the theater seemed to morph, before my eyes, into bouncy little children. I half-expected the ladies to shriek, ‘Wheeeeee!’ as their bikes picked up speed and rounded a corner out of sight.
“On weekend evenings, young couples go out on bike dates. She sits sidesaddle on the luggage rack above the rear wheel, her skirted legs crossed daintily. She wraps one arm around his waist, while the other lifts an umbrella over their heads to ward off the drizzle.”
Because many Dutch bikes are outfitted with sizable baskets, riders can carry industrial-size loads of groceries, children, friends and pets on them. More substantial cargo, e.g. furniture, pianos or cattle, may require a bakfiets or crate bike, essentially a hefty tricycle equipped with a front-loaded wooden box or roomy platform on which goods, people or animals can be placed.
Bicycles built for one with multiple riders on them are a common sight in Amsterdam. While some Dutch bikes are outfitted with child safety seats,
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| I’ve seen children standing up in them to get a better view. Such behavior might worry Americans, but the Dutch take things in stride when they ride their bikes, on which they typically carry 1, 2 or even 3 passengers on luggage racks, fenders, baskets and freight carriers, with children assuming what might be called the “suicide position.”
While hangers-on may need to dangle appendages in mid-air while riding, most appear remarkably balanced and relaxed while their driver swerves through traffic. From the bored looks on some faces, you can be sure this is “old hat” for them. Indeed, most have spent much of their lives in this position, growing up on bicycles in Holland—in the same way OC commuters while away their lives in gridlock on the I-405.
Viewing the kamikaze positions children assume when loaded onto Mom or Dad’s bike—facing forward, their velvety scalps exposed, playing with toys in case the ride gets dull—I wonder how any of them grow up at all. Some considerate parents protect their offspring with a windshield that will presumably save them in a crash, in which they might lurch forward helmet-less onto the cobblestones without such defense. Not much else is done to safeguard the little ones, other than surrounding a child with a protective arm, for parents often ride with one hand or no hands on their handlebars, as they juggle packages, flowers, purses, briefcases, cell phones and umbrellas while riding along.
Seemingly, the type of “hands-free” device I rely on while talking on my cell phone as I’m driving in California has never caught on in the Netherlands. Whether it’s because Dutchies have such a deep need for conversation or because they enjoy showing off their multi-tasking skills, many chat on cell phones (although it’s illegal) as they whiz down A’dam’s twisted streets dodging cars, trams and pedestrians—or aiming at the latter. In addition to talking and texting, some particularly dexterous riders also listen to music on MP3 players while simultaneously reading the newspaper, checking train schedules or eating a snack as they ride.
Dutch variations of the “many people, one bicycle” concept include the bike taxi—Amsterdam’s answer to the yellow cab—in which there really are enough seats for everyone to be safe and comfortable. In addition, there are the party bikes powered by a dozen or so beer drinkers facing one another on perpendicular benches as they peddle through the city imbibing their frosty brew. You have to see this to believe it.
Just as when they ride trams or drive cars, Dutchies don’t change into special clothes to ride their bicycles. Since many bikes are fitted with aftermarket parts like chain guards and large fenders, people can wear nice clothes on them without getting flowing material caught in spokes or grease smeared on party garb. It’s common to see kids and adults of all ages sporting business suits, designer dresses and evening gowns on bikes, all looking as if they’ve done this thousands of times before so it’s no big deal.
While spandex-clad Amsterdammers are atypical in Centrum, where speed is not an issue, I saw folks dressed in racer style in the Dutch countryside, where you can ride for miles without interacting with any cars. As one American explained, “I’ve heard it said many times that the Dutch ride more slowly than we do here in the U.S., but anyone who says that has not tried to keep up with a paceline of them.…They will maintain 20–30mph for miles, riding in a pack inches from each other, wearing only cloth racing beanies on their heads, and they don't wind up paralyzed for life as I am constantly being told that helmet-less riders will.”
One item that is NOT WORN, ever, while riding a bike in Holland is a helmet. This might astonish people from cities where close to 100% of cyclists’ heads are covered by helmets. Yet Dutchies rarely fall off their bikes or wind up hospitalized with head injuries; indeed, I’ve never witnessed an accident involving a Dutch bike commuter in 4 recent trips to the Netherlands. In the U.S., I’ve seen dozens of fellow cyclists mowed down by cars in the 15 years I’ve been an avid recreational bike rider. Regarding Dutch car drivers, one local explained, “There is no such thing; they’re just cyclists behind the wheel of an automobile.” According to a 2003 Reuters report, U.S. cyclists are 6 times more likely to be killed than Dutch cyclists, comparing per-trip or per-distance traveled.
Looking at typical Dutch “beater bikes,” it’s amazing their owners are so fond of them, for they are far different from both the pricey road bikes owned by BCI members and the shiny cruisers seen on OC bike paths. While they come in various vintages, virtually all bikes in the Netherlands are badly painted in 1 or 2 garish, aftermarket colors. This makes it easier for their owners to find them in a stack of bicycles and possibly deters thieves, who would be forced to repaint their “new” steeds lest they be too easily recognizable by their former owners.
While they may look like cheap beaters, the typical age of Dutch bikes—20–40 years—testifies to their sturdiness. Yet even the most mangled steed that looks like no one could possibly want it must be secured with multiple locks, including at least one massive, industrial-grade chain, if its owner has any hope of retrieving it. Thousands of bicycles are stolen annually and wind up in Amsterdam’s canals or on the black market. According to one local, bicycle theft is the second most popular sport in the Netherlands, after speed skating. It’s certainly more lucrative, as the resale of rusty rigs can provide an attractive income for talented thieves.
Anyone who’s managed to elude theft has been wise enough to spend more money on a gigantic lock (or 2) that could secure an army tank than on a bike. With the right heavy-duty chain, thieves will have an easier time cutting through your bicycle frame than removing the lock from it. Some Dutchies have also allegedly installed microchips in their 2-wheeled steeds, presumably to locate them when they’re stolen.
To combat theft, the Dutch government has outdone itself in implementing technology aimed at protecting what could be an endangered species. They’ve introduced fiets patrols and video cameras in special stalls. In a 1967 plan to reduce thievery, they supplied 2,000 free bikes in the streets of Amsterdam, the idea being that you could take one, use it, then leave it behind for someone else. Although the plan failed, a similar idea was launched in 1999 with 250 bikes, but it was unsuccessful as well.
Alas, every Dutch bicycle must eventually reach the end of its life cycle, when it can roll no longer. For those that don’t wind up as mangled messes chained to bridges and lampposts, Dutch railway giant NS has stepped up with “Make Space for the Bike,” a nationwide program designed to provide a seamless integration of bikes, cars, trams and trains in the Netherlands by 2010. In addition to plans for improving all 387 bike parking stations throughout Holland, it also encompasses places where fiets lovers can lay their trusty machines to rest—for good. |
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