A City of Bikes

There were only two other bikes here when I left mine. Now there are 2,500.

It has been fifty years since I last visited Amsterdam. Only two things stood out in my memory. One of them was the concentration of bikes. We have become so accustomed to cars everywhere that we forget about the precious few countries that turn commuting into an exercise regimen. In all those countries where people are routinely obese, we could learn a lesson.

It is good to see people using bikes to travel around, but there is a downside. If you are a pedestrian the experience is a lot like being surrounded by a swarm of flies. They are silent and they are everywhere. Before you move your feet you have to look all around you, and you will surely spot a bike coming towards you.

It took a little while for me to notice that inspite of so much traffic, there are no STOP signs in Amsterdam. Tolerance is the watchword of The Netherlands, but this may be taking things too far. Having said that, the system does seem to work. There are a lot of close calls, of course, so much so as to be routine. However, I never observed a crash, and that included the struggling tourists.

The Netherlands is a curious country in that most of it is below sea level. The Dutch have brought water management to a fine art  The country has suffered floods in the past but has learned from such events. The fact that it is so flat is an open invitation to every citizen to have a bike. Everybody does, apparently, because there are 16 million inhabitants and 16 million bikes.

Cycling is not below the dignity of anyone. Government Ministers, including the Prime Minister can be seen cycling about, as does everyman in the street. It is good exercise and probably leads to Tall Person Syndrome, as perhaps the world's tallest people can be found in Holland. These are the people who are leading the way in the continuing advance of evolution.

In the midst of  the seven million bikes in Amsterdam, there are likely to be about 700,000 on the road at any given moment. However, I still managed to have very pleasent and close encounters with the latest in Jaguars, an Aston Martin, and a Masareti. I am convinced that is The Future; My Future.

It makes for an interesting comparison when thinking of future motoring being driverless cars. Holland seems to ask the question: "Yes, but what about exercise?"

The other thing that I remembered from fifty years ago was the sight of women sitting in windows selling sexual encounters. They are still there. Some things don't change.

Copyright (c) 2014  Eugene Carmichael