The caption on YouTube:
Things I see on the streets and canals of Amsterdam. Shot on my Galaxy S2 phone. This guy was having trouble driving his tiny van down the bike lane (which he has a right to do, by the way). But nothing was going to stop him, even losing a bit of his own van!
The caption on YouTube:
Many people don’t realize that the “bike lanes” in Amsterdam aren’t just for bikes. They are also used by motorbikes and small cars. Space is at a premium and “just squeezing through” is the norm. It can be quite unnerving for those of us accustomed to having a 10-12 foot lane to ourselves!
Here’s a quick peek at just a few of the motor vehicles that I encountered while riding around town today in the bike lanes and cycle tracks of Amsterdam.
Things in Amsterdam have gotten a lot more interesting than they were when I was there in 1986.
I find it hard to believe that motorized vehicles are allowed to use cycle tracks in Amsterdam. Is this actually the case? And if so, with no restrictions?
On a visit to Amsterdam last month, a local told me that certain sizes of motorbikes (not just mopeds) are allowed on cycle tracks, on the assumption that they have a low maximum speed. But people buy them, make a few simple modifications to increase the speed, and ride on the cycle tracks anyway. We were certainly buzzed by MANY loud and fast powered cycles on the tracks. No vans or cars, however. Amsterdam is certainly not a pedestrian paradise.
I was there two weeks ago. I was told that the 49cc model scooters are required to use the bicycle lanes/paths. They were certainly annoying. I have about 15 hours of video I’m editing right now. I’m planning to publish a comparison video of Amsterdam and Springfield, Mo. on Carbon Trace (carbontrace.net) soon. The title will give a hint where this is going: “I’d Rather Ride in Springfield.” I was unimpressed with Amsterdam and feel that the cherry-picked promotional videos give a false impression of what it’s really like to ride a bicycle there. An irony: Apparently the people of Amsterdam clamored for separation to keep them safe from cars, yet I witnessed reckless behavior that demonstrated no fear of cars. Perhaps what I was witnessing was a lack of understanding of what one should be afraid of on a bicycle. Hmmmmmm…
Hmm…while the motorbikes are definitely annoying (and possibly dangerous), those cycle tracks still look much better than the big avenues they parallel. This strikes me as a reason to change the rules governing motorbikes, not a reason to get rid of the cycletracks. In any case, even as it stands, it’s a lot better than, say, Mass Ave. through Cambridge.
Like Khal, I cycled in Amsterdam in the 1980s. In fact, Holland was my first experience with specialized bicycle infrastructure. I didn’t like it then, and nearly 30 years on, my views on the issue are unchanged. There is nothing wrong with the road that a bike path or bike lane can put right. It’s about time that the oft-spoken canard about Holland (and to a similar extent Denmark) being a cyclist’s paradise was shown for the swindle it is. A true cycling paradise does not limit cyclists’ road access, forcing cyclists to use bicycle infrastructure.
When I was in Amsterdam for a week, I also cycled to Cambridge, UK (by way of the ferry), to attend an academic conference. I think my ride through the English countryside was actually the high point of the trip. Not that I had anything against Holland. That was so long ago and far away that I don’t claim to remember every detail, but I also don’t recall anything really bad. A fast ride from Amsterdam via Haarlem to the Hague included both roadway segments and a quiet fast ride on a wide bike path that ran along the North Sea. That path was almost empty at the hour I was riding, so it was not your typical experience in anarchy such as is found in the US.
The bottom line was that aside from a couple interesting experiences on the A roads in the UK (including a harrowing minute of “Hey, Yank, you are going the wrong way in this roundabout!”) I don’t recall the UK’s road cycling as any bit inferior to what I experienced in Holland. Being an American graduate student in the Old World for the first time, I was a bit awestruck by the whole experience.
Only bad experience of that trip was what the baggage handlers back at JFK Airport did to my bike on the return flight. Ugh…
So you really think your ride on Comm. Ave in Boston was better?
http://john-s-allen.com/blog/?p=4456
Well, yes, the ride in Boston was better than what I saw in the Amsterdam videos. Gordon Renkes and I didn’t have any scary incidents. Also, I have ridden in Boston urban-area traffic for forty years without a single collision. (For the record, I was sideswiped once on a rural highway, not in Boston or nearby suburbs.) I feel entirely comfortable riding in the Boston urban area.
There are some streets, to be sure, which I prefer not to ride on, but there are usually good alternatives, and if there are none, I know how to be safe. Of course, my comfort reflects my realistic understanding of the risk, preventing irrational fear, and my skill in integrated cycling. Boston main streets aren’t for children.
I didn’t have to share a narrow channel with mopeds, motorcycles and microcars, as shown in the Amsterdam video. I did have some trouble with the mindless use of block pavers and with the impossible decision on the approach to the bike box, but on the other hand, by exercising lane control, I avoided conflicts with other traffic.
Now, to be sure, I can’t comment on whether the videos I embedded are representative of conditions in Amsterdam, because I haven’t been there myself. So, I posed a question for discussion, and I’m pleased to see that the discussion is happening.
I can say though that many people who promote special bicycling infrastructure portray Amsterdam as some kind of paradise and ignore or avoid the issues which the videos raise. I thank Amsterdamize for being forthright about the issues here. I have also seen issues about Amsterdam traffic conditions raised in the books by Jeff Mapes and J. Harry Wray.
You may also note that in my post about on the Boston ride, I proposed an alternative treatment, a bicycle boulevard on a parallel street. I am not opposed in principle to special infrastructure for bicyclists, I just want to have some confidence that it will work. Commonwealth Avenue doesn’t work very well, and what I see in the Amsterdam videos doesn’t look very good either.
@John & @Gary:
– those motorized vehicles are disability ‘mopeds’ (technically). 49cc engine, top speed of 40 km/h and are the only 4-wheelers allowed with that speed. Yes, quite annoying, but it’s the small price we pay for inclusion.
– Scooters, 45 km/h (yellow plate): not allowed on urban bike paths, but these riders flaunt that massively (whenever there’s gridlock on the road)
– Scooters, 25 km/h (blue plate); the most popular kind in Amsterdam. Same size/type as the 45 km/h one, but with a limiter. Popular bc no need for helmet and allowed on bike path (bc it then complies with the 35 yr old law that allows regular bicycles with a small engine. The Spartamet bicycle craze back then initiated that law.)
– Scooters, 25 km/h: research shows that 94% of these owners have taken the limiter off. It’s illegal, but police only rarely enforce this. Their entitled behavior on the paths of Amsterdam (and elsewhere) is legendary. They’re the biggest menace and source of danger now.
– Two years ago people had enough and started a petition to get them off the bike path. It reached parliament twice and the responsibility was eventually put on city councils. In Amsterdam there’s now a pilot project on, banning them from 60 km of bike paths. I recently monitored that route and didn’t see any change. I asked the police officers on bikes that were patrolling there and they didn’t know of this pilot. There’s lots to be done still.
So @Roberta, you’re absolutely right to be upset about them.
@Ian: canard? You’re delusional. 1955-1975, cycling rates in NL plummeted by 75%, bc of car-centric policies/road design. We were able to turn that around by huge protests, change of policies and implementing the infrastructure all around the country.
Let’s see where we are now.
UK cycle modal share: 1%.
NL cycle modal share: 27%. (for all people on bikes, not ‘commuters’)
Amsterdam: 55%.
London: 2%.
The canard is that you cry about ‘losing your right to the road’. It’s obvious you think only the fit and able should be on a bike. And it got UK nowhere. Ever heard of Stockholm Syndrome? In your case we can add Cognitive Dissonance, too.
I meant to include US cycle modal share: 1%.
This “losing your right to the road” is a total fallacy. The one often repeated is that the Dutch Olympic Cycling Team have to train abroad, just to get access to roads. When I asked them about this, they were pretty clear in their response!
Apples and oranges comparison, Mr. McCracken. The Dutch Olympic team can train on rural roads. In Amsterdam, by law, bicyclists are required by law to ride in the narrow bikeways. Please note the following comment, which is based on first-hand observation.
I’ve not cycled there, but I’m pretty sure that where you are required to use a cycle facility in preference to using the road, you’d need to be pretty strange not to do so. I suspect a more useful (and accurate phrase might be: “In Amsterdam, by law, cyclists are required to use bicycle facilities in specific circumstances”. Most Dutch facilities aren’t narrow, although I’m sure some are slightly congested because so many people use a bike by default.
BikingBrian, below, is clearly a dedicated cyclist: most Dutch facilities are not designed with him primarily in mind – they’re designed to just help people easily get from place to place, by bike, without having to mix it with high-speed traffic.
I was in the Netherlands for a two month period in the mid 1990s. I spent most of that time near the city of Utrecht in the center of the country. Though I had quite a few trips to Amsterdam and agree with the other commenters who didn’t like the cycling conditions.
One of my most vivid memories was seeing a cycling team, presumably on their way out of the city. It looked like a slow serpent as it negotiated the brick-face path on the outer ring of a roundabout.
My most enjoyable rides were outside the cities, using the local bike maps as a guide to roads where there were NOT any designated bicycle facilities.
This has got to be a wind-up, right?
The scooter issue is real, but everything else stated is ridiculous.
Having previously lived in Amsterdam for nearly 4 years I can tell you that for normal people getting around on bikes (ie not people who care only about “speed” and “training”) the Netherlands IS a paradise! Kids, older people, girls, boys, men in suits, women in evening dresses, all getting around on bikes, happily and safely! I’ve never lived in the US but in Australia and the UK there is simply NO comparison.
I can count the number of times I had real issues with those mobility car things on one hand, and yet you offer them up as some sort of ever-present menace.
Even for those who really want to speed along, there are massive networks of beautiful wide, smooth paths criss-crossing the country.
Somebody must have a pretty big chip on their shoulder to cycle in NL and find that it compares unfavourably to any other western country.
You clearly like Amsterdam cycling conditions and you have a right to your opinions, but I take issue with this statement:
“The scooter issue is real, but everything else stated is ridiculous.”
That’s an appeal to emotion. I also might ask, stated by whom? Several people have commented on the post and some of them substantially agree with you.
I have more of an issue yet with the following:
“I can count the number of times I had real issues with those mobility car things on one hand, and yet you offer them up as some sort of ever-present menace.”
I know what it is to be blinded by my own opinions so as to misread what someone else has written. Been there, done that — but after having being caught up a few times, I’ve learned to make a point of checking back and reading more carefully.
Now, please try to do that yourself. Note that I made no statement describing an “ever-present menace.” In fact, I made no statement at all. I merely presented two videos, with their captions, showing an unfamiliar aspect of cycling in Amsterdam. The only thing I wrote is the headline, which makes no statement: it asks a question.
In response to that question, I received comments expressing a variety of opinions. I commented too, making it clear that I was not drawing any sweeping conclusions.
I’m happy enough to post your comment, but I think I deserve an apology for your claim about what I said.