I arose very early on my fırst day in Amsterdam. I read for a couple of hours before sunrise and took abundant advantage of the hotel’s buffet breakfast. Then I decided to wait for the museums’ opening by riding the metro through the city (with little other motivation than to avoid sitting around in the hotel). As I expected, I noticed landmarks I had read about and started getting oriented. But more than the city’s remarkable architectural appeal, I became absorbed watching the city’s innumerable bike-commuters (I subsequently came across the fact that 40% of travel within Amsterdam is by bicycle). I arrived at the central station, situated next to the water, where trains into the city and metro lines converge. I noticed the multi-level bicycle parking complex with what must have been thousands of bicycles. I hopped on another metro and almost immediately after I had decided to get off and walk, a bike commuter gently rang his bell to signal his approach. I realized that I was on the half of the sidewalk that was designated for cyclists. I subsequently took note that intersections had signals and crossing paths specifically for cyclists as well as the normal pedestrian and car signals.
In the early afternoon, after four hours between the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum, I began my walkıng to sites of secondary interest in earnest. It was only then that I noticed that along with the young urban professional bike commuters, people of all age bike around in Amsterdam and some sacrifice comfort to do so. I noticed people struggling to keep cadence and a few grimaces in the face of a very cold January day’s wind and the early evening’s reasonably heavy rain. While some cyclists seemed to be extra cautious, and one or two seemed annoyed, none seemed to question the wisdom of their preferred mode of transportation (as I seem to do whenever I encounter less than optimal weather conditions or any other obstacle during of my rare bike commutes).
Along with accomodating cıty planning and the dedication of the cyclists themselves, I noticed that drivers were courteous to cyclists. The cyclists seemed to feel safe as almost none wore a helmet. Through a discussion wıth a resident of Amsterdam, I learned that cycling is a similar phenomenon in the whole of the Netherlands. I’m now on the lookout for a cyclist friendly U.S. cities http://www.bicyclefriendlycommunity.org/ and already dreaming of taking a bike tour through the Netherlands--in better weather, of course.
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