Bicycle Paradise

I have arrived in the Netherlands, and there is really no other way to put it . . . this is Bicycle Paradise (capital "B", capital "P"). After stepping off the plane and promptly getting my debit card eaten by an ATM machine, I threw my troubles to the wind and took a quick side trip to Central Amsterdam. This was one of the first bicycle scenes I fell across:

Of course, the famous cycle track (at least famous amongst my bicycle compatriots)! A bike lane sandwiched between the sidewalk and the road at a slightly different elevation. Really, at this point I was in a stupor from my flight, and I could barely comprehend what I was seeing. Bicyclists everywhere, on every street, with bike lanes and cycle tracks at every turn. And then hordes of pedestrians, and different types of signals and signs. And young, fashionably dressed people everywhere. And then of course, every once in a while, the smell of pot wafting in the air. I was in Amsterdam, eh?

One of the new signals I saw was a bicycle signal:

Notice the red right arrow and red bike light in the upper right-hand corner. First what happened was the bicycle symbol turned green. Those 2 cleared the intersection, and 5 seconds later it turned red (a very short cycle). Then this happened:

The cars turned right for a few seconds, and then everything turned red for this street, and the parallel street went green for about 30 seconds.

It didn't take long before I became nearly unable to walk. I was on sensory overload after only an hour of sleep the night before. So I trudged back to the train station with my luggage in town, and took the 30-minute ride to the nearby city of Utrecht (where I sit typing now). Utrecht is about the size of Minneapolis (pop. 350,000), and much of it is quite historic. And surprise, surprise, full of bicycles, such as this one quaintly leaned against a brick wall of an apartment on a street as narrow as an American alley:

The following signs are everywhere. I've gathered that they mean "Dead End - Except Bicyclists and Scooters." They have one or two simple bollards at the end, which prevents cars from going through.
At times it appears that bicycles have free reign in this city. There are just so many of them, it's hard not to go with the flow, even if there's a red bicycle light (when in Rome . . . ). While I don't have a picture of that happening, here you can see that we have a Yield sign. What you may not notice is that the bus is stopped, even though it has the right-of-way:

But the bus driver sat. I asked our tour guide about this, and he said that in Utrecht, drivers are extra careful around bicyclists, as bicyclists tend to do what they want. It is a general rule also, that judges favor the bicyclist, as there is a Dutch law that says drivers bear the burden of driving a machine that can kill non-motorized users (and not vice versa).

Here we were being good bicyclists waiting at a stoplight 60-deep with bicyclists (there were many more behind me):

But they do write tickets here, as was evident to me when we ran across this police officer writing something (probably a ticket) for a morning commuter who ran a red bicycle light:

After a while of riding around, we had to go to a meeting with someone with the City of Utrecht, who works on bicycling projects. We pulled into this bicycle parking lot, and I seriously felt like a car riding up and down the aisles of this area looking for a parking spot:

That's my bicycle in the lower right-hand corner of the photograph. Yes, I had to park as far away as you could get in order to find a spot. Rosedale Mall in the Twin Cities anyone???

One thing I found interesting is this - bicycle mode share of all trips fell steadily in the Netherlands from the 1900's to the 1970's, from 80% to 20%. Cars didn't reach this country until after World War II. They took their toll here as well - there are still freeways and big auto streets. But in the 70's most cities in the country decided to begin catering especially to bicycles. They now have a mode share of 27%. When asked about their mode share goals for the future, the official from the City of Utrecht says that he hopes they can maintain 27%, as pressures to go longer distances (and drive more) prevent them from increasing this goal.

On another note, if anyone thinks a bike lane can't be done in a roundabout, that's not true. I felt quite safe in this one (could it be the ten or so bicyclists that are always in it also, keeping motorists on their toes?!?):

I've had a really fun day. The amount of bicycling is overwhelming. I've never felt so normal, and seen so many normal people riding bicycles. More photos of those people to come, as well as some not so great things from the Netherlands. Yes, those exist (i.e. graffiti).

And if you're reading this and you have questions, be sure to let me know. I'll see if I can find the answers!

One last photo for the day. I want to ride this: