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Cycling Lessons Learned from Amsterdam

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Re: Cycling Lessons Learned from Amsterdam

#41

Post by jpatokal »

fit2rule wrote: post #29
D_Alex wrote: post #26

I don't know about Vancouver, but here in Australia you must wear a bike helmet when riding a bike. That stops many people riding bikes (please do not argue about this, it has been done to death), and unfortunately has - probably - had the unintended effect of worsening public health. The pictures from the article show not a single person wearing a helmet... there is a lesson here I'd like the Australian regulaors to…

The lesson is, people are less prone to want to wear a helmet in Australia because its very hot and you get quite sweaty. Whereas in Amsterdam, people want to leave their heads free because its mostly pretty cold, and you want to wear a proper head covering - like a beany or scarf - and this isn't always compatible with bike helments. However, I've observed many times over people wearing helmets in Amsterdam. Its not…

> Also, the average distances and speeds of the bike riders in Amsterdam are likely to be a lot smaller than those of Australia, where you have all the space in the world.

Join me on my bike commute in Sydney sometime. This town of 5 million is crammed into hills and bays, there's a traffic light every 100 meters for most of the way, the roads are jammed during rush hour and there are zero dedicated bike lanes along my route: either you dodge cars on the road, or you dodge pedestrians on shared pedestrian/bike sidewalks.

Re: Cycling Lessons Learned from Amsterdam

#42

Post by Symbiote »

victorhooi wrote: post #40
D_Alex wrote: post #26

I don't know about Vancouver, but here in Australia you must wear a bike helmet when riding a bike. That stops many people riding bikes (please do not argue about this, it has been done to death), and unfortunately has - probably - had the unintended effect of worsening public health. The pictures from the article show not a single person wearing a helmet... there is a lesson here I'd like the Australian regulaors to…

I also live in Australia, and am an avid cyclist - I ride to work every day, and I'm sorry but no , I strongly disagree. There is nothing wrong with wearing a helmet - I've come off my bike before and its made a potentially very bad situation painful rather than life-threatening - and really look, on the list of worries of cyclist, having to wear a helmet is the least of our worries. (The law about "not riding on a f…

What were you doing to fall off your bike?

I haven't fallen off since I was a teenager, messing around. I trip over while walking more often, and have been a passenger in two car accidents. People in many countries don't feel unsafe cycling, so don't wear a helmet. I think the statistics back them up, in countries like the Netherlands.

Re: Cycling Lessons Learned from Amsterdam

#43

Post by Cthulhu_ »

Re: cars are permitted, this is true, but it's completely impractical to drive a car in Amsterdam - narrow roads, busy streets (cyclists, tourists, and the worst, tourist cyclists), and if you just need to move around inside the city itself, taking the bike or public transit is simply faster.

Re: cycling routes separated from main traffic: In most parts of the Netherlands this actually is the case. In Amsterdam though, as you can see from the pictures, there's simply not enough room for extra lanes (unless they get rid of the canals). There's barely room for a sidewalk, and those are barely walkable because of the parked bicycles. There's plenty of space (and space used) in North America, on the other hand - in fact the sprawl is the reason why people use cars all the time.

That's also why businesses in Amsterdam have no problems with having bike lanes - they know that only very few cars are physically able to park in front of their store, and that their customers either generally live close by, or are tourists walking through town.

Re: Parking, yes it is available everywhere, but Amsterdam has one of the highest parking costs of any city in the Netherlands - also again to reduce the amount of cars in the city center and discourage their use.

Bike lanes don't prevent crucial business deliveries because said trucks will just park on the bike lanes, street, or sidewalk - cyclists are agile, they can go around.

Re: Cycling Lessons Learned from Amsterdam

#44

Post by Cthulhu_ »

logician76 wrote: post #14

Being dutch I think that the roads that share bikes and cars in the Netherlands are actually not by design but by necessity. Especially in Amsterdam where there simply is not enough space. If you look in rural areas if there is room, they are always seperated. In the cases where there is no room, the buildings and/or streets are usually historically protected as monuments and will not be demolish-able to make more ro…

They're either separated, or it's simply not needed because cars can hardly get to their 50 km/h speed limit.

Re: Cycling Lessons Learned from Amsterdam

#45

Post by jchrisa »

roel_v wrote: post #24
205guy wrote: post #20

I'm glad this article is looking at many factors that are involved in making cities cyclable and walkable. But it seems it is missing one huge factor: the average size of vehicles in the US. It works in Europe because city cars and delivery vans are small (as illustrated in the photos). Of course this is also because of the design and growth of the city predating motor vehicles. In the US, the sunk cost in oversized…

Only partially true. It's true that there aren't that many F150's driving around here (in absolute numbers), then again how many people drive those in American suburbia? Dutch car's aren't, on average, smaller than Camry's or Priuses.

You'd probably be shocked if you saw how many vehicles are giant empty haulers.

Re: Cycling Lessons Learned from Amsterdam

#46

Post by junto »

I live in a German city that is very bike friendly. The priority goes like this:

- tram

- bike

- pedestrian

- car

If you are driving and arrive at a T- junction for example, you need to give way to pedestrians and bicycles on the primary route, and then check for other vehicles.

Coming from the UK, this was a shock to the system. We were used to pedestrians giving way to us, unless there was a proper zebra style crossing, and even then that was somewhat voluntary. This switch around of priority is important in calming traffic and subscribes to the moto of "go at the pace of the slowest". It works rather well in my opinion.

Re: Cycling Lessons Learned from Amsterdam

#47

Post by Cthulhu_ »

D_Alex wrote: post #26

I don't know about Vancouver, but here in Australia you must wear a bike helmet when riding a bike. That stops many people riding bikes (please do not argue about this, it has been done to death), and unfortunately has - probably - had the unintended effect of worsening public health. The pictures from the article show not a single person wearing a helmet... there is a lesson here I'd like the Australian regulaors to…

Cycling is relatively safe, and especially given that most people in NL have done it since they could barely stand, cycling is like second nature. It's relatively easy to prevent accidents on bicycles - you can stop quickly and such. And if you do fall, falling on your head only happens if you make a bad or unfortunate fall.

(I've had... about three serious bike accidents - fell on my head once (ow), broke my arm (ow), and drove into a rock I didn't see, causing a cut on my arm (pain. And plenty of blood).

But, three accidents, of which only one would've warranted a helmet, none of which happened in the past 15 years, are not nearly enough reason for me to wear a helmet on my bicycle. And that's how everyone else feels, too. Statistics will back me up (tens of millions of bike rides a year, only a handful of fatal head-injuries)

Re: Cycling Lessons Learned from Amsterdam

#48

Post by analog31 »

roel_v wrote: post #24
205guy wrote: post #20

I'm glad this article is looking at many factors that are involved in making cities cyclable and walkable. But it seems it is missing one huge factor: the average size of vehicles in the US. It works in Europe because city cars and delivery vans are small (as illustrated in the photos). Of course this is also because of the design and growth of the city predating motor vehicles. In the US, the sunk cost in oversized…

Only partially true. It's true that there aren't that many F150's driving around here (in absolute numbers), then again how many people drive those in American suburbia? Dutch car's aren't, on average, smaller than Camry's or Priuses.

You'd be shocked. There have been years when Ford's F series pickup trucks were the best selling car in the US. Most are bought for passenger use. In my hometown, south of Detroit, virtually every other car is a full size pickup truck.

Re: Cycling Lessons Learned from Amsterdam

#49

Post by coloroadie »

One more: Most Dutch don't feel the need to dress in bright colored lycra uniforms and ride $6,000 racing bicycles simply to commute to work. I'm American and an amateur racer, but I wear normal clothing when commuting to work. I'm not sure why so many Americans feel the need to "kit up" for the daily commute. I think it actually turns a lot of would-be commuters off.

Re: Cycling Lessons Learned from Amsterdam

#50

Post by Someone »

bash-j wrote: post #37

If you liked this article you would probably enjoy the BicycleDutch youtube channel, filled with lots of great videos about cycling in the Netherlands. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC67YlPrRvsO117gFDM7UePg

The videos are great, but the blog (https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/) is more informative, combining text with the videos, and adding search facilities (the by theme one in particular is useful)
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