Amsterdam’s bicycle culture at stake

This article was meant as an April Fool’s Day article. Read more at the bottom of this article.

This article is about bicycling in the true global bicycle capital: Amsterdam. But I will not write about success stories, I will write about a negative process which will only harm the most environmental friendly mobility. Amsterdam rocks a 34% bicycle modal share, an enormous share compared to EU averages, especially considering the size of the city (ca. 800.000 inhabitants). The vast amounts of bicycle infrastructure together with a mindset of the traffic road user and car restricting policies make the bicycle truly the fastest modality in Amsterdam.

The modal split of some large cities. Source: Pucher & Buehler, 2012

The city is an example of a successful bicycle city and its policies are copied around the world. There even is a Dutch Bicycle Embassy (Idea inspired by Denmark). But things are changing, in a way that the city will not deserve to carry the title of bicycle capital. These changes are a reaction to the so called lawlessness of bicycling in the city (see video, in which it is praised). These unwritten rules are known for the citizens, but unknown for the outsider. Every Amsterdam citizen knows that traffic lights are not meant for them, that ringing a bell to warn his or her approach to a group of tourists is useless as they will only start to run panicky in circles, that they always have right of way, on pedestrian crossings and versus cars or any other moving vehicle including other bicycles. Every wall or pole is a potential parking space, even that little space between two bicycles in a rack can be used, especially at the Central Station three layer parking deck. People have no idea rules actually exist, as they do not have any drivers license (I also don’t, so why should I care about rules) and cycling home completely drunk from a party, not remembering anything of the way home, including the trip to the shoarma fastfood joint, is completely normal and the weekend’s stories of losing the way in Amsterdam-West and Osdorp are shared on the Mondays either at work or in class.

Therefore the traffic agency of the municipality has decided that drastic changes are needed. After the idea by the city centre district to put chips into all bicycles to counter illegal parking, the proposal to introduce paid bicycle parking and adding number plates to bikes. Their latest Mobility Plan consist of a future set of strategies to counter the previously mentioned lawlessness and anarchistic bicycling for once and for all. Lets take a look at the most destructive components of the plan:

Cleaning the canals in 1963 (picture by ANP Historisch Archief)

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