Earlier in March, I used to be lucky sufficient to go to Amsterdam, for the launch of Maap’s first retailer in Europe. Extra on that quickly, however a visit to Amsterdam meant I received to expertise a mecca of biking for the primary time, as an grownup, anyway.
I nonetheless don’t understand how zebra crossings within the Netherlands work. Vehicles cease, pedestrians cease, however bikes preserve whizzing by way of. This may not be fairly authorized, but it surely felt instructive of how vital cyclists are right here. Aside from Copenhagen, I’m undecided I’ve ever been wherever the place being a bike owner seems like such a standard, peculiar factor. It made me glad, and it made me unhappy that UK cities really feel so removed from this, in the primary.
Individuals trip their kids to highschool, they use their bike to get to work, to the pub, or to the store. Once they get there, the bikes are locked as much as a railing, a lamppost, or simply left outdoors. This most valuable factor, everybody’s technique of getting round, is so ubiquitous that worry of motorcycle theft is low.
Biking across the Dutch metropolis by no means felt harmful, due to an intuitive community of cycle paths, low visitors zones and infrastructure that put cyclists first. It felt chaotic, positive, however that was solely as a result of sheer variety of individuals on two wheels – don’t dawdle within the cycle lane, whether or not you’re on foot or on a motorcycle.
I didn’t see a single crash in three days, such is the normality of bikes simply being all over the place right here. In the event you misjudge a junction barely, anticipate a ding of a bell, and for somebody to swerve round you, but it surely all feels pure, as clean because it could possibly be. It feels a great distance from the snarled up automobile visitors we’re used to, and the aggression and hazard that comes with it
(Picture credit score: Alberto Viciana)
These are simply individuals in common garments, on common, heavy bikes, with out helmets. Why hassle when the whole lot simply works? Biking is enjoyable, but it surely’s simply the norm in Amsterdam. What a dream that looks like.
Simply final week, our authorities within the UK relaunched its “plan for drivers”, with the transport secretary, Mark Harper, stressing that the Conservatives are “on the aspect of drivers”. This primarily takes the type of persevering with its crackdown on low visitors neighbourhoods and different energetic journey measures, however in actuality, what it does first is proceed to make us cyclists really feel like second class residents.
The concept that we don’t belong on the highway isn’t distant. The final time I used to be on a bunch trip, I used to be close-passed with breathtaking regularity, with an added bonus of being squirted with windscreen washer fluid as soon as – it was not a coincidence. The federal government’s rhetoric, and the shortage of correct motion on making biking higher on this nation, results in drivers feeling emboldened, feeling like they personal the highway. It couldn’t be additional away from my Dutch expertise, the place the bike was king.
I’m positive I’m preaching to the transformed right here, however how I miss the emptier roads of the pandemic years. Now, the UK feels extra car-centric than ever, with little hope of the dramatic tradition shift that will be wanted for that to vary. Bike theft stays a critical difficulty, as does infrastructure, as do potholes, as does our proper to be on the highway. If we’re ever critical about a greater world, then energetic journey seems like a central a part of that. For the time being, an important biking future looks like an unrealistic dream. Possibly we must always all simply transfer to Amsterdam.
