Discussion on:

Do the Dutch have too many cyclists?

Another thing Amsterdam has to invest in on education. Cyclist are not required to learn absolutely nothing before getting in their bikes and hit the roads, that, mixed with the fact that cyclist for some strange reason tend to think they have all the rights in the road create lots of problems for pedestrians, car drivers and even other cyclists. Living in Amsterdam and being a pedestrian, a car driver and a cyclist I have found myself with cyclists driving agains the traffic in one way streets, parking on the walkway (even in front of my apartment door, just because I live next to a shoes store and they HAVE to park), almost getting hit by a bike that did not respected a red light, bikes using the walk cross just not to wait for their own line to open, bikes crossing the assigned bike lane to pass others driving right in front of my car, bike with no lights, etc, etc. etc. A basic street etiquette and rules of the road SHOULD and MUST be enforced for the sake and safety of all of us on the road. Of course we need a much more strict control over scooters drivers.....a complete different kind of human beings or almost human beings

sdb2012: It's not a road, it's a public place.

Sell your car and stop being so grumpy!

Imagine the air pollution and highway sprawl if all those cyclists were in automobiles.

im dutch and i encounter these problems everyday, but traffic jams caused by cyclists still seems better to me then it being caused by cars... They shouldnt complain so much, but they should be thankful that, although these problems arise from time to time, still so many people take the bike, rather then a car. Its terrible that people wanna change these habbits...

"Traffic congestion, parking difficulties, and road rage. Those are some of the problems we typically associate with motor vehicles in cities. But in the Netherlands, many cities are running into these problems because of an overabundance of bicycles."

Too funny...

Parking space needed, not for cars but for bikes.
In the utopian city everything is on walking distance, so why hurry? Civil logistics urban plan is inherited from the Dutch golden age.........
Changes are going very slow......

The days of one person per bike are coming to an end in this bicycle commuter clogged nation. HOV like lanes must be set up to encourage multiple riders per bike. Come on people, time to share that ride! If that doesn't happen soon, the congestion on the roads will surely spark more bicycle road rage. I can see water bottle fights breaking out. Total chaos, but at least it won't be car-nage.

I'm sorry, I won't do this again, but please ride safe and wear your helmet.

Let's settle for tandem bike lanes. Two people pedalling a bike, well co-ordinated, are well able to attain higher speed than the rest of us. On the other hand, I have a friend who elected to race tandem in the ABA championships in the Ozarks, and contacted a co-rider by telephone. They won two gold medals, and the co-rider was blind!

Helmets don't and won't make utility cycling in the Netherlands any safer...

Why don't they build some parking decks for the bikes. I can think of many ways it could be done to utilize premium space and still be attractive and efficient. Using lifts too, to go vertical. Use fees could allow this to pay for itself. Just a thought. I live in America. It is dangerous to use a bike where I live. Now that is truly sad.

The Dutch have build an enormous amount of bicycle parking. Just as with car parking, the more you build, the more people want it.

of transportation they use. I remember enormous cycle jams in Beijing 30 years ago, and many, many instances of road rage leading to fisticuffs and huge arguments with the traffic police. Here in Stockholm, where I've been biking for more than four decades, an increasing number of cyclists (IMO a great good thing), combined with an utterly inadequate cycling infrastructure, has led to problems of the type described in the article. Bicycles - and bicycle infrastructure are much cheaper than motor cars and motor car infrastructure - and promote better health and have less deleterious consequences for the urban environment as a whole - but they are are not, and should not be expected to be, free for city planners and administrators....

Henri

The end of fossil fuel is not going to be solved with wind turbines and biofueled vehicles -- except if we really do obtain an infrastructure that supports the level of efficiency that bicycles exemplify. One requirement is a bicycle road network entirely separate from faster vehicles and from pedestrians. Washington DC has a bicycle rental scheme, although I have not used it.