Amsterdam is the City of Bikes — the Bicycle Capital of the World. Tourists marvel at the number of bikes they see, and the way people use them.
Bicycles have in fact become one of Amsterdam’s tourist attractions. There is at least one bike for every one of the 837,000 Amsterdammers.
Currently, 68% of traffic to and from work or school is by bike, and bikes account for 36 percent of all traffic movements in Amsterdam.
Bicycle theft is a fact of life in Amsterdam. Here’s what Amsterdammers do to try and prevent their bikes from getting stolen.
Plus: what to do when your bicycle does go missing. Hint: It may have been removed by Civil Enforcement Officers.
New: Faster removal of illegally parked or ‘abandoned’ bikes. Updated!
A possible solution for the tsunami of bicycles flooding Leidseplein, the center of Amsterdam’s entertainment district: above-canal parking structures.
It wouldn’t be the first such structure. The one at Central Station has become quite a tourist attraction.
You’d be surprised how many bicycles a years fall, or are tossed, into the canals of Amsterdam.
The city’s Water Authority has a special bike fishing unit.
Amsterdam was made for bicycling.
Well, actually, the 700+ year-old city’s narrow streets were made for pedestrians, horse-draw carts, push carts and boats, but bicycles fit this city to a T
One third of working Amsterdammers commutes to and from work on a bicycle.
Of the nearly 128.000 people, 120.000 work in the city and 8.000 work outside Amsterdam.
In Amsterdam bicycling is seen primarily as the best way to get from point A to point B in a 700+ years old city that was not designed for heavy traffic.
But tourists also view cycling in Amsterdam as a tourist attraction — either as a fun activity or a spectator sport.