People seem to enjoy seeing these, and my wife and I were in Amsterdam recently, so here are some more pictures of the bike parking situation there. I'm still amazed at the bike culture.

These were all taken outside the central railway station. This was a bike parking garage, like for cars, but actually for bicycles. I don't know how people got their bikes in or out of some of these spots, or how they locked them. They weren't always locked. There were also multi-level racks.

Anyway... Enjoy...

I like the the japanese auto-mechanical parking better, but i would like to have either in NY!

Nice pics. Very European. It is interesting to see how different the commuter bikes are over there. Lots of old SS bikes of types you never see in the US.

They're all locked. Well, virtually all, just not locked _to_ anything. they have little flip locks that go through the back wheel.

I miss the valet parking I had when I was teaching in Hanoi. Cost about $0.08 which is a lot less than that japanese auto-mechanical parking thing, less likely to damage your bike and very secure. Of course the cost of labor was less.

I enjoy seeing the creative things people do to make their own bike easier to spot.
Colorful panniers, weirdo seat covers, zebra effect white electrical tape (pic 1).

I also use the rear wheel lock when I can remember to engage it. Bike theft fequency varies dramatically across Holland. The key is to not love the bike you leave outside.

I was in Amsterdam just last week. I've never seen anything like it. The bike culture there is incredible! Out of the thousands and thousands of bikes I saw, maybe a dozen were road bikes. I have a couple of pics I'll post when I get them off my camera. I saw many people use a cool rear wheel locking mechanism, which is why many were not locked to anything. I saw others put chains around the frame and rear wheel. I guess you eventually run out of things to lock your bike too b/c 10000000 other bikes beat you to it so you come up with other ways to try and secure your bike. Very clever!

It's funny to read that people are amazed about something that for me (a dutchy ) is so normal.
Currently I have to travel about 20 km's from door to door for my job. When the weather is good, I'm taking a bike. But when the weather is bad like today I ride to the station with my bike, park it there, take the train to the other city and there I've parked an other old bike (otherwise some one might steel it) and again ride for about 5 minutes. Doing this is the fastes way (much faster than taking a car) to get on my working spot and a lot of people do it like this. That's why there are so many bikes at the stations.
And yes, I'm parking my bike between all those other bikes, and yes sometimes it's a little hard to find it back


Ohw, if you wanna see/buy a dutch bike: https://www.marktplaats.nl/index.php?...tsen/c453.html

"Bike culture" is a bit of a misnomer. Bikes are tools for getting around; very few people would identify as a "cyclist." Most of those bikes are the equivalent of the cheap Walmart bikes we deride, and the theft rate is sky-high.

Not to knock the place, but it's hardly the bicycle panacea that many Americans on this forum seem to think it is. The really great part is just having so many people on bikes.

The fact that so many people are on bikes IS what makes for a great "bike culture." No one said anything about how the bikes are all high-end equipment. Lots of people riding there = a strong bike culture.

I was there earlier this year. I didn't see a single bike with drop bars. Nothing fancy, just cheap utilitarian bikes. The nice part about the place is how common it is and integrated into the transportation system. There are plenty of dedicated bike lanes, and huge parking areas for bikes. It is normal to travel that way. In the U.S., it is considered by most an odd way to get around. I can't imagine that bikers in Amsterdam get yelled at the get off the road and on the sidewalk as much as they do in the U.S.

That's culture just like construction workers are into "hammer culture."

There's a good population of people who ride bikes as transportation, but that isn't a culture.

It's not European cycling "culture" we should envy; it's the infrastructure, the prevalence, and the city planning that enables people to get around on bikes.

I thought an activity practiced by many and encouraged by the government could be considered a part of that community's culture. I guess I was wrong.

You're making a needless distinction here. Infrastructure, prevalence, city planning - these are all things done by a culture that values bike riding as a means of transportation.

Bikes are a part of the culture, of course, but that's not what you and others said in the first place. Amsterdam and other cities have taken steps to enable bicycles to be used as effective transportation. Is there "bus culture" and "taxi culture" in the US? Europeans don't use bicycles more than us because of "bike culture" or because they like bicycles more than Americans, they do it more because it's easier.

Bike culture certainly may exist somewhere, but if you insist on using the word "culture" you'd be much better off referring to fixed-gear riders or roadies or a group like that that implies some group with some sort of actual cohesion.

Interesting. What kind of lighting on most Dutch bikes? I believe that in Germany dynamo lighting is required on all new transportation bikes sold. Only lightweight sports bikes are excluded per my understanding.

Most bikes use a dynamo with a light like this: https://www.halfords.nl/NL/Fiets/Cata...oductId=705001
But, because those wires are really sensitive for errors led lights are also really popular.


About that bike culture thing, everyone has at lease one bicycle in the Netherlands. And we use it mostly for short trips in the city. So if you are going to visit a friend that lives in the same city you pick your old cheap bike for that 15 min's trip. Those people don't identifie them self as a 'cyclist', bikes are just to common here in the Netherlands.
cyclers are those people with a racing/mtb bike, who uses it for exercise or use it for longer trips then that 15 min's to a friend or the supermarket trip.

Ohw, and a picture of a common typical dutch bike

Very true. Kind of like cars are a HUGE part of our culture here in the US, regardless of what "kind" of car you're driving. And we use this said car for transportation, sounds like how many in Amsterdam use the bike.