Biking in Amsterdam

Over the weekend, I got to travel to Amsterdam for a few days with two friends, Byron and Ben. We used the trip as a vacation from our schooling abroad in Rome, however Amsterdam was much too interesting not to "study." I could start endlessly listing off things about the city that I enjoyed such as the nice people, incredible canal system, delicious food, or awesome museums, but that might take forever. One specific thing about Amsterdam that I loved and thought about constantly while there was the biking culture and system.

I have never seen so many people commuting around a city on bicycles. I learned quickly the first couple of hours that I was in the city that it was more important to look for bicyclists when crossing a street rather than looking for cars. From my weekend experience in Amsterdam, I observed that there were way more people on bikes than in cars, which resulted in more bike traffic than vehicle traffic. There was actually not a single time that I saw vehicle traffic even remotely. However, in the mornings and afternoon/evening times, there were bikes moving down the street almost tire to tire.

The main reason in my mind that caused this higher use of bikes in Amsterdam was its impressive biking lane system. Every road had a designated lane for bicycles to safely and quickly ride around town. The sketch diagram shown below is a plan view of what the streets this size looked like. A smaller street would look essentially the same, minus the tram portion in the center of the road.

This was one of the most memorable experiences while in Amsterdam. I admire the successful street system that they have, which incorporates the comfort of the driver, bicyclist, and the pedestrian while providing public transportation as well. Amsterdam seems to know what they are doing. Below are just a few more sketches of mine from Amsterdam just because I liked the city so much.    Ciao!