Orange Bike. Amsterdam
by Jenny Rainbow
Title
Orange Bike. Amsterdam
Artist
Jenny Rainbow
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Amsterdam is the most bicycle-friendly capital city in the world. In Amsterdam, over 60% of trips are made by bike in the inner city and 38% of trips are made by bike overall in the greater city area.
Though to people outside of the Netherlands, Amsterdam is considered one of most famous and important centres of bicycle culture worldwide, in contrast to other, smaller Dutch cities, Amsterdam is actually not at the top in terms of bike-friendliness. For instance, Amsterdam is not on the short-list for the Fietsstad 2014 (BikeCity 2014) awards, announced by the Dutch Fietsersbond (Cyclists' Union). The cities of The Hague, Eindhoven and Almere are on this list for 2014 while the Netherlands' most bicycle-friendly city of Groningen won the award back in 2001. For bicycle-friendliness, we must consider the Netherlands as whole.
As is common in Dutch cities, Amsterdam has a wide net of traffic-calmed streets and world-class facilities for cyclists. All around are bike paths and bike racks, and several guarded bicycle parking stations (Fietsenstalling) which can be used for a nominal fee. In 2006, there were about 1,000,000 bicycles in Amsterdam.
Bicycles are used by all socio-economic groups because of they are quick from A to B, their convenience, Amsterdam's small size, the 400 km of bike paths,[5] the flat terrain, and the arguable inconvenience of driving an automobile: driving a car is discouraged, parking fees are expensive, and many streets are closed to cars or are one-way.[6] Amsterdam's bike paths (Fietspad) are coloured brown, in order to differentiate it from a footpath.
Amsterdammers ride a wide variety of bicycles including the traditional Omafiets - the ubiquitous Dutch roadster with a step-through frame - to anything from modern city bikes, road bikes, mountain bikes, and even recumbent bikes.
Many tourists discover Amsterdam by bike, as it is the typical Dutch way to get around the city. Bicycle tour groups offers a guided bike tour through the city. Bicycle traffic, in fact traffic in general, is relatively safe: in 2007, Amsterdam had 18 traffic deaths, of all types, in total.[7]
Unfortunately, bicycle theft in Amsterdam is widespread: in 2005, about 54,000 bicycles were stolen and every year between 12,000 and 15,000 bicycles are retrieved from the canals
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December 8th, 2013
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Viewed 636 Times - Last Visitor from Syosset, NY on 04/09/2024 at 5:21 PM
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Comments (8)
Jane Small
More colour and a brilliant depiction of "orange". The bike stands out beautifully in this street setting against the grey bricks. This used to be my favourite colour when I was growing up and it was interesting to read your description of it on the rainbow umbrella image.Very atmospheric glimpse of an Amsterdam street. v/f
Hany Jadaa
Fantastic depiction of the everyday life in Amsterdam. I heard about these orange bikes. Lovely capture; and a wonderful read as usual Jenny. Very informative.
Inge Riis McDonald
Another excellent image - depicting another side of the city that normally is shown in tourist brochures. I do enjoy photos that tell a story.
Michel Verhoef
Between the chaos you always can rely on the bike...especially an orange one...being our royal color :))
Jenny Rainbow replied:
Of course you are right, Michel, its an orange bike :-) Thank you! I changed the name :-))
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