Head on a Swivel in Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a wonderful city. It’s full of fun, happy people. They’re a bit crazy about bicycles, but I applaud them for it! Every time we crossed a major street near our hotel, we would comment how much we love this city due to the available transit options. We used the phrase “head on a swivel” remind us to look both ways for oncoming traffic as there were many more lanes of traffic in the Netherlands than we were used to seeing.

1. You had to be mindful of oncoming pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk.
2. You would cross the bike lane, to make it to the “safe zone 1” before the street.
3. You would then cross the street at a crosswalk where the cars would actually stop for you (but fearing they wouldn’t, you’re always extra careful), before making it to “safe zone 2”.
4. Then swivel around some more to make sure the light rail isn’t coming on either track from either direction, before making it to “safe zone 3”.
5. It’s time to do this in reverse, crossing the street again, getting to “safe zone 4”.
6. Next is the other bike lane.
7. Finally to the other sidewalk.

Traffic in the bike lanes and sidewalks travel in both directions, so you have to be vigilant.  Here is a screenshot from Google Maps and I tried to illustrate this for you.

All in all, it was a great experience and we learned a little more about how more of the world should design it’s roadways and how other transit options should/could be adopted. The US could learn a lot from Amsterdam.