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.
- You had to be mindful of oncoming pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk.
- You would cross the bike lane, to make it to the “safe zone 1” before the street.
- 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”.
- 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”.
- It’s time to do this in reverse, crossing the street again, getting to “safe zone 4”.
- Next is the other bike lane.
- 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.
