I have cycled in a few countries - Malaysia (of course), Indonesia, Brazil, UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand...it goes without saying that the easiest and safest place to cycle is the Netherlands. It is a country where bike lanes is central to the city planning. It is also perfect for the lazy cyclist like me as it is a very very flat country.
They actually nearly loss these bicycle lanes when there were more cars and the need to sacrifice some bike lanes to satisfy the ever expanding car population. Then in the 70's there was a huge movement against this trend and since, then the government has placed the needs of the pedestrian and bikes first in the city planning. 56% of Dutch bike to work making them the highest in the world followed by Denmark.
Many have asked me how do you bike in the Netherlands - what are some of the etiquettes or rules? Here is a small list of the key ones I reckon that once I knew them (through trial and error) has helped made my cycling experience a lot easier and enjoyable. No. 1 and 2 are the ones that took me sometime to understand.
1. Crossing junctions with bike traffic lights. You should only cross the junctions with bike traffic lights following the flow of the car traffic. Difficult? eg if you want to turn left, don't turn left just like a pedestrian at the end of the junction, but you need to go straight and at the junction, press the traffic light button. Cross the road once light is green. Once across, then you see another traffic light button on the left. Press it, once green you cross the road and now you have legally turned left. A tip: if you dont see a bike traffic button to press, then you should not cross there - that is the wrong place to cross.
2. Crossing without traffic lights in bike lanes. Many times when you are on bike lanes, you need to cross the road and there are some rules to this. At the end of your bike lane you will see a set of triangles painted on the road. The pointed part of the triangles will either face you or the motorists. Where the triangle point to, the person has to stop and give the other the right of way. Hence, if the triangle is on the bike lane, the motorist has the right of way and vice verca.
3. There will be scooters that share the bike lane with you. It is legal for them to do so - these scooters have blue registration plates. Their maximum speed limit is 35km/h and a lot of them ride above that. They also don't need to wear a helmet.
4. You must not cycle on people pedestrian walks - this is illegal. No one will fine you, but this is disrespectful. So, dismount from your bike and walk with your bikes. You will see many will still ride them, but I find this not nice to do.
5. The signboards in Europe is peculiar...for prohibited sign - it will show the icon in the middle with a red bold circle around it WITHOUT the diagonal line across it. Hence, if you see a bike icon with a red circle around it, it means you are not supposed to cycle there. Another sign is where you see an adult holding a child with blue background...you shall not cycle here as well. Many no entry signs will have a supplementary sign at the bottom of the red circle with icons of bicycle and scooter and the word 'uitzegondered' which means the no entry applies to all vehicle except for bicycles and scooters.
6. Parking your bikes. Lock your bikes. You need to lock your bikes with the best locks you can get. If not it may not be there when you get back. I use 'supermarket' bikes and hence, not much pressure to over do this, unless if I am leaving it for sometime such as at the train station.
You can park your bikes almost everywhere. At train stations, they have double stack rack to park your bikes (mostly for free) or a secured parking for a fee and in some places even the secured bike parking are free. It takes some figuring out how to place your bike on the top stack. You pull out the frame which will slide outwards and downwards towards you. You load your bike on top, lock your bike and put the frame back into position.
7. When it gets dark you must switch on lights by law. So make sure you do this, as people have been fined (not often) for not doing this.
8. Bike rental - there are plenty of this with most you can just walk in and rent at most large train stations with reasonable price. Even during peak summer, we were able to book for bicycles. Best to book, I guess - but I have not done this before.
9. Helmets - Dutch don't wear bike helmets except the children and foreigners who have been used to it. I do not have a good explanation for this. The rational I guess is that motorist are very careful with cyclist as they will get the sympathy vote if there is an accident and the infrastructure of separating the traffic support this rational as well. On both counts the reasoning are mute, but that is the best way I can defent why they do so.
10. After cycling for 2 years, I am still not clear who has the right of way between the pedestrian and cyclists. I think by law, the pedestrian has the right of way, but in practice, you will rarely see a cyclist slowing down or stopping for the poor pedestrian.
They actually nearly loss these bicycle lanes when there were more cars and the need to sacrifice some bike lanes to satisfy the ever expanding car population. Then in the 70's there was a huge movement against this trend and since, then the government has placed the needs of the pedestrian and bikes first in the city planning. 56% of Dutch bike to work making them the highest in the world followed by Denmark.
Many have asked me how do you bike in the Netherlands - what are some of the etiquettes or rules? Here is a small list of the key ones I reckon that once I knew them (through trial and error) has helped made my cycling experience a lot easier and enjoyable. No. 1 and 2 are the ones that took me sometime to understand.
1. Crossing junctions with bike traffic lights. You should only cross the junctions with bike traffic lights following the flow of the car traffic. Difficult? eg if you want to turn left, don't turn left just like a pedestrian at the end of the junction, but you need to go straight and at the junction, press the traffic light button. Cross the road once light is green. Once across, then you see another traffic light button on the left. Press it, once green you cross the road and now you have legally turned left. A tip: if you dont see a bike traffic button to press, then you should not cross there - that is the wrong place to cross.
2. Crossing without traffic lights in bike lanes. Many times when you are on bike lanes, you need to cross the road and there are some rules to this. At the end of your bike lane you will see a set of triangles painted on the road. The pointed part of the triangles will either face you or the motorists. Where the triangle point to, the person has to stop and give the other the right of way. Hence, if the triangle is on the bike lane, the motorist has the right of way and vice verca.
3. There will be scooters that share the bike lane with you. It is legal for them to do so - these scooters have blue registration plates. Their maximum speed limit is 35km/h and a lot of them ride above that. They also don't need to wear a helmet.
4. You must not cycle on people pedestrian walks - this is illegal. No one will fine you, but this is disrespectful. So, dismount from your bike and walk with your bikes. You will see many will still ride them, but I find this not nice to do.
5. The signboards in Europe is peculiar...for prohibited sign - it will show the icon in the middle with a red bold circle around it WITHOUT the diagonal line across it. Hence, if you see a bike icon with a red circle around it, it means you are not supposed to cycle there. Another sign is where you see an adult holding a child with blue background...you shall not cycle here as well. Many no entry signs will have a supplementary sign at the bottom of the red circle with icons of bicycle and scooter and the word 'uitzegondered' which means the no entry applies to all vehicle except for bicycles and scooters.
6. Parking your bikes. Lock your bikes. You need to lock your bikes with the best locks you can get. If not it may not be there when you get back. I use 'supermarket' bikes and hence, not much pressure to over do this, unless if I am leaving it for sometime such as at the train station.
You can park your bikes almost everywhere. At train stations, they have double stack rack to park your bikes (mostly for free) or a secured parking for a fee and in some places even the secured bike parking are free. It takes some figuring out how to place your bike on the top stack. You pull out the frame which will slide outwards and downwards towards you. You load your bike on top, lock your bike and put the frame back into position.
7. When it gets dark you must switch on lights by law. So make sure you do this, as people have been fined (not often) for not doing this.
8. Bike rental - there are plenty of this with most you can just walk in and rent at most large train stations with reasonable price. Even during peak summer, we were able to book for bicycles. Best to book, I guess - but I have not done this before.
9. Helmets - Dutch don't wear bike helmets except the children and foreigners who have been used to it. I do not have a good explanation for this. The rational I guess is that motorist are very careful with cyclist as they will get the sympathy vote if there is an accident and the infrastructure of separating the traffic support this rational as well. On both counts the reasoning are mute, but that is the best way I can defent why they do so.
10. After cycling for 2 years, I am still not clear who has the right of way between the pedestrian and cyclists. I think by law, the pedestrian has the right of way, but in practice, you will rarely see a cyclist slowing down or stopping for the poor pedestrian.
