Blog

Biking In America Versus the Netherlands

in The Too Busy to Diet Blog on August 22, 2015

Biking: America Versus Amsterdam

This spring I was very fortunate to make a trip to the Netherlands with my husband, sister, and brother-in-law. We started our journey in Amsterdam where we experienced the enthusiastic biking of natives who use bikes as their major mode of transportation. Biking in Amsterdam is very different than in America where biking is mostly for recreation and not a mode of daily transportation.

In Amsterdam there are many babies on bikes. They begin their lives riding on the back seats of bikes, helmetless. They are also used to seeing bikes all over the city from the time they are born. They see people using cell phones while biking, eating while biking, and carrying groceries and laundry while biking.

One of our tour guides told us that she and her husband had seven bikes and no cars. They often vacationed in other countries on their bikes, and rented cars when they needed a faster mode of transportation.
In America, biking is more seasonal and rarely do you see a biker in the rain or snow. In Amsterdam, rain and snow make no difference to bikers. They continue to bike regardless of the weather and do so comfortably.

Another difference is that biking is an ageless form of transportation. Where biking tends to end in adolescence when it is not “cool to bike” in America, biking continues into old age in Amsterdam. It is very common to see seniors biking throughout the city.
Those in Amsterdam find biking in America to be crazy. While they often wear their Sunday finest on their bikes, in America we wear helmets and special bike wear. And they are used to seeing their mail delivery by bike instead of truck.

The use of helmets is rarely seen in the Netherlands. Despite their lack of helmet use, they have the lowest incidence of cycling injury and death in the world. In the Netherlands people cycle in a more leisurely fashion, the roads are more biking friendly, and children are taught bike safety at a very young age.

It is interesting to see the influence of biking on the incidence of obesity in the Netherlands versus the United States. In the Netherlands, 10% of the population is obese. In the United States it is 33.5%.
Maybe we need to rethink our use of cars in Chicago and other cities across the United States. The next time you are sitting in traffic getting to work, perhaps it might be productive to consider trading in our cars for bikes.