Every Child's Dream

I would like to give all of you a rundown of the cycling community in The Netherlands. Everyone rides a bike. I mean everyone; men, women, children, elderly, wealthy people, and poor college students alike. It has nothing to do with social status, it is simply the quickest way to get from point A to point B. It seems as if people don't actually care how nice their bike is.

Today I saw a man in a 3 piece suit, overcoat, and Louis Vuitton "European shoulder bag" talking on his blackberry while riding a (pardon my language) POS bike. I wouldn't be caught dead on this rusted out poor excuse of transportation but there he was, just riding along enjoying his phone conversation.

There are roughly 17 million people living in the Netherlands with approximately 20 million bicycles. Parking a bike is like trying to find a parking spot during the first week of class at WMU. Nearly impossible and when you finally do find a parking spot, you end up a quarter mile from where you need to be. People park bikes anywhere and everywhere they can. I saw a bike locked to the door of a KFC at 2:00pm. Yes, the KFC was open and operating at the time.

Also, in "Central" which is what they call the downtown area of the city, bikes take precedent over everything. Cars slow down and pedestrians get out of the way when bikes are crossing the street. Some bikers are completely oblivious to their surroundings. With an Ipod blaring or in mid conversation on a phone, at any given time a biker could give a quick hand signal and shoot across the street without any thought of personal safety.

At first it was a little overwhelming to see a two lane-bike path with a painted center line, but then it hit me. Riding a bike in Utrecht is AWESOME! It's a playground for people who haven't quite grown out of adolescence. Granted, these are Euro bikes (similar to your grandmothers bike from 1950) so you can't exactly hit jumps or cruise at high speeds. But, you can enjoy a nice cruise with minimal stops and virtually no rules.

Like I said earlier, everyone owns a bike. There are no arguments over who will drive or who didn't pay for gas. We just hop on our second hand bikes and go. Whether we are riding to the University or to a local watering hole, I think deep down everyone has a moment of gratification knowing that this is real. Much like the feeling that child gets after being allowed to leave the neighborhood for the first time on a bike.