It's a common theme among bike advocates in the U.S. to celebrate Amsterdam, and the Netherlands more generally, as an especially bike-friendly place. If
Davis, California, sets the official "
platinum" standard here in the states, then Amsterdam--or so the conventional wisdom goes--must be at least double platinum. Amsterdam, after all, is famously home to double-tiered bike racks, a "white bikes" program for borrowing public bicycles a la books in a library, and
Velo Mondial, a global organization devoted to promoting a more "bicycle friendly" world. More importantly, it seems--at least to visiting Americans--that
everyone rides a bike there,
everywhere, and they do so not all kitted out for a weekend club ride but just as a part of their daily routine. The following links are but two recent examples of American visitors enamored with Amsterdam's ubiquitous bike culture:
This Amsterdam love-fest has recently appeared on an urban-geography e-mail list to which I subscribe. The discussion continues as I write, but it has basically boiled down to Americans claiming that Amsterdam is the most livable city ever--especially for bicyclists--while Dutch commentators respond by raining some "truth" on their parade. As
Marco Bontje of the Universiteit van Amsterdam wrote: "Once again I am stunned about the indestructible tendency among foreign urbanists to see my country and my city as heaven on earth!". Dr. Bontje went on to dispel a number of common myths. To summarize, while comparing favorably perhaps to the United States, Amsterdam and the Netherlands are not fundamentally different: the Dutch love their cars, they drive their cars wherever/whenever practical, they get fatter and fatter with each passing year, and politically they demand ever more parking with each new development. In short, as Bontje writes, "Car-free cities do not exist here, at least not that I'm aware of. We only have pedestrian zones that usually are not bigger than a few streets, and one 'car-free Sunday'’ a year, a grassroots initiative which unfortunately only a few cities really take seriously." In a parallel discussion now occurring on the H-URBAN e-mail list, a Dutch urban historian Frank Suurenbroek has recently responded with a similar corrective.
So what are to make of this trans-Atlantic disconnect? I suspect there are two things working. First, there undoubtedly are real differences between the conditions for bicyclists in Dutch vs. American cities--differences that are particularly visible to American eyes. What the Dutch take for granted, Americans see as an attractive and very salient difference. Second, I also suspect that Americans are guilty of a rather rose-tinted view. As they say, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence (ocean), and while Dutch commentators are understandably focused on the problems their cities have, an outsider will often only see the good stuff because problems, after all, only exist back home. Travel can be a tremendous mind-opener, but only if we let it be. We need to be willing to see the good and the bad both in the places we visit, and upon reflection, the places back home as well.
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