Different experience in the Netherlands

I WAS interested to read of Peter Hollis’s experience in Amsterdam ( Echo letters, March 21), because I spent a few days in that city in 2013 but felt very differently about it.

Like Mr Hollis, I was on foot while people on bicycles were swarming all around, but I never felt threatened or frightened at all. It was rather chaotic, but it was a friendly, safe sort of chaos.

Similarly when I visited Groningen (which boasted the greatest proportion of journeys made by cycle of any city in Europe), the streets full of cyclists and pedestrians gave the city a peaceful, safe atmosphere.

On one occasion I carelessly stepped out in front of a cyclist; he braked sharply and let out a yell of surprise, but there was no “road rage”; and it is unlikely that either of us would have been injured if he had hit me.

So my experiences in the Netherlands have led me to support the proposal to allow cyclists through the Market Place at all times. But I would be happy to have space for cyclists clearly demarcated, as suggested by Mr Hollis, and as was done on many of the streets in Groningen.

The letters from David Saron and an anonymous writer ( Echo, 21 March) can also be considered as supporting the proposal.

Both letters refer to cyclists who even now ride through the Market Place with no regard for the safety of others; so the present regulations are preventing responsible cyclists from riding across the town centre, while doing nothing to keep us safe from the small minority who cause danger.

Anthony Kay