Old Hat Editorial
For us left-side-of-the-road users, travelling in Europe means abandoning many fond tenets, not least of which is coping with riding on the other side of the road. V12 BMWs being propelled at warp speed down autobahns mean you’ll almost be sucked off the motorcycle lest you keep to the correct lane. Trucks in a seemingly seamless convoy, with bare millimetres separating the nose of one from the tail of another, require plenty of forward planning should you wish to take an exit, which involves penetrating this caravan. However despite the velocities achieved, the autobahns are not the most stressful aspect of the journey.
The Netherlands is the domain of the bicycle – at current count, 23 million of them in a country of just 17 million people, or 1.3 bicycles per head of population. These cycles move in dense swarms, the silence only broken by the occasional ‘ding’ from a handlebar-mounted bell (which means, ‘Watch out, I’m coming through’), or the scrunch of a rusted chain as it clatters over unlubricated sprockets. Maintenance of ground speed is all-important – loss of momentum means physical effort must be expended to regain cruising pace in the moving throng. For a pedestrian, merely crossing the street involves growing a second set of eyes. Should one inadvertently step into the Cycle Lane, or even cross the footpath, a cacophony of ‘dings’ warn of the phalanx of pushies descending upon you, decelerating not a whit. Whether it is a legal ruling or not, the pedal pushers claim right of way. During WW2, local cyclists stuck to their guns, cruising the streets en masse and refusing to give way to Nazi tanks and other vehicles, much to the enragement and frustration of the occupiers.
Certainly, in a country utterly obsessed with zero-emission goals, the bicycle is a bullet performer. Just how this vast moving population would otherwise be transported is a vexed question, but there is a by-product that is a rapidly increasing problem. Thousands of bicycles are abandoned annually. During my recent visit to The Netherlands I wondered at the racks of bikes that line streets and canals in Amsterdam, and Leiden, where we were based. Many were clearly forsaken, tyres hanging off wheels, rims buckled, chains rusted solid. Around the canals, barges drag the bottom to recover bikes thrown to a watery grave. Bicycles are required to carry an identification/registration tag, and councils are empowered to contact owners requesting their removal after one month of inactivity, and to confiscate and destroy any deemed non-roadworthy or repairable. There must be a worthwhile industry here.
I am constantly reminded of Banjo Paterson’s timeless poem, Mulga Bill’s Bicycle, in which he “caught the cycling craze, he turned away the good old horse that served him many days,” Yes, the cycling craze may well be permanently entrenched, especially in a country like The Netherlands with its ‘”flat as a dunny carter’s hat” terrain, but I for one will not be turning away the good old motorcycle that has served me many days.