Nothing to write home about

Rashbre’s post about plans to introduce a bike rental scheme in London, reminded me of the City of Amsterdam’s plans to reintroduce its white bike scheme.

Amsterdam pioneered a free bike scheme in the 70s, but the famous white bikes that didn’t last long because they all got nicked. It does still exist, in the Hoge Veluwe national park where cars are discouraged and white bikes are available at the entrances. It works quite well but if you leave your bike near closing time to visit the famous sculpture garden, you’ll likely return and find someone else has taken it. That’s the point - the bikes aren’t locked so you pick one up when you need it and leave it in a rack when you have finished. But if you lose the scramble for the last bike it can be a long walk back. Trust me on this.

In 2000, the City of Amsterdam planned to bring the white bikes back. They set up high tech locking racks and a payment system using Dutch bank cards that meant that there would be a means of identifying aynone who didn’t return the bikes. The bike rack sprang up at key points in the city centre. But I never saw an actual bike.

These days, most residents of the city have their own bike, but visitors can hire a bike pretty cheap from railway stations at a discount if you have a ticket or railcard.

The bikes here are old looking but surprisingly expensive, even second-hand one gear bikes with hub brakes.

But what’s really important for the uptake of biking in a busy city is the segregation of traffic.

Even in Amsterdam that’s not really sorted. But car drivers are aware of the fact that if an accident happens, they are automatically 50% to blame. And that helps raise bike awareness.