The citizens of Amsterdam use bicycles to get around town quite a lot. Amsterdam’s urban area population is 1.1 million.
60% of their trips are by bike.
Amsterdam’s bike paths are colored brown in order to differentiate them from foot paths.
Bike theft in Amsterdam is widespread. In 2005, 54,000 bikes were stolen. And every year between 12,000 and 15,000 are retrieved from the canals.
An ex-drug addict wrote a book about his bike stealing. He called the book “100,000 Bike Valves” because he had stolen 50,000 bikes.
60% of their trips are by bike.
This angered a lot of people. Two bike rental companies sued him and the publisher because they said he was responsible for the hundreds of bikes they’ve had stolen over the years.
Drug addicts steal bikes for drugs and they sell them within hours; sometimes for as little as $13 dollars.
Now, checks on bike dealers have made it harder to sell a stolen bike because each bike has a number on it.
Belgium, Germany and Spain are now common destinations for stolen bikes from Amsterdam.
Organized gangs have taken over stealing bikes. They will shift hundreds at a time, mostly to Belgium.
Bicycle thieves now have clients they steal bikes for. One thief gets 20 Euros per bike. He’s been doing this for years.
A number of arrests for bicycle theft in Amsterdam in recent years ranges from three to four hundred.
A poll of 2,000 people showed that 80% of them have had a bicycle stolen from them at least once.
Nearly 60% of them said they have had a bike stolen from them multiple times
Below is the bicycle parking area near the train station.
Guess how many bikes this three storied parking garage can hold. There’s another level in the back that can’t be seen in this photo.
This 3 story bike parking garage can hold 2,500 bikes.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about Amsterdam’s Bicycles. You can see more photos of Amsterdam and over 25,000 more on my website.
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Spider Michaels