This article is obviously not clickbait. The talk is about bikes but setting one too clearly as the cover image goes against our taste.
I have been in Amsterdam for a month now and I still refuse to get a bike. One week in and people around me were dramatically gasping and widening their eyes when I told them that I don’t own a bicycle yet. “I’m not in a rush,” I would say to brush off the embarrassment I would feel for coming bike-less to an event. In my defence, it was windy and cold, and getting used to a new map takes time, tram rails in mind and learning to cohabit with your fellow cyclists just as equally. And the latter is probably the scariest part – kind of like surfing.
The capital of the Netherlands appears to be the world’s obvious two-wheel heaven, in which crossing the street takes more time than in any of its European metropolitan neighbours. Repeatedly shaking my head right and left would make my neck stuff, but today, I can confidently say I got better at it. I do like bikes , I don’t hate them, don’t get me wrong, but the problem I want to raise here is that getting one would simply be too much of a commitment that I simply can’t deal with.
Hailing from another cycle-centric city, hills are the main obstacle putting a stop to my biking. Today, those very same steep streets make wearing heels a bit of challenge, adding a few minutes to every journey, but it’s all about being fashionably late, right? It has never been in my genes to tuck my pants in my boots and start riding away. Another cycling heavy city is London. We have even written about it here. Anyway, driving is on the left to which I wasn’t ready to cross the line, but its abundance of Limes gave nothing to complain about. Montreal, however, wins this battle for me. It’s easily the most cyclable city. With thousands (okay, maybe hundreds) of BIXI stations, you always had one right next to where you were. Hop on, get on the bike line, pass through La Fontaine and up Saint Laurent, and it’s all good.
The major difference with Amsterdam and the London-Montreal app-rental bike moguls plays a big part. A town that is filled to the brim of tech hyper-connected individualist transport systems… makes it all easier, I believe. See Paris, for example, a Vélib will always wait for you on your next turn. As the idiom says, “there are plenty of fish in the sea,” and that’s the belief I stand by for my bike. Sharing is caring. The thing with Amsterdam is that it would obviously be too much of a mess to have random city bikes lying around the canals. Besides, they are already everywhere.
Buying a bike for merely three months is also a hustle I don’t want to deal with. Here in Amsterdam, there is this thing called Swapfiets that everyone has been telling me to get. It’s basically a monthly rental bike. For whatever reason, I simply can’t cross the bridge and commit to one. Perhaps writing this article will be my catharsis in avoiding this engagement. And maybe, very maybe, one of our future articles will be about the joys of cycling through this very same city.
And until then, we’re wishing you all a happy spring.
Bisous, L
P.S.: I’m getting a Swapfiet in April.