The bike parking lots are generally located in extremely convenient places such as next to train stations, or near large squares. In the Netherlands, there are a lot of places that you can't park your bike, unlike in the US where you can just lean it against a wall. As you can see in the video, most of these parking lots feature the double level racks. It was hard for me to understand why this was necessary before I moved here from the US, but if you ever travel to the Netherlands, you will be amazed by the amount of bicycles. Being able to fit 2x as many bicycles in the same square footage is 100% necessary.
200+ bikes are removed per day at Amsterdam's central train station for being parked outside of the designated bicycle parking areas (e.g. sidewalks, bridges, alongside the walls of the station). Even within the designated areas, you usually have to be parked in a bike rack or your lock will be cut and the bike removed.
At busy stations it would be great to know which one of the designated spots you should bike towards. Biking farther away and walking for 3 minutes is much better than guessing incorrectly, searching for a spot for 10 minutes, and still having to walk for three minutes... especially when you need to catch a train!
You can lock your bike however you want, but any experienced thief can remove those locks within minutes. No reasonable priced combination of locks keeps a thief from taking your bike.
Luckily there are so many bikes in Utrecht and Amsterdam and especially around Central Station (10-20k), that chances that they take your bike are really low. Then if you use a good lock, one that takes an extra minute to break, and if you put your bike in a good location, you're relatively safe.
teddythetwig|10 years ago
furyg3|10 years ago
200+ bikes are removed per day at Amsterdam's central train station for being parked outside of the designated bicycle parking areas (e.g. sidewalks, bridges, alongside the walls of the station). Even within the designated areas, you usually have to be parked in a bike rack or your lock will be cut and the bike removed.
At busy stations it would be great to know which one of the designated spots you should bike towards. Biking farther away and walking for 3 minutes is much better than guessing incorrectly, searching for a spot for 10 minutes, and still having to walk for three minutes... especially when you need to catch a train!
errtnsd|10 years ago
Kim_Bruning|10 years ago
Yeah, good luck with that near eg. a dutch train station ;-)
http://media.nu.nl/m/m1oxconajm5k_wd1280.jpg/bouw-grootste-f...
Someone|10 years ago
https://www.google.nl/search?q=800m+bikes+utrecht&ie=utf-8&o...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfQsFgc3Xt0 (other side of the station)
rogeryu|10 years ago
Luckily there are so many bikes in Utrecht and Amsterdam and especially around Central Station (10-20k), that chances that they take your bike are really low. Then if you use a good lock, one that takes an extra minute to break, and if you put your bike in a good location, you're relatively safe.
errtnsd|10 years ago