On Wednesday, we had the privilege of meeting Marjolein de Lange of Fiestersbond. She told us about their role as an organization and how they advocate for a more bikable Amsterdam. We learnt about the history of how Amsterdam got to be where it is as a bike city. Much like Copenhagen, biking used to be the primary mode of transportation, but that changed when cars came about. There were a few factors that led to a shift in transportation culture, most significantly was bottom up protests. This means that people came out and demanded safer streets. At the time, The Netherlands had incredibly high rates of kids being killed in the road, so people came together to support the Stop De Kindermoord (stop the child murder) movement. There were also pushes from environmental groups, and folks that wanted a more livable city. Biking makes sense for cities, and Amsterdam exemplifies that. The streets support urban life, which means they aren’t big enough to support lots of cars. Bikes are the best and most practical option in streets like these.
After the presentation, we went out for a group ride to see some of the key areas that she had talked about. we ended the ride at a big park with a nice lake to go swimming in. It was quite nice in the triple digit heat.
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