Biking in Denmark vs. The Netherlands

When I first got to Copenhagen it seemed like the bike infrastructure there was the best in the world. Those who had been to the Netherlands disagreed with me and kept assuring me that I would change my mind once we got to Amsterdam. I'll admit that I didn't quite believe them, and I thought that the biking in both places would be relatively the same. 

Turns out I was wrong. That doesn't happen very often, but I can admit when it does. As I described in an earlier post, Denmark has great bike infrastructure, with separated bikeways and bike-specific modifications to the street, but the Netherlands is on a whole other level. The key difference is that in the Netherlands, every street is meant for bikes. If there isn't a bike lane its usually a fietsstraat (bike street). On a fietsstraat, the asphalt is dyed red and cars are not allowed to overtake the bikes. Additionally, cars that are crossing a fietsstraat are forced to come up onto the fietsstraat as it is raised above the level of cross-traffic. This detail of the car coming up onto the fietsstraat signals to the car that they are asking permission to cross, much as a pedestrian asks for permission when they step off of a curb to cross a street. 

The most practical difference I spotted was in the cobblestones. In Denmark I was always having to bike across annoying cobbles, bouncing around and making a conspicuous racket, but in the Netherlands, they seem to understand this problem better and the streets are far smoother. They are still usually made of brick or cobbles, but they are much more uniform and level to ride on. 

Copenhagen cobbles

Amsterdam Cobbles

In Denmark you always felt like bikes were allowed and accepted wherever you went, but in the Netherlands, they take it a step farther and say that you are actually prioritized. The ubiquitousness of the bike network in the Netherlands is quite unmatched. I would go so far as to say that they don't even have a bike network anymore. Its more of a bike town which happens to have a car network. 

In this vein, the overall culture of biking in the Netherlands seems a bit more friendly to me. The first few days we were in Copenhagen and I was trying to shift the way I was biking, I would constantly be getting yelled at or dirty looks thrown my way and people always seemed in a rush to get everywhere. In the Netherlands, people are a but more understanding of little biking mistakes and are not so quick to write you off as a complete idiot. However, the one thing I dislike about the Netherlands is the vespas. They use the bike lane (against the law) and whiz past cyclists at high speeds and very close. That was the one thing I missed about Denmark is that the bike lane was for bikes. 

I feel like in terms of implementing one of these bike infrastructure styles in the US that Denmark would be the easier choice. It is more similar to what we have now in the US with the separation of cars and bikes, where the Netherlands has a far more integrated system. We already know what works from the example set by Denmark. We are not reinventing the wheel, we just need to adopt practices that we already know have an extremely positive impact on cities and the people living in them.