bicycle

the first thing caught my eyes about the netherland is that this country is full with bike. the joke said, people can do anything on their bike here. they can phone, change their shoes, reading books, even taking a nap on their bike. they can also bring anything with their bike. i've seen people bringing bike with their bike. bringing two kids. bringing groceries. my husband even bring our bed (yes, 160 cm x 200 cm bed) with his bike which i found crazy, almost impossible if the living proof of action (the bed itself) not sitting nicely on our bedroom.

i understand why one of my friend found his love for the bike here, in the netherland. in here, the government made biking easy. the bicycle path. easy and accessible park for bike. not to mention the cheapness of using a bike. here, all other transportation mode are very expensive. bus, taxi, and car would cost you a fortune so people choose bike (the fact that the land is so flat also helps, i guess. imagine biking in bandung). and people's attitude is very nice. car stops when your bike across their road. nobody honk on you because you're slower than their car (but other bike would if you're getting on their way :D). even buses waited queitly behind you (it's funny picture. i should take it sometimes). it's the heaven for bike.

-a man carrying his two kids in a bike, no car necessary-

and riding a bicycle is not a reason for not being chic. in here woman wearing their high heel riding bikes, using their full make up and nice clothes like in the picture above.

nicely, some crazy company invents some handy tools to helps people carry almost anything with their bike. in here there's a fietsbak to carry almost anything including your kids, fietscar (this one is the official kid's carrier), and i just found out that you can carry your baby stroller with your bike using the fietsdrager.

-a barista bringing his coffee machine with fietsbak-

-a small fietskar for kids, we have the combo (for two kids) one-

- a fietsdrager for your baby buggy-

thinking about the bike here, about the pollution that the car made, don't you think bike is a reasonable option comparing to motorcycle and car? even in bandung, it's possible (and you don't need a gym because bike would get the sweat out of you). and if the worker of the car factory needed to be saved from loss of job, they can always make a bicycle, or two, or hundreds of it. the parking lots won't be that big. but i guess, there's no much money in it for those people. the policy maker.

talking about policy. hmmm...