Amsterdam has a people population of 785,910 [trueknowledge dot com] and a bicycle population of around 465,000: a ratio of one bicycle for every 1.69 persons.
Running on pedal power instead of CO2 producing toxic fuel, Amsterdammers wend their ways along the colour-coded bike paths, and if they run low of fuel simply stop to eat a banana, then with calories replenished continue on their way.
Cycling in the city crosses socio-economic as well as gender and age backgrounds."80% of all Dutch cycle at least once a week".[amsterdamize dot com] Bike rental companies abound allowing tourists to go native. And with 400 kilometres of bike routes there's no nook or cranny of the city which cannot be explored.
H.G. Wells said: "Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race". In our oil-driven, car-crazy, cult-consumer economy, these relics of the Nineteenth Century happily break the rules. And nowhere is the counter-culture more alive than in Amsterdam: the Bicycle Capital of the World.
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