Bicycle Parking – 800 meters of cycle racks in Utrecht (Netherlands)
It is known the Dutch are world champions in utility cycling. That they combine public transport with cycling is lesser known. What it leads to can be seen in this video. Thousands of parked bicycles at the city's main station. Utrecht has the Netherlands' biggest railway station. Next to this railway station we find the light rail and bus stations. Many commuters park their bikes near one of these three stations and continue to work in other cities. They have a street of 800 meters (half a mile) full of bike racks (mostly 4 rows of them) at their disposal. And we don't even see the numerous indoor bike parking facilities both above and underground. A lot of commuters also arrive by public transport and continue by bicycle to their workplace in Utrecht. The bicycles of the latter group of commuters is parked over night and will not be visible in this video.
May 26th, 2010 - 06:08
all I can say is….. WOW that’s alot of bicycles !
May 26th, 2010 - 17:44
Now where did I leave my bike, cool
May 26th, 2010 - 18:16
Booo I saw a car.
May 26th, 2010 - 18:19
@BoringVideosInk We have 8 million cars in the Netherlands. So yes, you tend to see them…
May 26th, 2010 - 20:17
An amazing sight. Dont bikes get jammed together like that sometimes? The cycle parking at my works, although small scale, is as packed as that. But now and again cables get pulled by handlebars and things get knocked.
May 26th, 2010 - 20:23
@downfader2 Oh yes that happens all the time. Especially since there is such a shortage of racks that people put bicycles ‘in between’ racks. These racks carry double the amount of bikes they were designed for. So yes that gets bikes entangled. Yet another reason the Dutch don’t use expensive bikes for commuting. The only alternative to these racks is using the indoor facilities. Those are payed for and guarded. Double parking is not accepted there.
May 26th, 2010 - 20:28
@markenlei We have a problem at my workplace where you’ll lock up in the morning, come back later and find sometimes 3 bikes on a stand. The third having its wheel squeezed in between the two others.
How much do they charge for paid parking over there? All of our stands as far as I know in the UK are free. Not as secure though
May 26th, 2010 - 20:31
Thats fab love to visit the netherlands
May 26th, 2010 - 20:38
@downfader2 Generally they’ll charge you about 100 euros per year, 55 euros per half year, 10 euros per month or 1 euro per day. You can choose what kind of (season) ticket you prefer.
May 27th, 2010 - 08:29
@markenlei
Yes well the less cars I see the more I like it…
May 27th, 2010 - 08:47
@BoringVideosInk
May 27th, 2010 - 08:48
I guess this view will change a lot after the extension of the station during the next years.
May 27th, 2010 - 10:44
@kdejaeger Yes. According to the plans I have seen all these racks will be removed and in this street a “Fietsgebouw” (Bicycle Building) will be built. Three floors over the busstation with 9000 bicycle parking spaces, over that a new office block will be built. The buildings will remain but they will get a new ground floor where these racks are now. The street will be a lot wider (33 meters).
A picture: jhk dot nl/uploaded/105Image894.jpg
May 27th, 2010 - 15:17
The future. It’s bike shaped.
June 2nd, 2010 - 05:29
This video is simply astonishing. Over here in the USA people do not consider cycling to be on the same level of driving. Its frustrating to say the least.
June 7th, 2010 - 19:26
What part of UC Davis is this?
June 12th, 2010 - 21:17
wow just think if all those bikes were cars how much space they would use
July 19th, 2010 - 10:01
people hold their bikes or not?