Why bicycles are such a big part of Dutch culture

Can you spot the difference between this picture and this one? There's a funny cat in the background on this one and not on the other one. And also this is Trump riding around in his car called the Beast. It's a heavily armored hermetically sealed car with bulletproof glass. And this is the prime minister of the Netherlands on his trusty bicycle. And he is not the only one. Take a look at this picture of the Dutch royal family casually riding around. Dutch people really love bicycles. I don't know if you've ever been to Amsterdam. But if you have, you probably saw Dutch people do some crazy stuff on their bikes. They use them for everything. Carrying groceries, moving couches, taking the kids to school. It looks very chaotic. But it's like an organized chaos. And if you're not from the Netherlands, this might seem crazy. But for Dutch people, this is absolutely normal. I am Dutch. And riding a bicycle is in our blood. It's really part of our culture. And yes, in this tiny country that is stuffed with 17 million people, we have 23 million bicycles. And I'm going to tell you exactly how that happened. If you're a Dutch baby, life is not easy. By the time you're 12 months old and you're barely able to stand, your parents will slap you on your first bike. And off you go into the real world. It's not a true bicycle though. It's called a Loopfiets. And there's no pedals. So the kids are really kind of running around while balancing on the wheels. By age 3, you probably will have your first real bike with training wheels. By age 4, you'll be cruising around without those training wheels. And by age 5, you're already cycling to school all by yourself. So learning how to ride a bike is really important in the Netherlands. Kids learn from an early age. And they kind of have to. I mean, just take a look at Amsterdam or any other big city in the Netherlands. Traffic and the amount of bicycles can be crazy. So it's almost a matter of survival. The design from this picture is kind of how we still know bicycles as of today. This was around 1890. And yeah, before that, people were riding around on these things. And even for me as a Dutch person, these things look terrifying. So I'm very relieved they went with this improved design. The Netherlands was actually quite late to the whole bicycle boom. In the 1880s, people in the US and Britain were already cruising around on whatever you want to call this. While cycling in the Netherlands only started to become popular in the 1890s. But when it did, Dutch people instantly loved it. They loved it so much that by 1911, they already had more bikes per capita than any other country in Europe. And trust me, it wasn't just for ordinary people. This is a picture of the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina. And this was back in 1938. Now, when Wilhelmina was 17 or 18 years old, she fell in love with riding a bicycle during a trip to Austria. It gave her this amazing feeling of freedom. And when she came back, she immediately bought herself a beautiful bike. Her mom, however, thought that they were dangerous. And even the Dutch government had their doubts whether or not it was fitting for a queen to ride around on a bicycle. Eventually, this argument ended up at the state council. And they concluded that indeed, it was incompatible with the dignity of the throne if the queen was seen riding around on a bicycle. So she was officially banned from cycling. Can you believe that? And Wilhelmina, she respected that decision. However, when her mom died in 1934, she immediately got back on her bike. And after that, she was often seen riding around in public places. So the Dutch really began to make a name for themselves as a cycling country. And by 1940, there were already 4 million bikes in a population of only 8 million people. 3.55 PM, May 10, 1940. This is the exact moment when Germany invaded the Netherlands. During the Battle of the Hague, the goal of Germany was to capture the government and members of the royal family. Now, you have to understand that the Dutch army was nothing compared to the force of the Germans. But against all odds, they managed to fight off the initial attack and shot down 525 German planes. But in the end, it wasn't enough. And after five days of battle, the Netherlands surrendered to Germany. Now, a lot of horrible things happened during the occupation. And maybe that's a story for another time. But one of those many things was that Germany needed parts and materials to make weapons. Because of course, they were in the middle of a full-scale war. And because materials were so hard to find, they had to resort to using bicycles. At first, they asked everyone to hand in their bikes in exchange for compensation. But people didn't want to hand in their bikes voluntarily. So ultimately, the Germans seized all the bikes they could find. And anyone who tried to get away with a bicycle could end up in prison. Five years later, after the war, there were basically no bikes left in the country. But production picked up really fast. And it only took the Dutch a couple of years before the use of bikes was back to how it was before. Now, there's one more thing. One event actually that really contributed to, yeah, let's call it the second bicycle boom. So starting from the 1960s, cars became much more affordable. And the Netherlands wasn't different from any other country here. All over the world, you really saw more and more cars appear in the cities. In fact, just take a look at this picture from Amsterdam in the 1970s. This is crazy, right? There's so many cars. And this is Amsterdam today. The cars are gone, and there's a lot more space for people that are cycling or walking. So what happened? Well, with the rise of cars on the streets, the number of accidents also increased. In a short period of time, over 500 children died in traffic accidents. And a lot of people had enough. Something had to be done. So there was a protest movement led by Maartje van Putten. And the movement was called Stop the Kindermoord, which means Stop the Child Murders. And they put a lot of pressure on the government to make a change. On top of that, in 1973, the oil crisis happened. There was an embargo put in place targeting multiple countries, including the Netherlands. And it caused the price of oil to increase by over 300%. So the government was on one side pressured by protests and a rising number of traffic fatalities. And on the other side, the price of oil was rising like crazy. They obviously knew something had to change. And they then completely turned around government policy. They started to restrict the use of cars in the cities. And instead focus on the growth of other forms of transportation. Now, the Dutch had always been crazy about bicycles. So the obvious choice was to really focus on making the streets more bicycle friendly. So basically what happened is that shift in government policy put cars back to second place. Allowing the focus to be on safer streets and more people-friendly cities. And that eventually led to the Netherlands as we know today. The unrivaled, absolute number one cycling country in the world. A small country filled with 17 million people and 23 million bicycles. So on average, every Dutch person owns more than one bike. And that's really not that crazy considering they seem to have a bicycle for every occasion. If you're ever walking around the Netherlands, you'll be amazed to see stadsfietsen, mountain bikes, loopfietsen, driewielers, omafietsen, bakfietsen, vouwfietsen, tandems, lichtfietsen and banana bikes. And of course I know that what happened in the 70s wasn't the only thing that led to the amount of bicycles nowadays. Cycling has always been popular since it was first brought to the country. And that's because the Netherlands as a country itself is perfect for it. It's mostly flat, there's no crazy mountains and journeys tend to be short. It's very easy to get from one point to another. Also the climate is very mild. It's never too hot or too cold. So basically you can hop on your bicycle anytime you want. And I'm serious by the way. Dutch people ride their bicycles all day, every day. Through rain, snow, heat waves and even storms. Now let me end this video with one final tip for everyone who wants to visit the Netherlands in the future. Don't do as the Dutch do. Dutch people on their bikes are crazy. They break the rules, eat, talk, carry children, people and other things all on their bikes. And that's because they've been cycling from the moment they could walk. So don't try to compete with the number one cycling country in the world. But definitely cruise around at your own pace. Thank you so much for watching. I really hope you enjoyed this video. I'm a very small YouTube channel but I put a lot of effort into making this. So if you did like it, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a like or a comment or even subscribe. Thanks again and hopefully I'll see you in the next video.