Counting Crowds

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Holland is a great country in many ways. So great that very many people have decided to live there. Apparently it didn’t occur to all these people and all these people that Holland is quite a small country. Nor did it occur to the people who designed all the public places, public transport facilities, streets, etc. that Holland is a country of many people on a small area. This results in a country of crowds. Try shopping on a Saturday in Utrecht. Crowds everywhere. Try finding a seat on pretty much any train in to Amsterdam in rush hour. Crowds who are prepared to rip your body apart to get on that train before you do. Try making your way up the escalator when you get off the train in rush hour. Crowds, and you could find yourself standing in line for minutes - to get on the escalator. Try going by car around the major cites in rush hour. Traffic jams. Crowds. Try taking a walk on the pier or the beach in The Hague/Scheveningen. People everywhere. Don’t even get me started on Koninginnedag/Queen’s Day - that would take us to a whole new level on the topic of crowds.

All these crowds can be rather frustrating, but seem to be natural developments of poorly designed and heavily underdimensioned facilities and places. One thing where the Dutch have not gone cheap is the network of bicycle paths. Pretty much everywhere, countryside or city alike, there are bicycle paths on both sides of the road, to enable a safe journey for frisky peddlers. One would think that this would prevent crowded paths, even in a country where the average citizen owns 2.7 or so bicycles. Not so. On nearly any bicycle path at any given time of the day, you will find people riding up and down those paths. Nice bikes, ugly bikes, strange bikes, all sorts of bikes. Try going from point A to point B in a for example Utrecht in rush hour by bike, and you will find yourself in queues of bicyclists. The unwritten rule appears to be that you keep to the right, allowing passing on your left. Like in the world of automobiles, there is always someone going faster than you are, and although it may seem harmless in comparison, you don’t want to get hit by an angry bicyclists trying to pass you. You simply have to fall in the rhythm of the traffic. Floats pretty well on the actual paths. Every now and then there is a need to cross the street though. Traffic lights for bicycles. People on bikes who you just passed or people on bikes you were just about to catch up with and pass yourself gather. Once again…crowds.

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