Bikes have their own lane here

It seems I forgot a few things before moving my blog onto Germany,  so let's go back to Amsterdam for a few entries.

There are more bikes than people here.  This makes bikers have the upper hand.  They have their own travel lanes on the sides of the streets. Not just narrow strips like in the states every so often. Here every road has about a double sidewalk width lane of red bricks on both sides of the road.  And you better be careful crossing it, bikers have the right of way over pedestrians and they will run you over! 

The bikes have gotten so used to being on the same roads as cars and busses that they will also go into the road and weave in and out of traffic if the bike lane is too packed.  It also seems they have the right of way over cars, as the non-motorized bikes don't seem to have to obey traffic lights. 

With all this apparent danger,  I only saw one person wearing a helmet. They are not required here, but if I was doing battle with taxis and busses, I would sure want to wear one.

Another thing we learned was why most bikes you will see are old and rusty. It seems bike theft is a big problem.  As many as 200 bikes a day are stolen.   Many of them are bought back by their owners at the flea market the next day.  The bikers keep older, not great looking bikes in hopes of making theirs the least desirable to the thieves.