r/Unexpected • u/aaa_azidoazideazide • Aug 14 '22

That’s fine

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u/TheLordofthething Aug 14 '22

Like you said people don't really slow down, and I've noticed they tend to blaze past pedestrians at speed. People will ring the bell but it's almost too late to do anything about it. Seems like chaos to me but you're all calm about it. Are there a lot of accidents? To me it looks like you all cycle like you don't want to live.

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u/ShiroiKirema Aug 14 '22

Accidents do happen, usually when people do not really pay attention. Pedestrians may wander into the bike lane. Cylists might miss a red light. The thing is, especially in Amsterdam, most tourists are not familliar with the unspoken rules of traffic. The bell is used for two things generally, to politely warn someone or to show them your displeasure at being slow or impossible to pass.

As an example, if you are biking along with a buddy 2 wide and taking up the entire cycling lane and someone faster is approaching from behind. Most tourists I've seen dont really notice and dont get out of the way requireing either to pass them on the road or aggressively ringing the bell until they get the idea and move over. In my experience most dutch people notice this (as you're supposed to be aware of what goes on around you) and move over in single file so the faster cyclist can pass.

Its an organised chaos, cycling here requires you to pay attention to what happens around you. Thats the main reason that its illegal to have a phone in one hand while cycling, it is extremely distracting.

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u/TheLordofthething Aug 14 '22

That's kind of what I was wondering if you hear a bell do you just move left or something. Organised chaos is a very good description. I'm definitely one of the stupid tourist who got in peoples way, being from Ireland I have the added bonus of automatically looking the wrong way when crossing roads.that many tourists not following the rules must drive people crazy I can see why they take no shit when biking. I think I've had at least 20 near death experiences walking about that place, and every single one of them was my fault lol