The standards for biking in Netherlands are very different... people treat it more like walking than like driving, as far as I can tell. Everyone's upright on a

The standards for biking in Netherlands are very different... people treat it more like walking than like driving, as far as I can tell. Everyone's upright on a comfy bike and going pretty slow... the distances are shorter so you don't need to be a spandex cyborg to commute, and there are so many people it's probably hard to pass anyway. You don't wear helmets or carry poles walking, even though you could easily trip (someone I know got injured accidentally stepping off a curb). I've only been to Amsterdam a couple times but my favorite snapshot of biking there was a lady biking hands free fiddling with her eye makeup (I think?), being passed by a hands-free dude wearing a suit, talking on his phone with one hand and other hand just kinda hanging alongside his body ;)