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I spent a week once in The Hague- it may have been my favorite place I have ever been. The real magic is not the bike lanes - it's that people don't need to lo

I spent a week once in The Hague- it may have been my favorite place I have ever been. The real magic is not the bike lanes - it's that people don't need to lock up bikes! I can't say enough about how much of a game changer that is. In the US, the logistics of securing a bike makes the affair so much of a hassle. I basically gave up bike riding after the third time my bike was stolen.

azeirah 5y ago
Huh? You didn't need to lock up your bike in The Hague? In every city in the Netherlands I'm aware of, bikes get stolen aallll the time. Only in villages and other rural areas can you trust the environment to not steal your bikes. That's because everybody knows each other, there's no chance you're going to get away with stealing a bike, there's a lot of trust. But in a city? Was it in the outskirts?
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  It's a context-sensitive metric. I would estimate that in Shanghai it took one to two months for my unlocked bike to get stolen. (I lost three bikes this way.) That doesn't sound great, but in San Francisco it'd be a matter of days.
- legitster 5y ago
  When I was in The Hague there were always a dozen bikes parked outside of every restaurant, shop, etc. Maybe they got locked up for longer term parking, but here in the states I have had a bike stolen while I was still within 15 feet of it.
thraxil 5y ago
I lived in Utrecht for a year and a half and I've been to The Hague a few times. I'm a little confused. I don't remember seeing things any different there than Utrecht and in Utrecht we definitely locked up our bikes. Or do you just not count the wheel locks that every typical Dutch bike has built in? Even those, you really just use if you're running in somewhere real quick. If you're going to leave your bike out somewhere for more than 15 minutes or so, you'd still chain it up. The big difference vs somewhere like NYC (where I lived previously), is that you don't necessarily need the biggest and toughest locks (unless you have a really nice bike, which will definitely still be at risk of being stolen) and that bike racks and secure places to lock your bike are much more frequent. Dutch bikes are also generally heavy and chunky and have all their components (lights, seat, etc) pretty securely attached. In NYC even if you locked your bike up, if you had a halfway decent seat, that would get stolen if you didn't take it with you.
gsa 5y ago
Bikes get stolen all the time in Amsterdam. Just earlier this year I forgot to lock my bike and it was promptly stolen. Bike theft is so common that the police can't even dedicate resources to the problem. I can't imagine a city like The Hague being any different from here.
adflux 5y ago
What a load of horse shit. Half the people I know have had their bikes or mopeds stolen. Especially in the big cities, probably the most common crime happening. Its why people buy shit bikes, so it doesn't matter much when they are stolen.
tonyedgecombe 5y ago
I think you'll find that most people lock their bikes but the locks are fairly discreet and built into the frame. Something like this: https://bikeshed.johnhoogstrate.nl/bicycle/security/axa_defender/right_side_large_frame.jpg https://bikeshed.johnhoogstrate.nl/bicycle/security/axa_defe...

azeirah 5y ago

Huh? You didn't need to lock up your bike in The Hague? In every city in the Netherlands I'm aware of, bikes get stolen aallll the time. Only in villages and other rural areas can you trust the environment to not steal your bikes. That's because everybody knows each other, there's no chance you're going to get away with stealing a bike, there's a lot of trust. But in a city? Was it in the outskirts?

thaumasiotes 5y ago
It's a context-sensitive metric. I would estimate that in Shanghai it took one to two months for my unlocked bike to get stolen. (I lost three bikes this way.) That doesn't sound great, but in San Francisco it'd be a matter of days.
legitster 5y ago
When I was in The Hague there were always a dozen bikes parked outside of every restaurant, shop, etc. Maybe they got locked up for longer term parking, but here in the states I have had a bike stolen while I was still within 15 feet of it.

thraxil 5y ago

I lived in Utrecht for a year and a half and I've been to The Hague a few times. I'm a little confused. I don't remember seeing things any different there than Utrecht and in Utrecht we definitely locked up our bikes. Or do you just not count the wheel locks that every typical Dutch bike has built in? Even those, you really just use if you're running in somewhere real quick. If you're going to leave your bike out somewhere for more than 15 minutes or so, you'd still chain it up. The big difference vs somewhere like NYC (where I lived previously), is that you don't necessarily need the biggest and toughest locks (unless you have a really nice bike, which will definitely still be at risk of being stolen) and that bike racks and secure places to lock your bike are much more frequent. Dutch bikes are also generally heavy and chunky and have all their components (lights, seat, etc) pretty securely attached. In NYC even if you locked your bike up, if you had a halfway decent seat, that would get stolen if you didn't take it with you.

gsa 5y ago

Bikes get stolen all the time in Amsterdam. Just earlier this year I forgot to lock my bike and it was promptly stolen. Bike theft is so common that the police can't even dedicate resources to the problem. I can't imagine a city like The Hague being any different from here.

adflux 5y ago

What a load of horse shit. Half the people I know have had their bikes or mopeds stolen. Especially in the big cities, probably the most common crime happening. Its why people buy shit bikes, so it doesn't matter much when they are stolen.

tonyedgecombe 5y ago

I think you'll find that most people lock their bikes but the locks are fairly discreet and built into the frame. Something like this: https://bikeshed.johnhoogstrate.nl/bicycle/security/axa_defender/right_side_large_frame.jpg https://bikeshed.johnhoogstrate.nl/bicycle/security/axa_defe...