kids cycle uk image
Lalala.
Or is it an exaggeration? And if it's true, why do they cycle so much in the Netherlands in particular? And for what do they use it? Only for recreation?
Answer
No it's not an exaggeration. It is incredibly common to use a bicycle for pretty much any journey within reason rather than a car or public transport. Those who are able will readily cycle to work & back every day (and virtually all kids attending local schools do so by bike), or at least to the local train station (and some have fold up bikes so they can use the other end as well)
It starts young. e.g. my 3 year old cycles his bike to playschool and my younger daughter has a seat on the back of my bike. Again completely normal thing to do for them. We go to our town centre by bike normally as a family because it is just as easy (and a lot cheaper when you consider the cost of parking), and with the exception of the Saturday shopping then I do all other shopping by bike as well (saddle bags on the back of my bike and a basket up front).
Of course people use them for recreation as well. There are some lovely national parks around the country (e.g. the Veluwe http://www.hogeveluwe.nl/default.asp?language=2) and other areas that are lovely to cycle around. I live in a area that within 2 mins by bike we can be in wide open green spaces and cycle for hours in the countryside.
Why? Well you have to consider a few factors. Firstly the Netherlands is incredibly flat and as a result it's very easy to cycle pretty much anywhere. I have lived in Norway and the UK and the idea of doing the same simply was not realistic in comparison
Secondly it's a small country with a lot of people for the small space and as a result very population dense. This means that if everyone did everything by car it would be a worse nightmare on the roads than what it is. To get to the playschool, shops, town centre then it's actually quicker by bike than car. I have also lived on the outskirts of Amsterdam and cycled into the centre all the time overtaking cars doing the same journey.
The country is very bike friendly and cycle lanes are normal as well. Motorists (generally) respect this fact and the traffic laws are in the favour of the cyclist most of the times. Again this is completely different to many other countries
So yes it's normal, yes it's great - but something that's not as easily replicated elsewhere in my opinion :0)
EDIT - I just posted mine and saw pretty much the same answer from Thijs, but ok at least this way you are sure of the facts and reasoning :0)
No it's not an exaggeration. It is incredibly common to use a bicycle for pretty much any journey within reason rather than a car or public transport. Those who are able will readily cycle to work & back every day (and virtually all kids attending local schools do so by bike), or at least to the local train station (and some have fold up bikes so they can use the other end as well)
It starts young. e.g. my 3 year old cycles his bike to playschool and my younger daughter has a seat on the back of my bike. Again completely normal thing to do for them. We go to our town centre by bike normally as a family because it is just as easy (and a lot cheaper when you consider the cost of parking), and with the exception of the Saturday shopping then I do all other shopping by bike as well (saddle bags on the back of my bike and a basket up front).
Of course people use them for recreation as well. There are some lovely national parks around the country (e.g. the Veluwe http://www.hogeveluwe.nl/default.asp?language=2) and other areas that are lovely to cycle around. I live in a area that within 2 mins by bike we can be in wide open green spaces and cycle for hours in the countryside.
Why? Well you have to consider a few factors. Firstly the Netherlands is incredibly flat and as a result it's very easy to cycle pretty much anywhere. I have lived in Norway and the UK and the idea of doing the same simply was not realistic in comparison
Secondly it's a small country with a lot of people for the small space and as a result very population dense. This means that if everyone did everything by car it would be a worse nightmare on the roads than what it is. To get to the playschool, shops, town centre then it's actually quicker by bike than car. I have also lived on the outskirts of Amsterdam and cycled into the centre all the time overtaking cars doing the same journey.
The country is very bike friendly and cycle lanes are normal as well. Motorists (generally) respect this fact and the traffic laws are in the favour of the cyclist most of the times. Again this is completely different to many other countries
So yes it's normal, yes it's great - but something that's not as easily replicated elsewhere in my opinion :0)
EDIT - I just posted mine and saw pretty much the same answer from Thijs, but ok at least this way you are sure of the facts and reasoning :0)
How can I comfortably kick my nocturnal lifestyle for good without hating life for the rest of my life.
Q. I've had this problem all of my life. It seems impossible for me to get into a normal person's AM schedule.
I've tried everything with no varying results. If someone can give me an answer that I haven't heard before, I'd LOVE it, otherwise, please don't comment... I don't need to hear, "Go to bed earlier" or "Force yourself to get up at the same time every day and don't nap" or "Don't drink coffee after 5:00PM" and the like. I'm not retarded, I already know all that.
During the school year, I wake up at 6:30 AM every day for school and have a miserable morning, I then go spend the rest of the school day utterly exhausted. When I get home, I'm too tired to do anything, both work, and play, and spend most of the time fighting to try to stay awake so that I don't fall asleep at 3:00 pm or some stupid crap and to avoid waking up at 1:00AM rested. This extreme exhaustion finally gives in a little bit at around 8:00, and at around 9:00, i get this huge burst of akwardly productive energy. Needless to say, when 10:00 rolls around, I'm completly awake. I'll end up staying up until early hours of the morning. On the weekends, I IMMEDIATLY fall into my nocturnal schedule, and have the AMs and PMs almost completly switched by monday.
I want to be able to wake up in a daytime schedule like everyone else, to do stuff during the day like normal people. I don't like being off-schedule from everyone else, I don't like talking exclusivly to people in the UK lol, I want the luxuries of shopping at places other than 24/7 stores.
When I wake up at a specific time every day, I end up being miserable every day, and it NEVER gets any better at all. It feels like transcontinental jet-lag every fucking day and I just don't feel like living with it anymore.
How can I comfortably kick my nocturnal lifestyle for good without hating life for the rest of my life. Currently it's my summer, and my AMs and PMs are completly inverted. It feels so good to wake up and be rested every day it's incredible, it's a totally different concept of life.. waking up and life being so awsome instead of hating every minute and trying to count down the minutes until I can go to sleep.
I've tried every schedule-keeping attempt I possibly can.
Actually one thing I haven't tried was polyphasic sleep-cycles. Maybe I could use that during the summer but when school starts up again I need to be able to operate between 6:00AM to 2:40 PM (School) and 6:00PM to 9:00PM (Tae Kwon Do.)
My parents have scolded me my whole life over my sleep-patterns, but recently, after taking night jobs as their primary job for the first time in their lives, they are starting to sympathise with me now.
If there is any sort of uncommon, useful advice that you believe you can give me, PLEASE do so.
Anyway, it's so late for me right now, it's like 10:34AM on the east coast, i really gotta get to bed.
I've tried everything with no varying results. If someone can give me an answer that I haven't heard before, I'd LOVE it, otherwise, please don't comment... I don't need to hear, "Go to bed earlier" or "Force yourself to get up at the same time every day and don't nap" or "Don't drink coffee after 5:00PM" and the like. I'm not retarded, I already know all that.
During the school year, I wake up at 6:30 AM every day for school and have a miserable morning, I then go spend the rest of the school day utterly exhausted. When I get home, I'm too tired to do anything, both work, and play, and spend most of the time fighting to try to stay awake so that I don't fall asleep at 3:00 pm or some stupid crap and to avoid waking up at 1:00AM rested. This extreme exhaustion finally gives in a little bit at around 8:00, and at around 9:00, i get this huge burst of akwardly productive energy. Needless to say, when 10:00 rolls around, I'm completly awake. I'll end up staying up until early hours of the morning. On the weekends, I IMMEDIATLY fall into my nocturnal schedule, and have the AMs and PMs almost completly switched by monday.
I want to be able to wake up in a daytime schedule like everyone else, to do stuff during the day like normal people. I don't like being off-schedule from everyone else, I don't like talking exclusivly to people in the UK lol, I want the luxuries of shopping at places other than 24/7 stores.
When I wake up at a specific time every day, I end up being miserable every day, and it NEVER gets any better at all. It feels like transcontinental jet-lag every fucking day and I just don't feel like living with it anymore.
How can I comfortably kick my nocturnal lifestyle for good without hating life for the rest of my life. Currently it's my summer, and my AMs and PMs are completly inverted. It feels so good to wake up and be rested every day it's incredible, it's a totally different concept of life.. waking up and life being so awsome instead of hating every minute and trying to count down the minutes until I can go to sleep.
I've tried every schedule-keeping attempt I possibly can.
Actually one thing I haven't tried was polyphasic sleep-cycles. Maybe I could use that during the summer but when school starts up again I need to be able to operate between 6:00AM to 2:40 PM (School) and 6:00PM to 9:00PM (Tae Kwon Do.)
My parents have scolded me my whole life over my sleep-patterns, but recently, after taking night jobs as their primary job for the first time in their lives, they are starting to sympathise with me now.
If there is any sort of uncommon, useful advice that you believe you can give me, PLEASE do so.
Anyway, it's so late for me right now, it's like 10:34AM on the east coast, i really gotta get to bed.
Answer
You didn't say how old you are, but if your school age than I think your stuck with your pattern for now. When I was in school, I was always a night owl and actually spent a good many classes taking a nap. Hard to believe I still got a's and b's. Even when school ended, I would have 2nd shift jobs that would leave me feeling more productive at night and I would wake at 10 or 11 the next morning and not feel like doing anything until noon, then come home from work at 10 pm and get everything done that I needed to do. I even had my kids on that schedule, until school started for them. Then I had to get up early everyday, and eventually after about 6 months of this my inner energy schedule reversed itself. Studies have shown that schools start too early for the teenager's inner energy clock. and they've actually tried to push some schools back to 9 am so kids can be more rested and more productive. Also teenager's need more sleep to be energized all day. You may be stuck with this problem. Some things you could try, though are obvious, like sleeping earlier and such. I think you tae kwon do is probably really hampering you since exercise gives you energy and keeps you going and that class is so late at night, it's giving you the energy you don't need to get to bed at a decent time. If it was early enough to get you through that hump in the middle of the day, it would really help. You could try taking Meletonin (a naturally occurring sleep vitamin) right after class to try to get sleepy. Or you could also try an energy vitamin after your mid-morning spurt of energy (nothing with caffeine or anything like that). good luck
You didn't say how old you are, but if your school age than I think your stuck with your pattern for now. When I was in school, I was always a night owl and actually spent a good many classes taking a nap. Hard to believe I still got a's and b's. Even when school ended, I would have 2nd shift jobs that would leave me feeling more productive at night and I would wake at 10 or 11 the next morning and not feel like doing anything until noon, then come home from work at 10 pm and get everything done that I needed to do. I even had my kids on that schedule, until school started for them. Then I had to get up early everyday, and eventually after about 6 months of this my inner energy schedule reversed itself. Studies have shown that schools start too early for the teenager's inner energy clock. and they've actually tried to push some schools back to 9 am so kids can be more rested and more productive. Also teenager's need more sleep to be energized all day. You may be stuck with this problem. Some things you could try, though are obvious, like sleeping earlier and such. I think you tae kwon do is probably really hampering you since exercise gives you energy and keeps you going and that class is so late at night, it's giving you the energy you don't need to get to bed at a decent time. If it was early enough to get you through that hump in the middle of the day, it would really help. You could try taking Meletonin (a naturally occurring sleep vitamin) right after class to try to get sleepy. Or you could also try an energy vitamin after your mid-morning spurt of energy (nothing with caffeine or anything like that). good luck
Powered by Yahoo! Answers
Title Post: Is it true that dutch people use their bicycle so much?
Rating: 94% based on 932 ratings. 4,1 user reviews.
Author: Unknown
Thanks For Coming To My Blog
Rating: 94% based on 932 ratings. 4,1 user reviews.
Author: Unknown
Thanks For Coming To My Blog
No comments:
Post a Comment