{"id":1835,"date":"2012-01-10T19:55:05","date_gmt":"2012-01-10T19:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=1835"},"modified":"2014-07-18T15:33:58","modified_gmt":"2014-07-18T15:33:58","slug":"how-the-dutch-got-their-cycle-paths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/how-the-dutch-got-their-cycle-paths\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Dutch Got Their Cycle Paths"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bikes.\u00a0 They are everywhere in the Netherlands.\u00a0 In 2006, there were more than 17 million bikes in the Netherlands, with 750,000 of those in Amsterdam alone and no doubt that number has significantly increased.\u00a0 With around 91% of households owning at least one bike (and often more than one), it is not hard to see that the Dutch love their bikes.<\/p>\n<p>And why not?\u00a0 Cycling is healthy, easy and cheap.\u00a0 And with over 10,000 kilometres of dedicated bike paths, cycling is also pretty safe.\u00a0 So well thought out are the cycle paths that it would be easy to assume they had almost always been around but that wasn\u2019t the case.\u00a0 The following video gives a really complete and interesting history of how the cycle paths and lanes came about.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How the Dutch got their cycle paths\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XuBdf9jYj7o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Inspired by all the cycling, here is some cycle related vocabulary for you to utilise:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>fiets<\/em> \u2013 bike (plural is fietsen)<\/li>\n<li><em>fietsen<\/em> \u2013 to cycle<\/li>\n<li><em>fietspad<\/em> \u2013 bike path<\/li>\n<li><em>snel<\/em> \u2013 fast<\/li>\n<li><em>langzaam<\/em> \u2013 slow<\/li>\n<li><em>fietsbel<\/em> \u2013 bike bell<\/li>\n<li><em>fietstas<\/em> \u2013 bike bag<\/li>\n<li><em>mand<\/em> \u2013 basket<\/li>\n<li><em>fietslampen<\/em> \u2013 bike lights<\/li>\n<li><em>fietslampenset<\/em> \u2013 bike lights set<\/li>\n<li><em>fietser<\/em> \u2013 someone who rides a bike<\/li>\n<li><em>bromfiets<\/em> \u2013 motorized bike<\/li>\n<li><em>bakfiets<\/em> \u2013 sturdy bike modified to incorporate a large wooden box or platform on the front<\/li>\n<li><em>ligfiets<\/em> \u2013 a bike modified to be ridden in a laying position<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And if cycling vocabulary was a little easy for you, then why not check out these bike related idioms.\u00a0 I\u2019ve included both the literal translation and the idiom meaning.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>aah op die fiets<\/em> (literal: oh, on that bike) \u2013 Now I get it! Now I see what you mean.<\/li>\n<li><em>doorfietsen<\/em> (literal: cycle through) \u2013 flip or thumb through<\/li>\n<li><em>voor elkaar fietsen<\/em> (literal: cycle for each other) \u2013 wrangle, manage<\/li>\n<li><em>ga fietsen stelen<\/em> (literal: go steal bikes) \u2013 get lost\/drop dead<\/li>\n<li><em>wat heb ik nu aan mijn fiets hangen?<\/em> (literal: now what\u2019s hanging on my bike) \u2013 what kind of mess am I in now? What\u2019s all this?<\/li>\n<li><em>fietsvriendelijk<\/em> (literal: bicycle friendly) \u2013 pro-bicycle, pro-cycling<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Do you know of any other bike related idioms?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"300\" height=\"201\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2012\/01\/green_bike.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image tmp-hide-img\" alt=\"green_bike\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><p>Bikes.\u00a0 They are everywhere in the Netherlands.\u00a0 In 2006, there were more than 17 million bikes in the Netherlands, with 750,000 of those in Amsterdam alone and no doubt that number has significantly increased.\u00a0 With around 91% of households owning at least one bike (and often more than one), it is not hard to see&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/how-the-dutch-got-their-cycle-paths\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":1836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[60713,27710,3590,27711],"tags":[117740,27679,117741,82,13],"class_list":["post-1835","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-2","category-dutch-grammar","category-dutch-language","category-dutch-vocabulary-2","tag-bike-paths","tag-bikes","tag-cycle-paths","tag-idioms","tag-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1835"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2833,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1835\/revisions\/2833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}