the dutch

According to this article, there are now more active mobile phones in Holland than there are people. This didn't really surprise me, and upon reading more I found that there are a number of countries that have achieved this - Sweden for one.

What interests me more however is that Amsterdam has more bikes than residents. While again this isn't ground-breaking news, it does makes you think a little about culture. The concept seems to be to own at least 2 bikes and to keep them in bad enough a condition for them to not be a target of theft. It's quite common to cycle to the train station, lock you bike up there, travel by train, then continue from the train's destination on your other bike.

The vast quantity of bikes also seems to effect how people threaten each other. Rather than threaten to do someone in (or whatever your local colloquialism is), in Amsterdam people threaten to steal your bike (in my somewhat limited experience). Of course these idle threats could be a by-product of Amsterdam's colourful habit, who's to know?

I wonder if they have Lycra-clad police in Holland..