Since I started my school year and the kiddos started to have many activities, I began to use private car as my transportation mode. My hubby was generous enough to let me owned a car for running some household errands here and there. Though I love my babyblu Chevy, I always love and adore my old transportation companion; my bicycle.
It has been made known to the whole world that Netherlands is the land full of bicycle. I might say that Netherlands is a Beijing of the Europe, where there is more than one million bicycle go around 🙂
http://www.flickr.com/photos/patriciaelfine/6808210763/in/set-72157629147130037/player/
Why Netherlands is so into bicycle?
I guess I have mentioned it before that Netherlands is a perfect place to go biking because of its flat topography. There’s even a special path on the road made for bicycle/cyclist. As if that’s just not enough, there are also traffic lights for cyclist at some intersections. It makes Netherlands a relatively safe place for biking.
It’s a funny fact, I guess, that kids here not just have to have a swim certificate (as a prep if this land is sinking, I assume hehe), but also have to have a biking certificate before they can cycling around. I’m so surprised with this fact. Though I’m still guessing that it’s not mandatory, it still is quite unusual to my understanding.
Upon writing this story, I pondered to an interesting yet funny fact that I just suddenly realized; in Indonesia it’s so common for a household to have more than one car and only have one to none bicycle, while in the Netherlands it’s really the other way around ^_____^
Back to my story, I live in a small city where I mostly preferred to call it a ‘village’. This town is so small to the point that I can reach the city center in a little more than 5 minutes by bike, and reach the kiddos’ school in just 3 minutes, also by bike. Not to mention other places like swimming pool and city library, places that we visit quite often, are also only few minutes within reach. That was the reason why I rarely used bus, and it never came across my mind to have a car, until recently.
To be able to get around the city with my two kids tag along, I always used a small trailer or cart for bicycle, specialized for toddler (or sometimes the Dutch use it for their pet). We called it here Fietskar; Fiets is the word for bicycle, and kar is the word for cart or small trailer. It’s really handy to use fietskar especially when you go shopping groceries together with these kiddos.
Since my kids don’t fit in the fietskar anymore, so we gave it away to one of my Noni’s classmate. I don’t intend to keep it because my kids are growing healthy and strong to the point that cycling is getting difficult with them sitting in the fietskar behind, while I have to fight through the heavy wind from up front… I guess my aging really limit me on this one ^____*
-Patricia-
This story is posted to participate in EF Challenge week 12th.
de[Bagpacker]'s Story 
Maybe your kids need their own bicycle, Miss :hehe.
I wonder if Jakarta has adequate lane for bicycle at its roads, too. Moreover, Jakarta’s topography is actually quite similar to Netherlands’–most of the plain are flat with little or no hill. It will need a lot of effort to transform Jakarta’s transportation from fossil-fueled to “foot-fueled”. But it’s not impossible at all.
Sometimes I wonder if Bogor is the city who has enough cycling path… people there would be professional cyclists :hihi.
Yup Gara, they are now learning how to bike a two-wheel bicycle… 🙂
I’m not sure if I’m entitled to speak as I’ve never been a Jakarta citizen before, but I’m a firm believer to the saying that efforts can be made as long as you have the willingness to do so. So I think it really depends on the government. Of course it might be difficult to add an additional biking path to an existing main street, so I’m more inclined to the idea of creating a greenery area for cycling or walking purposes. For me that’s more ‘doable’. Imagine this, if they could move the residents from certain area for the sake of development (named it mall or elite housing construction), even more can they do to ‘clean up’ specific area for the sake of greenery and healthy habit.
But well, look who’s talking… I think it’s easier to talk than to do ^____^
The last picture is so cute Mbak. 🙂
Yg cute krucilku kan…bukan fietskar nya… hehehehe… ^____^
Iya krucilnya yg cute. Hehehe. 🙂
I am picturing you taking your bike with your kiddos at the back. Hehehe. Seems nice to live there Patricia. If I was born there, I would have been able to ride bicycle then
Are you saying that you don’t know how to bike??? Oh my…. I somehow thought that every Indonesian must be good in riding a bicycle… Well, you just proved me wrong hehehehe…
I guess wherever it is, as long as we are with our loved ones and surrounded by nice people, it’s always a nice place to live… 🙂
Yes. I can’t ride a bike. Hiks.
So true Patricia. As long as we are with them.
kayaknya agak berbahaya kalo di sini… jalanan semakin liar dan tidak aman… 🙂
Terakhir ke Jkt, ngeri bgt sama pesepeda motor disana… Makin nekat dan ga ikut aturan… Bener-bener raja jalanan hahaha…
Mamaku di Jakarta tiap hari naik sepeda ke tempat usaha, paling 10 menit sih, drpd jalan kaki lebih baik naik sepeda gak cape kan hehe. Seandainya ya penduduk di Jakarta banyak naik sepeda spt penduduk di Belanda, saya yakin deh polusi udara berkurang banget 😀 .
Setuju… Makin berkurang yg pake mobil, (mudah2an) makin bersih udara Jkt… Saluutt euy buat ompung Benjamin hehehe 👍