A plan to put 10,000 electric vehicles (EVs) on the streets of Amsterdam in five years has met with fierce resistance from an unlikely quarter - the city's famed body of cyclists.
Cyclists say that the promotion of EVs will diminish the status of the bike, swallowing up a large portion of the 550,000 parking spots currently used by cyclists and encouraging a more sedentary lifestyle.
According to research conducted by the city, cyclists are responsible for a full 55 percent of all movement within the centre of Amsterdam. However, transport planners want a big increase in EV use over the next five years, rising to 40,000 EVs trundling over its cobbled streets by 2020.
Cycle lobby groups are understandably concerned that a carbon-neutral way of getting round the city, proven for many years, will have to make way for a vehicle which is less environmentally-friendly.
"We are afraid. If you add more parking spaces, you get more cars," said Marjolein de Lange, a member of the cycling union Fietsersbond, "We think the cleanest means of transport is the bike. Definitely." *
* Do Amsterdam's cyclists have a point? Or will they just have to budge up and share? Let us know!
That's some really really long fingernails you've got there!
It's not too bad. Most just make enough to get by and make people have to accept waiting or a different color. They know people are going to be...
Indepent drivel: I like it.
Cycling for mind: Some seriously shit steering there.
Have you been on a train recently?
I like this sales attitude! Old style UK deprecation. "There are better brands - but try our pedals. Some people like them."...
The world's biggest violin, meanwhile I'm playing the world's smallest
You would like to think that 7 might make it a bit harder to ignore but I'm sure there will be a good excuse
Perhaps he followed the suggested Shimano online anti counterfeit link and saw that Shimano's opening header says "... crackdown in China.."?
Especially the fat ones.