Bad news for pedaller-revellers thinking of paying a visit to Amsterdam – the city has called time on its beer bikes. You’ll have to go to Wisconsin now.
Beer bikes – known locally as bierfiets – are mobile bar tables that are pedalled along by multiple drinkers. As you might imagine, they can be fairly rowdy and very slow moving.
According to NL Times, they aren’t especially popular with locals. People who signed a 2015 petition against them complained about having beer thrown on them, being spat on and people urinating in the street.
Speaking to The Guardian, one local woman said: “Many tourists seem to see Amsterdam as a kind of theme park. The racket produced by a passing bierfiets is unbelievable.”
Video: “Eh Bradders – giddy up lad” – Boddingtons back with bike-themed ad
From today, the beer bicycle is banned from Amsterdam city centre. There had been plans to introduce the ban at the start of the year but with most beer bike operators housing their vehicles centrally, this was deemed unfair and they were given time to cancel their garage leases.
Sebastiaan Meijer, the council’s spokesperson for economic affairs, explained that the city was becoming a little more discriminating when it came to the tourists it was looking to attract.
“For a long time our marketing policy was simply aimed at making people come to Amsterdam. Now we want to spread a new message: ‘come to Amsterdam, but please behave’.”
9 thoughts on “Amsterdam calls time on beer bikes”
I’m surprised…bunch of
I’m surprised…bunch of pissed, rowdy stag do’s/hen parties, drinking, shouting and vomiting around the city….I thought the Dutch were a tolerant bunch?
Chris Hayes wrote:
a few friends who live there have some funny stories about Dutch tolerance – women getting told off for wearing a towel in the mixed sauna because the rules say you must be naked, or getting offered a customary biscuit with tea when visiting, but upon asking if there were more biscuits, suddenly a look of confusion on the host’s face… I have done my part and now they ask for more, this has never happened before!
The Dutch history of protestant spartan values and their interesting relationship with Germany means that there are very strict rules to follow, which mean it is your duty to be tolerant within very clear guidelines, and not a centimetre more.
Its not a bike its got 4
Its not a bike its got 4 wheels….
can’t argue with any of that,
can’t argue with any of that, got stuck behind on in london. loud, annoying, and holds up traffic for ages.
If I remember correctly they
If I remember correctly they are now banned in Berlin too.
I expect to see them in
I expect to see them in Chester any day now.
On the theme of appropriate
On the theme of appropriate punishments – May I most ‘umbly suggest that by way of letting justice be seen to be done; bike thieves, those caught speeding, gawping at their phone whilst driving, drink drivers, reckless drivers e.t.c. should be shackled (naked) to a device like this and thence have to trundle up & down whilst passers-by pelt them with abuse & rotten fruit.
You know it makes sense…..
You can also come to Syracuse
You can also come to Syracuse, New York and ride one at the Great New York State Fair!
https://thebigyellowfellow.com/
Slow moving 4 wheeled
Slow moving 4 wheeled vehicles in towns driven by the senseless moving erratically and causing frsutration and annoyance.
Who’d have thunk it?