Amsterdam has officially completed its seven kilometre Binnenring cycling route, a project that began in 2016 and somehow required ten years to finish. In a city where bicycles outnumber common sense in municipal planning meetings, authorities have finally managed to provide cyclists with something resembling a continuous route. The achievement was celebrated with considerable enthusiasm, presumably because several officials involved were still alive to witness it.
The decade long project involved redesigning streets, improving intersections and reducing space for cars. Apparently, moving a few traffic lanes requires the same administrative determination as constructing an international airport, only with considerably more discussions about pavement.
Even better, the Dutch Cyclists' Union has already pointed out that parts of the supposedly completed route remain too narrow. Ten years of planning, construction and consultation, and Amsterdam has successfully produced a bicycle lane that occasionally struggles to accommodate bicycles. One imagines the endless meetings, expensive consultants and carefully organised public consultations required to discover that cyclists dislike being hit by cars.
The municipality calls it progress. Fair enough. A child born when construction started could now be cycling to school on the finished route. Provided, naturally, there is enough room.