box bikes

A ‘bakfiets’, best translated as box bike, is a thirty-kilo bicycle with a large box on the front. In the past these bikes were used by Dutch bakers, milk men and grocers to deliver their goods. Nowadays the mothers of Amsterdam use the vehicle to transport their children, since there is not much space in the center of the city for cars. Because box bikes don’t fit in the regular cycle-parks you will find them everywhere in the city. Tied to lampposts, trees or bridges, against walls of houses or just somewhere on the pavement the cycles wait for mommies to climb them and children to enjoy a ride with them. The majority of the pictures are made in the old center of Amsterdam and Amsterdam-Zuid, two areas where the rich people of the city live.

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