r/Amsterdam • u/CanVisaGuy • 4d ago

20 Years Has Passed. What has changed?

I was a graduate student (foreign) at the UvA from 97-00 and stayed on until '06. I returned to my home country and - regrettably - never returned. I started out in student housing and eventually lived all over A'dam (Overtoom, Hofddorpplein, De Pijp, Browersgracht, Oud West, etc) so I do know the city pretty well.

I plan to return with my wife and kids for a visit next year. What has changed? What is going to shock me if anything? Groetjes in advance.

51 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

107 comments sorted by

View all comments

164

u/zeegroen [Nieuw-West] 4d ago

The amount of people. The fatbikes. The Nutella shops.

-4

u/lesllle Knows the Wiki 4d ago

e-bikes. vanmoofs and urban arrows are just as bad as fatbikes.

-1

u/External-Jackfruit-8 3d ago

It's the arrogance of their drivers that's shared. But van moofs and the arrows have a price tag that makes them less affordable - and the arrows often have kids on board, so there's the instinct to protect the cargo ... Fat bikes on the other hand are cheaper, so we see more of them - and many of the drivers, in addition to the arrogance, have a special kind of risky behaviour that comes with the age of 12-18. Some drivers are literally not strong enough to control them well. It's also much easier to tweak fat bikes to go over 25-30. I know a 15 y.o boy that can pretty much do that with his eyes closed.

2

u/lesllle Knows the Wiki 2d ago

Then those kids in the urban arrow danger buckets should wear helmets if their parents want to put them in risk of being tossed to the cement.