Just a small section of some of the bike parking near the station. They’ve added new indoor bicycle parking since I took these photos in January. That holds approximately 4500 bicycle parking spaces in a three-storey, automated lot under the station. They’re building more bicycle parking to hold roughly another 12,500. All of this is to help get rid of this “ocean of bikes“, though it sometimes seems that as soon as a new parking garage is built, it’s already full. Still, imagine if all of these represented cars. You can see a small overview of the area I photographed in this photo. The massive above-ground parking is partially seen on the right.
A Flamingo in Utrecht
My former life in the Netherlands
A Flamingo in Utrecht 
You just call Here boy/girl! and that’ll do it.
How do the high-rise racks work? Truly awe-inspiring!
Take a look at http://youtu.be/cWf5fbSUNAg?t=5m25s to see the high-rise racks at work
That’s a great video to show various aspects of how the whole system works, from the special tracks in the stairs to get bikes up and down easily, to the pull-out-down top racks, to the system of showing how many spots are left in a certain section.
Mine would be the orange one. Just so I could find it. I’ve got stickers all over my car, partly because it’s the Austin thing to do, but also so I can find it in a crowded parking lot.
I think that’s one of the many reasons why there are so many unusual/amateur paint jobs. It definitely helps it stand out a bit amid a sea of bicycles that look the same. Stickers, flowers, garlands, and more are pretty common additions!
Wow!! Such a mass of colorful confusion — and such a testament to ingenuity and health and saving energy. Great images!
Thanks! The Netherlands as a whole puts a lot of effort and thought into the bicycle infrastructure, which is why it’s such a common mode of transport here.
CRAZY! We were completely taken about by the bike set up when we were in Amsterdam….these pics are great…
The crazy thing is that you’ll see masses of bikes throughout the city, not just in the more obvious parking lot by the station. I’ve got some other photos I should post. 🙂
Yes I did! Fortunately I took a photo. There were trees in my photo but when I returned to fetch my bike there were no trees at the bike park area. It turns out there were four different bike park areas. My advice – take a photo of where you parked the bike and then step back take a photo with some feature that stands out. Next take a photo from inside the station of the door that leads to the bike parking area. I had parked at the Amstel Station in Amsterdam . It never occurred to me that there was more than one bike parking area.
Lots of photos sounds like an excellent way to keep track of where you parked! I have a good sense of direction, but even I get turned around sometimes in that area. It doesn’t help that I don’t go that often and they’ve been doing tons of work on the area for years, so it always looks different. 🙂