Bicycling

Eyes on the Street: Holland on the Hudson

Streetsblog San Francisco's Bryan Goebel attended the NY400 event yesterday, where Dutch Cabinet Minister Frans Timmermans presented Deputy Mayor Robert C. Lieber and NYC & Company CEO George Fertitta with 200 orange commuter bikes as part of a year-long commemoration of "four hundred years of friendship between the Netherlands and the City of New York." To mark the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s arrival, the bikes arrived in Manhattan via a water taxi on the Hudson River.

By Brad Aaron

4:39 PM EDT on May 1, 2009

Streetsblog San Francisco’s Bryan Goebel attended the NY400 event yesterday, where Dutch Cabinet Minister Frans Timmermans presented Deputy Mayor Robert C. Lieber and NYC & Company CEO George
Fertitta with 200 orange commuter bikes as part of a year-long commemoration of “four hundred years of friendship between the Netherlands
and the City of New York.” To mark the 400th anniversary of Henry
Hudson’s arrival, the bikes arrived in Manhattan via
a water taxi on the Hudson River.

The bikes will be used for special events throughout the year, then will be donated to Recycle-A-Bicycle.

Bryan reports that the event, which included a tour of the Hudson River Greenway and a ride to the Museum of the City of New York, was tempered by the pedestrian injuries and deaths at the hands of a motorist during a Queens Day parade in the Netherlands.

See more of Bryan’s photos on Flickr, and visit City Room for more NY400 coverage.

Brad Aaron

Brad Aaron began writing for Streetsblog in 2007, after years as a reporter, editor, and publisher in the alternative weekly business. Brad adopted New York's dysfunctional traffic justice system as his primary beat for Streetsblog. He lives in Manhattan.