Visit to Dutch land

For work I get to travel sometimes but about a year ago I visited Dutch land while at a conference in Kalkar Germany.  When I got there, I was surprised on how much bicycles were used.  They had a few things going that I thought were cool.

At first glance, I was shocked to see that I didn't see a single bike with some crazy chain on it, when the bikes were locked up.  But after some careful inspection, I noticed that in fact every bike had a lock.. just it's part of the bike design.  Brilliant. Asking a local, he informed me that bike theft was a very rare event.

Then there was the breaks.  They all were using hub breaking system, seems to work great.  They have little maintenance issues with these and you can grease your chain up and not have to worry that you won't be able to break afterwards.  I think a lot of places could learn from there bike styles and there bike lanes.  They had lanes everywhere for bikes to go on, with a slight separation between them and the cars.  I myself, when using the lanes in Ottawa.. I'm always afraid to get door'ed! 

Door'ed : (When a car door whips open, into a bike lane.)

Also, people in dutch land for all sorts of reasons.  I've seen SO families that bike together, on a single bike...