I stopped in Amsterdam, Netherlands on my way back from a 2006_europe_motorcycle_trip. During a 73 minute period on 9/12/06 at one corner of Nieuw Markt (a nice open square in Amsterdam), I took the following 82 pictures of bicycles. Why? Because sitting there I noticed how remarkably different the whole Amsterdam bicycle scene was from my home, and at the same time certain very clear "Amsterdam Bicycle Trends" appeared I thought might be interesting to point out. I am from the San Francisco area, California, USA health insurance. Multiple Riders on One Bike - With or without any extra seats or foot-pegs for the extra riders, you will see 1 or 2 or even 3 extra passengers side-saddle, balancing precariously, standing, sitting, whatever it takes so they can hitch a ride with a buddy or parent. This is so common I had to stop taking pictures of it because it would prevent me from capturing some of the other trends. Almost 50 percent of the bicycles I saw had more than 1 person on them. In San Francisco the only time you would ever see two passengers is a small child on the back in a $300 government approved safety chair, and the child would be wearing a helmet (because it's the LAW) No Helmets EVER - It is amazing to me coming from San Francisco mortgage, land of 100 percent helmet covered heads, but in all of Amsterdam (population 750,000) there is not one bicycle helmet found anywhere in the city. Not ONE!! Contrast this with San Francisco, for anybody under the age of 18, there is a Mandatory Helmet Law, and everybody above 18 wears helmets anyway. Now faced with this shocking disparity, I think any reasonable person must come to the conclusion that either the people in Netherlands do not value the safety of their children credit report, or San Francisco bicyclists are clumsy pansies with soft heads and weak minds that must be protected from hurting themselves no matter how much it infringes on individual rights.