From this shot it looks impossible to get a bike from somewhere in the middle, but I assume there are paths? I'd love to see a few more pictures
this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2025
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This is Eindhoven Centraal, in the Netherlands.
Yes there is lanes. It's just a small lot on the south side of the station.
There is actually far more parking at this station than the image would imply.
The parking lot on the north side is quite a bit larger (it has double height racks, and also recently got expanded). There is also another small lot on the south side, and two more underground bike parking garages as well.
They are also planning to rework the area around the station, the plans for which include a further expansion of the underground parking garages
What an absolutely fantastic photo to show the difference between cars and bikes.
Open street map even has the exact numbers for you. Well at least for the bikes. I roughly counted 80 car spots and considering most cars only move one person thats around a 8:1 space efficiency difference.
I'm not sure if that number is correct.
I counted the bikes at the request of @tyler@discuss.tchncs.de
My rough estimate is about 1200 bikes, so that is closer to 1:15.
Idk if the entire lot has bike racks or if there is just a lot of flat ground with not infrastructure. But even if there are racks everywhere, people will always just park their bikes randomly into the smallest gap. The osm data could just be out of date ofcourse, but its probably just based on the number of bike racks/bars. Thats the only way you could reasonably map it imo.
I cycled there real quick
Looks like they've since converted the car park to a temporary taxi stand and disabled parking lot as well
Nice, thanks for the pictures (:
Also, impressive that they've removed the parking lots
It's all part of the station rework. They are going to use that space for housing.
Looks like the construction made the taxi stand temporarily unreachable, so this appears to be the solution they came up with.
Edit: Worth noting that on the north side of the station there is an underground car parking garage, so it's not like they have removed all parking.
I do think the accessibility of the station is quite well balanced though. It's pretty clear that bike and bus are the main methods by which they expect you to come to the station, with taxi and car as an option.
If you had to estimate, how many bikes?
Counted 99 bikes in one row, for a total of 10 rows and 4 partial rows.
So I'm guestimating about 1200 bikes
Sounds about right, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht all have large indoor bike parking for a few thousand as well. There is also a lot of bikes on the other side of the station.
Yeah we have lanes normally. Still can be a bitch if you have to wiggle it free from 5 surrounding bikes. At stations or busy areas there are also racks to put your bikes in and on top off, so we can use double the space for bikes. I am from the Netherlands and have lived in student cities, and Amsterdam.
I wanted to move to the Netherlands because of their biking culture. But citizenship is difficult and I don't speak Dutch.
Plenty of people here dont speak dutch, that is only is a problem if you also don't speak English. Citizenship is difficult, but if you can find a job your employer will help you with the paperwork. There are some fields with high demand for labour.
I'll do my research. Thank you for the info.
Where is this? The amount of bikes suggests NL but it looks more like Germany…
If those were cars, it would require the land area of a small country to squeeze them all in!
That assumes they are regular sized cars, not the Ford Tanks you see every other person driving in North America. 😵
I saw something like this next to the train station in Antwerpen Berchem. I always wondered if most of those bike where still in active use, or abandonned. How do they make sure that abamdonned bike don't clutter the space for eternity?
At my university, from time to time, the administration attached notes at the bikes, marking them for being removed until a specified date.
Yes, that system in also in place in Eindhoven and enforced heavily at the station.
If they suspect that your bike has been abandoned it gets a sticker on the frame warning you when it will be removed at a certain date.
If it isnt abandoned you can just remove the sticker and that will be the sign that it's still owned and used. Otherwise it gets taken to a depot, and sold after a grace period of (I believe) a year.
Do my eyes deceive me, or are they just sitting there, not locked up to bike racks?
There is bike racks for most spots. I personally prefer parking at the north side though.
Source: Eindhoven is my city :)
But like... Some people do leave their bikes there completely unlocked?? I live in a city in the US that has decent (by US standards) bike infrastructure, and everyone I know that has a moderately decent bike is pretty paranoid about where they park it. No one would ever leave a bike unlocked, and even many bike racks aren't considered secure enough for anything other than a total beater bike.
No, bike theft is a thing also in the Netherlands
Most bikes come with a frame lock for short stops, and they are usually paired with a chain lock for more security.
I would imagine the bikes that are not secured to a rack in the picture are locked twice. Personally I don't trust that at the station (too risky) and I always lock it to a rack with my chain lock
You can sometimes find your bike in a nearby market for a fee. By a fee I mean they stole it and they are selling it back to you.
There is a bit of a running joke in my city that if your bike got stolen you can buy one for five euros at the station. Just approach the guy with the bolt cutters.
Wait. You mean all those bikes outside of the station weren’t grab-and-go?! Hope the guy found his bike after I was done using it!
(Kidding, but the thought crossed my mind)
Some of them might have been four wheelers when they were young, you never know!
Imagine how many empty fields of asphalt we could have instead
Whose the asshole that double parked?
Eindhovuhhhhhhh