The Intersection of Bike and Art

What do you get when you combine one of the world’s greatest museums and one of the world’s greatest bike cultures? You get the bike path that goes through the Rijksmuseum.

The bike path is actually a tunnel that runs through the museum, separating galleries and serving as a shortcut across the city. While this unique bike path gets numerous cool points from cyclists, Rijksmuseum board members aren’t so psyched about it. At least, they weren’t initially.

 

During the museum’s 10-year closure for renovation, the museum entrance was moved to the center of the building, which is in the tunnel, and next to the bike path.  For the safety of tourists, who may not understand that in Holland the ubiquitous bike is almighty and cyclists will not hesitate
to run over anyone in their path – even the oblivious tourist – museum officials decided that they bike lane would not be reopened.

This decision caused uproar amongst the residents of Amsterdam but in the end the city council
voted to reopen the path.

Photo credit: Jonathan Maus

The path has glass walls give riders a view into the museum as they pass under the vaulted
ceiling. What a fun way to see a museum!