The Provos and the White Bicycles

 

 

The Bicycle Scam of Amsterdam

 

  In the middle of the Sixties the city fathers of Amsterdam, Holland, solicited suggestions from the public about how to cope with problems of downtown parking and traffic congestion.

 

  A group of theatrical surrealist anarchists who had become known as the Provos recommended blocking streets to motor vehicles entirely and furnishing the community with a great number of free public bicycles for getting from one place to another.

 

  Though city hall rejected the idea, the Provos decided to supply bicycles anyhow. Managing to scrounge up about a dozen and a half bikes, they painted them white and issued a communiqué that the white bicycles now positioned in the downtown area were for everyone's use.

 

  This violated a municipal law forbidding citizens to leave bicycles anywhere without locking them, so the police rounded up all the white bikes and impounded them.

 

  "But that law is to prevent bicycles from being stolen," the Provos objected, "and these bikes are not personal property. We want them 'stolen' and used and 'stolen' again."

 

  Although it made them look like old fools, the authorities refused to make the Provo bicycles an exception to the law.

 

  So when they finally got their bikes back, the Provos equipped them all with combination locks and then painted the combinations on the bicycles.

 

White bicycle plan: Initiated by Luud Schimmelpenninck, the white bicycle plan proposed the closing of central Amsterdam to all motorised traffic, including motorbikes, with the intent to improve public transport frequency by more than 40% and to save two millions guilders per year. Taxis were accepted as semi-public transport, but would have to be electrically powered and have a maximum speed of 25 m.p.h. The Provos planned for the municipality to buy 20,000 white bikes per year, which were to be public property and free for everybody to use. After the plans were rejected by the city authorities, the Provos decided to go ahead anyway. They painted 50 bikes white and left them on streets for public use. The police impounded the bikes, as they violated municipal law forbidding citizens to leave bikes without locking them. After the bikes had been returned to the Provos, they equipped them all with combination locks and painted the combinations on the bicycles. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provo_(movement))