F1: Organizers think 50,000 will ride their bike to the Dutch GP

More than 50,000 race will be expected to travel to this year’s Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort on bicycles to avoid gridlock in the coastal town.

Organizers hope that half the fans who are expected to flock to the coast will travel by bike or scooter. Zandvoort’s railway station was renovated and expanded last year to cater for up to 10,000 passengers an hour.

The limited access to Zandvoort, which nestles between the dunes and the shore, has been one of the biggest challenges facing the organizers as around 100,000 people are expected to arrive over the weekend of September 3 to 5.

The Telegraaf said it had seen the application and mobility plan which give details of how organizers plan to cope with the high volume of traffic, which is expected to peak between 8am and 10am each day.

The gates will be opened at 7am to try to spread the rush hour. Roads into the town will be sealed off to all traffic apart from residents, who can enter and leave by the south approach, and buses for racegoers, media and VIPs, which will be allowed in from the north.

“What we are doing here is unique,’ Rob Langenberg, head of event operations told the Telegraaf.

“I am convinced that we will overcome the stigma that Zandvoort is inaccessible. We have accumulated a huge amount of information from our research and surveys. ‘The images of all those cyclists will go around the world. Of course, it is a huge challenge, and it is important that people’s arrival times are spread out.” DutchNews.nl