We had several close encounters with these fearsome individuals while in Amsterdam. I’m told that the rules of the road apply to cyclists just as much as any other road user in Holland, it’s just that in Amsterdam many of them choose to ignore the rules. We saw countless examples of them cycling the wrong way along one-way streets and on the pavements (that’s sidewalks for any US readers). Red lights were no obstacle to most of them and bike lights at night were for sissies only.
We were crossing the road once when a cyclist ploughed into the man in front of us. After he picked himself up he pointed to the green walk sign but the bike rider just jumped back on his bike and rode off, weaving through the traffic crossing the junction in front of him. The startled pedestrian turned to me with the most comical of expressions as if he couldn’t believe that the collision had really happened. I just shrugged; what can you do?