Back to the Netherlands and Cycling

One of the prior post had the Wikipedia link for info on cycling in the Netherlands and I told you about the lady and her bike on the train into Amsterdam. 
What I couldn't get my mind around was how big the frame and front and rear rack diameters were on the bikes in Holland 
Why would they make bikes so strongly built. It undoubtedly adds weight. 
The Netherlands is  relatively flat so it makes it easy to cycle so the bike weight is not really a factor, i.e. no mountains to climb. 
The main reason the Dutch use such strongly built bikes is because they put tons of weight on them. 
People ride on the front AND rear racks - I saw 3 people on 1 bike a couple of times and many times where 1 was riding on the back rack. 
They carry their groceries, office items and most importantly their kids on their bikes or in specially built bikes that have a huge box on the front of them. I saw very few road bikes in Amsterdam and thousands of the stoutly built "utility" type bikes. 
The other prevalent difference is the use of an internally geared rear hub vs dérailleur. This is a much stronger and more reliable way of shifting gears and it requires little maintenance but changing the oil in the hub every 3000 miles. 
The next couple of posts will show you the bikes of Amsterdam and I'll add comments as appropriate.  

They strap their kid onto the back seat. This wouldn't fly in America.  Somebody would probably call CPS on you. 

Here'a unique small wheel design. Note the size of the center tube!

This one carries 2 kids! 1 front 1 rear. 

They even have windshields for the kids sitting in front. 

Another example of the front carrying kid design with windshield and with rear panniers.  

Here's one with an adult riding the rear rack. 

And a rare road bike. 
More in another post.