If no one Dutch answers I'll ping my Brit cousin. He and his London crew take a ferry across and ride in Netherlands all the time. They may know.

Thanks. I'm not too worried about it; there aren't a ton of people out when I'm running. Just curious what the etiquette is.

These are The Netherlands and we do have rules. Nobody abides by them however. I don't know the situation in Bergen, but in general it's not a problem at all to run on the bike paths. Just be aware of the cyclists and you're going to be fine.

Thanks. The paths are really amazing here.

benroc wrote:

The only other option is to run in the road.

That sound's highly unlikely to me.

Maybe you would have to make a 'huge' detour?

Uit het Reglement verkeersregels en verkeerstekens, artikel 4:
1. Voetgangers gebruiken het trottoir of het voetpad.
2. Zij gebruiken het fietspad of het fiets/bromfietspad indien trottoir en voetpad ontbreken.
3. Zij gebruiken de berm of de uiterste zijde van de rijbaan, indien ook een fietspad of een fiets/bromfietspad ontbreekt

1 means you have to use the foot path
2 means you have to use the bike path if there is no foot path
3 means you use the shoulder or edge ofthe road if there is no foot or bike path.

Here it looks like bike path, road, or nothing

Very helpful, thanks. Looks like everything here is category (2).

As others have said before, if there is no footpath, you can use the bikepath. But if youŕe in Bergen, go run in the dunes!

Often the bikelanes are 2-way, than run on the left side (against traffic) so you can't be 'hit' by cyclists coming from behind.

Not sure which 'Bergen' you are, I guess te one close to the sea. If so, run north to Schoorl, there is a visitorcentre from which you can run beautifull loops (5 till 19km and everything in between if I remember correctly). You run through forests (and dunes if you take the longer routes), no tarmac, but good solid paths.

Enjoy :)

I'm from the Netherlands.

I do +95% of my running on the bike paths. I think most people do it. Just make sure you are visible and put on some lights when it's dark.

Just avoid the morning hours when all the kids are biking to school or in the evening when everyone is getting home form work. Then you should be fine.

Thanks to you and others who have suggested running the dunes. I will have to sneak out of my meeting so I can do that in daylight. It's definitely a beautiful place.

Not to derail, but I'm going to Schiedam at the end of the year. Any idea of running routes there? Thanks!