As ATL bike culture booms, is 'Atlamsterdam' nickname warranted?

Maybe it’s not as iconic as “ATL,” as Chamber of Commerce-friendly as “The City Too Busy to Hate,” or as arguably cringe-worthy as “The Big Peach.” 

But a new Atlanta nickname has emerged that signals one direction the city is clearly heading, from transportation and infrastructure standpoints: “Atlamsterdam.” 

That’s a nod to Amsterdam, one of the world’s most bikeable cities. Is Atlanta as bike-friendly as The Netherlands’ (totally flat) capital city? No, it is not. 

Are we getting closer? Yes—and rapidly so—with every passing year.    

Consider this anecdotal evidence: Despite it being a week when most of Atlanta is lounging somewhere for Spring Break, the Atlanta Department of Transportation reports that crews are hard at work installing bike-lane stencils, green paint, and striping for the Howell Mill Complete Street makeover, an effort to make roughly two and ½ miles of that car-clogged corridor more people-friendly. (Protective barriers for those lanes are forthcoming, but not as many as some alternate-transportation enthusiasts would like.)  

Meanwhile, the PATH Foundation details in its Spring newsletter how the fabled Silver Comet Connector project—a multi-use trail linking from the Beltline corridor to the Georgia-Alabama line, and beyond—is swiftly becoming reality. 

As of this month, according to PATH officials, all phases of the Silver Comet Connector will be either finished or actively under construction, with completion scheduled for summer 2026. That includes finished sections in Cobb County and the handy, scenic new Woodall Rail Trail near Topgolf Atlanta. 

Elsewhere, as most Atlantans on two wheels are aware by now, 85 percent of the Beltline’s 22-mile loop is either open to the public or actively under construction. That tally includes segments dotted all over town that lend enough connectivity to make Atlanta feel geographically smaller once you experience them. 

Smaller wins for bike and e-scooter enthusiasts—the 10th Street bike lanes’ new artful concrete barriers, the pedestrian bridge spanning the Gulch, the Eastside Trolley Trail, the Proctor Creek Greenway, Georgia Tech’s new cycle track, and much more—have come to fruition in recent years, helping Atlantans not traveling by vehicle get safely out of car traffic.  

But is Atlamsterdam a stretch? 

The term appears to have roots as a nod to another, uh, activity both cities have in common (cough cough, puff puff), and we’re told it reemerged more recently during a chat between two buddies on a bike ride. 

Our 2 cents: Atlamsterdam has a nice ring to it. The nickname says something to the urban-planning world. And its connotations are more appropriate almost literally by the day. 

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