Uber is going to pick up cyclists in a city that has more bikes than people

Uber has launched a new service called UberBIKE in Amsterdam - a city home to more bikes than people.

The service, announced on Thursday on Uber's website, allows cyclists to open up their Uber app and request an Uber with a bike rack.

When the UberX arrives, the bike is mounted to the back of the car and the customer is charged the same as a regular UberX, plus an addition €4 for the bike.

Uber envisages that cyclists will use the service if it starts raining or if their legs get too tired to get them to their intended destination.

In the Netherlands, there are around 18 million bicycles and 17 million people so each person has a bicycle, or even more than one, according to Saskia Kluit of the Dutch Bicycle Association.

The transportation giant, which raised $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabia on Thursday, has not previously tried to gain business from cyclists. If the initiative works in Amsterdam then it could be rolled out other cities with large numbers of cyclists.