The bike lanes of Dutch cities have been getting a bit Wild West lately, with a variety of new fatbikes, e-bikes, electric step scooters and more joining the traditional two-wheelers—and city officials in the country’s five biggest cities are calling for a halt to the invasion.
Aldermen from Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Eindhoven have written to Parliament ahead of a road safety debate, saying they want the cities to be given the right to regulate what goes in the bike lanes. Their letter stated that “Bike paths must remain safe for all cyclists, not just the biggest, strongest, and fastest.” They pointed to a consistent rise in the number of cyclists injured in traffic accidents.
The letter argued that the regulations being discussed don’t deal with this; they said that “Their starting point is: everything on the cycle path. That’s not right.” Rather than pushing everything but cars and trucks off the roads, they say, “Municipalities should be able to move vehicles like large cargo bikes onto the roadway and locally ban other types of vehicles, such as e-step scooters.”
They also called for a lowered city speed limit that would make it possible to mix more light electric vehicles into the road stream safely.
