Amsterdam’s cycle paths are no longer safe as they are crowded with scooters which drive too fast, are too heavy and too wide. This causes dangerous situations and makes cycling in Amsterdam increasingly hazardous, especially for vulnerable cyclists such as the elderly and the young.
- There are now four times as many scooters as there were ten years ago.
- 96 % of the scooters drive far too fast and are often illegally tuned.
- Scooters are involved in accidents three times more often than all other road users.
- Scooters are very polluting and unhealthy, up to a hundred times more old diesel cars.
As it is now:
Amsterdam City Council wants to move scooters to road. Mayor Eberhard van der Laan announced in 2014 that this would be realised within a year. Early 2019 we can expect some change.
It will be complicated, with scooters sometimes allowed on cycle paths and not in other cases.
We want all scooters and other motorised vehicles that are a hazard to cyclists banned from the cycle paths.
How did we get here?
Amsterdam was once the cycling capital of the world. It led the way in developing and constructing the best possible infrastructure for cycling. However it is now losing ground to scooters. An anomaly in Dutch law has made it possible for scooters to take over Dutch cycle paths. The number of scooters in Amsterdam grew at an astonishing rate, from 8,125 in 2007 to over 40,000 in 2017.
The whole situation only arose because scooter manufacturers and retail outlets exploited an anomaly in Dutch law. Scooters with a limiter to stop them travelling at more than 25 km/hr have a blue number plate and are allowed to use the bike paths and their riders don’t have to wear helmets. Other scooters with a yellow number plate can drive at 45 km/hr on the road and their riders have to wear helmets. However these real scooters are being overtaken in numbers and even in speed by the fake “blue-number-plate scooters”.
The number of accidents between cyclists and scooters is growing. Cyclists in Amsterdam feel unsafe and this problem gets worse every year as the number of scooters on cycle paths increases by 20% per year.
Give The Cycle Paths Back To The Cyclists!