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Amsterdam prepares to ‘ban the fatbikes’ amid rise in serious accidents [The Netherlands]
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2026
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Throttle controlled electric bicycles have revolutionized individual mobility in Chinese major cities. They are low cost, low emission, and can be used by a wide demographic, for example, teenagers, who also want individual mobility.
By banning them “because they’re unsafe”, western governments are missing an opportunity to modernize the way in which people move around. Instead, they should figure out how to have people use these safely.
There isn't much to figure out. Treat them as what they are: Small motorcycles, and as a consequence, require a license, insurance, mandate helmets, ban them from roadways reserved for non-motorised traffic, and enforce minimal technical standards.
I disagree, I think they have other properties than small motorcycles. Motorcycles drive faster than 30-45 kph, are more expensive to buy and maintain, and they’re noisy, whereas electric bikes are noise-free.
Requiring an insurance and license makes them needlessly expensive - in China, neither is required, except for wearing a helmet. (on paper, they require license & insurance, but police doesn’t enforce this).
Lack of noise doesn't make them less, but more dangerous, because you won't even hear them coming.
Small motorcycles do also exist as mopeds in a class limited to 25km/h, yet require a license and insurance for good reason. They are way heavier than a bicycle and will go those speeds uphill.
The absurdity of this situation has only arisen from stupid politicians making a legal exception by treating such vehicles with an electric motor as bicycles rather than as what they actually are.
It's really quite simple. If it has a motor, it's a motor vehicle. Motor vehicles have been around for more than a century by now, and, due to long experience, have been quite sensibly regulated to prevent excessive accidents and cover the damages. Just because electric motor vehicles have been become more viable due to improved battery technology, there is no reason to exempt them from those regulations that have been written in blood.
You can easily make these things into much more powerful than what's on the sticker things.
I think they'd all be happy to classify them as electric motorbikes.
Requiring registration plates, training, a license, insurance, safety gear, and making them road only.
They don't belong on cycling or pedestrian infrastructure. They shouldn't be ridden by children.
I'd settle for a moped classification with cheap registration and basic licencing for kids that teaches them, "only use the throttle in bike lanes, and we'll take the bike away if we see you do it anywhere else."
Shouldn't it be "don't use the throttle in the bike-lane"?
For clarity, "on infrastructure intended for small vehicles to do 20-40kph". I mostly mean bike gutters on roads and dedicated bike paths as opposed to footpath/sidewalk with pedestrians.
That's the thing, these things are light enough they're perfectly fine anywhere a bicycle can go. If you need speed limits, enforce speed limits.
If it's limited to what you'd expect in a bicycle lane, sure. But they're not. There's nobody to enforce it.
UK rules are they can only be pedal assisted and can only go up to 15mph (at which point the motor cuts out and if you want to go faster then grow some leg muscles).
That feels reasonable to me. I just don't want to be mown down on a canal towpath by some 13 year-old, balaclava-wearing scrote doing 30mph on his Temu motorbike.
How bad are things over there?? In Vietnam, all the kids use high-powered electrics until they're like 14 or so and can get on a 125cc, it shocks me when I see kids on major roads, but it doesn't create the danger to the public you're describing.
Bicycles already exist and Amsterdam is famously cycle friendly. But these things go way to fast for the kids riding them without helmets or insurance, zipping through unsuspecting tourists and getting into loads of accidents
Blocked
I think teenagers riding them would be disastrous, otherwise I agree.
Yeah, I disagree -- I think teenagers are one of the most miserable demographic group in western societies, think teenage depression.
They aren't allowed to vote, they have limited agency, because they have limited money, they have limited mobility, because they aren't allowed to drive. I think they should be empowered, and I think electric scooters empower them somewhat.
Pretty much everyone grew up just fine having much less than today's teenagers.
Lack of dangerous vehicles is certainly not the cause of their depression.
Look around you. Do people look just fine?
"If everyone had access to a fatbike, we would live in utopia. No fascists, no pedophiles, no corruption, no billionaires, no climate change!"
It won't create a utopia, but displacing cars with 2-wheelers and giving kids more independence is good for everyone's mental health.
Riding a motorbike in Hanoi is infinitely less stressful than driving a car on any stroad in America. In China on an ebike you get the unique ability to ride both where cars or bicycles go.
The issue here isn't ebikes, its unsafe behavior. If you need speed limits, put in speed limits. It would be silly to limit cars and trucks to 20 horsepower instead of setting the appropriate speed limit for where they're driving.
My experience in the NL: bicycles and functioning public transportation is what gives teenagers mobility, without requiring a lot of money (especially bicycles). Forcing them to share infrastructure with much faster, much more expensive electric mopeds claiming to be e-bikes to avoid safety and licensing requirements makes this much worse. The hard-earned mobility from the infrastructure already in place gets worse, not better, from fatbikes being treated as bicycles.
Interesting perspective, thanks for sharing. Growing up in small town Germany, where cycling infrastructure is much worse compared to the NL, I would have loved to have a fat bike. I could have visited my friends living in the villages outside my town without having to rely on a bus that goes twice per day.
But I see how this is different in a place with great cycling infrastructure, and I agree that fatbikes somewhat cannibalize the existing bicycle infra.
That's probably (hopefully) the next step, but sometimes governments have to act fast for safety purposes
They wouldn't have to act at all, hadn't they given those light electric motorcycles an exemption from regulations that lead to them being treated as bicycles in the first place.
unfortunately thats not the world we live in though