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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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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.