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Makes sense that they would cause issues when there are so many bicycles and pedestrians around.
Make it so they have to be licensed, insured and are legal on the roads. But then allow for the bikes to have speed increases.
Basically a really cheap electric motorcycle.
seen this in CH. (my first lemmy comment 🖖)
Cannot be done, as these bikes are not technically compliant for that. First you would need to upgrade the brakes, frame, lights et cetera and add mandatory features such as brake lights, a mirror, license plate holder and a horn. Then you would have to get type approval as this is mandatory for every motorized vehicle, which adds cost to every produced bike.
When you've done all that, your product is no longer affordable and will fall in the same price category as all other motorized scooters.
The problem is not that the product cannot be classified, the problem is that the product is being used in an illegal way such that its speed and power go beyond what is allowed, which creates safety risks for the rider and anyone else around.
Nono, don't allow them to have more speed. It doesn't seem you understand Dutch roads if you dat that. It will cause a lot more accidents.
Putting a license plate on it however will make it a lot easier to track stuff. And while we are on it make helmets compulsory. Then the convenience is gone and not as cool anymore.
These are not fatbikes. Fatbikes are normal pedal bikes with big tires that are good in snow.
These are Fat Tire e-bikes. You should always be calling them ebikes when discussing them in English. Perhaps this is a mis translation.
e-bike is also horribly misused. It's everything from a bike with a little battery that kicks in a bit when you pedal, to what can only be described as an electric powered motorbike.
It's in the first par. of the article.
" .. thick-tyred electric bikes.. the Dutch call “fatbikes”
Agreed that it may cause some confusion but in The Netherlands the amount of electric fatbikes against plain old fatbikes is in the order of 1000:1.
Actually "ebike" is also too generic as there are multiple ebike classes. The one discussed here is the pedal-electric one that has a legitimate maximum of 25 kmph in Europe. But there's also the speed-pedelec which can go up to 45 kmph and has type approval.
human powered locomotion (foot, bike, skate, etc) and mobility assist devices, should be completely separate from motorized vehicles (electric bike, scooter, cars, combustion,etc). simple as.
That is sort of true. Electric bikes are allowed because they provide assistance only when humans are riding (pedal assist), never autonomously. The initial idea was to help elderly people cycle. The category has been abused over the years in such a way that we now have bikes that compete with motorized vehicles and unsafe import that is easy to tweak, pushing bikes way beyond their legally intended limits.
Why are 12 year olds even allowed to drive what is essentially a motorbike?
A question the Dutch government won't answer.
Let's give motorcycles with insane torque to children, What could go wrong?
Most of those even don't need you to pedal (which where I live is a prerequisite for e-bikes).
That was sadly exactly what I was expecting from the electric motorization of bicycles. It is a history that has repeated itself many times in the last 70 or 80 years since the first combustion engine mopeds.
The fact is that the human-powered bike is at a sweet spot of efficiency and safety. Once you go faster, you need a helmet, a heavier frame, wider tyres, better brakes, wider lanes, protective clothing, protection against cold, a heavier motor for propelling all the extra weight, and so on. The energy input from you the human dwindles.
It is not any more a bicycle.
You need a helmet on purely muscle-powered bicycles, too. A helmet saved both mine and my father's life in accidents that would not had happened were we not riding bikes that moment.
A majority of bicycle accident fatalities could have been prevented with helmets.
Wear helmets. There are cool models, too, don't try that excuse.
The annoying part is having to carry the helmet around with you when bike is parked.
Who knew that reinventing the motorcycle for like the third time was going to have the exact same result.
I think the laws where I am in Germany are stricter than the Netherlands. But it's always worth trying more granular rules. Such as age limit, helmets for kids, fines for increasing performance, speed limit or ban in parks. This is fairer, but much harder to police than an outright ban. But big enough fines should be a deterrent. And might be preferred by fat bikers.