More accidents with e-bikes, should helmets be compulsory?

According to the legal advisory group “Das”, the number of accidents involving cyclists, especially electric or fat bikes, has increased by about 15 percent so far this year.

Between January and April, the company handled 256 cases of injuries involving at least one cyclist, Das said on Monday, World Bicycle Day. The number of legal cases involving cyclists was 25% higher in 2023 compared to the pre-coronavirus year of 2019 (1,222).

“Most accidents that lead to legal action involve a collision between a car and a bicycle, often an e-bike or fat bike,” Das spokesman Rembrandt Groenewegen told AD.

“The roads are busier and cyclists and drivers are more often distracted by their phones, music, navigation systems and social media messages. This contributes to the increase in cycling accidents,” he said.

Car drivers also have to get used to the increased speed for bicycles, he said.

Last year, 684 people died in a road accident in the Netherlands, 61 fewer than in 2022. However, for the fourth year in a row, cyclists made up the largest group, and in 40% of cases they used an e-bike, the national statistics agency CBS said in April. About 40% of them were over 75 years old.

Meanwhile, a survey by insurance comparison website Independer found that three out of four respondents think it makes sense to wear a helmet when riding an e-bike and one in three thinks helmets should be mandatory.

However, despite support for the head covering, 82% of respondents in the Independent polls said they do not wear one and do not intend to do so.

“That is not in our culture,” Menno Dijcks of the Independer told the Telegraaf.

Amsterdam Bicycles

In Amsterdam An experiment has been launched that allows cyclists with fast e-bikes to use the road instead of a designated cycle path.

Melanie van der Horst, head of the city’s transport department, said the aim was to find out whether speed rather than vehicle type was a better way to separate traffic on the city’s busy streets, especially during rush hour.

In 2019, Amsterdam bannedNorwegiani.e. small motorcycles with lower power and a speed limit of 25 km/h, were banned from most cycle paths within the A10 ring road and helmets were made compulsory for users.