No rules to restrict fatbike use yet, despite dangers: minister

Infrastructure minister Barry Madlener has ruled putting a minimum age on the use of fatbikes or bringing in compulsory helmets for the time being, but said he did not rule it out.

Madlener, a minister on behalf of the far right PVV, said an age limit would be going too far because would have an impact on children who use electric bikes to get to school. “But we don’t rule out anything,” he said. “We see the dangers.”

He was speaking in response to an RTL survey which found nearly everyone wants extra controls on the use of the wide-wheeled vehicles.

Bringing in helmets would also be difficult, he said, while suggesting that bike helmets are a good thing in general. “Enforcement is more my thing than bans.”

Support for government action to limit the fatbike menace is growing, with most people calling for compulsory helmets, licences or a minimum age, according to a survey of 19,000 RTL news readers.

Almost half the respondents said they had experienced problems with fat bikes in traffic, with one person saying “it is as if they have forgotten all the rules of the road”, RTL news reported.

Fatbikes are electric bikes with wide tyres but are more similar to old-fashioned mopeds and are often souped up to go faster than the maximum 25 kph. More than half of fatbikes checked by police in Amsterdam in the first five months of 2024 had been tinkered with to reach higher speeds.