Amsterdam hopes 20km/h cycle lane limit will change behaviour

Amsterdam city council has introduced an experimental speed limit of 20km/h for cyclists to see if riders can be persuaded to slow down.

Tourists, commuters and shoppers have all complained in recent years of feeling unsafe on the capital’s congested bike paths, but the only speed restriction is a 30 km/h limit for motor vehicles.

A temporary speed limit has been set on a section of Amstelveenseweg, one of the main routes into the city from the south, for four weeks to gauge its effect on cyclists’ behaviour.

But instead of enforcing the limit through fines and cautions, the city council has put up boards showing people how many of their fellow bike users are staying below 20 km/h, in the hope they will nudge people into being more considerate.

Traffic alderman Elise Moeskops told AT5 the idea of the experiment is to see if the signs will encourage a shift in cycling culture.

“If you enforce everything in the city you end up with a very harsh police state, and we don’t have the staff for that,” she said.

Infrastructure problems

“Are people prepared to cycle more slowly if we remind them that that’s an option? The question is what the social norm is on the cycle lane, because we don’t really know.”

But Kees Bakker, spokesman for the cyclists’ union Fietsersbond, was sceptical of the idea. He said better infrastructure was the solution to crowded bike lanes.

“The cycle lane on that road is very narrow and poorly laid out,” he told Dutch News. “There’s a busy pavement alongside it, so pedestrians spill over to the cycle path.

“It doesn’t make much difference if the speed limit is 20 km/h or 50 km/h, because the path is too narrow and there’s no room to overtake.”

Bakker said speed limits were likely to be less effective in bike lanes because not all cyclists travel at the same speed and they need space to overtake.

“Cars mostly drive in file at 30 km/h, but the range of speeds is much wider for cyclists,” he said. “Some of them ride at 15 km/h, others do 25 or even 30. There needs to be room to accommodate everyone, including people who want to coast along side by side at 15 km/h.”