FAST, fashionable mode of transport for some, scourge of the cycle path for others: in bike-mad Amsterdam, complaints about “fatbikes” have driven authorities to impose an unprecedented ban in one of the city’s top parks.
Hugely popular with children, fatbikes — so called for their ultra-thick tyres — are electric bikes that look like squat motorcycles and can reach speeds of up to 60 kilometres (37 miles) per hour.
Complaints of “fatbike gangs” of youths tearing around Dutch cities and causing havoc are also commonplace.
So city authorities have decided to ban them in the Vondelpark, a busy park that attracts locals and hordes of tourists on hire bikes or roller skates.
“A few years ago, we only got around 20 complaints about fatbikes. Now we have more than 2,000,” she told AFP in an interview in the park.
“Imagine an 11-year-old child driving around town at 50 kph on a big, souped-up fatbike. It’s extremely dangerous,” said van der Horst. Officially introduced on 11 May, the ban applies to all fatbikes with an electric motor and whose tyres are more than seven centimetres (about three inches) wide. — AFP