Dutch city wants to ban fatbikes
In the media image: Lucas on Unsplash
To guarantee road safety and combat nuisance, Enschede wants to be the first city in the Netherlands to ban fatbikes. On RTL news site, Geerten Boogaard, Professor of Local Government, questions the legal feasibility of the plan.
The House of Representatives has also wanted to ban the fatbike for some time, but research shows that a ban is unlikely to be effective. The fatbike falls under ebikes and is not considered a separate category. The same rules currently apply to ebikes as to regular bicycles.
‘Municipalities can decide that mobility scooters, for example, are not allowed in a specific park. But that’s more difficult when it comes to the fatbike. A judge may then have to decide whether it is correct for Enschede to make a distinction between a fatbike and an elderly woman’s ebike,' says Boogaard.
The proposed ban has now been adopted by the council in Enschede and a plan to introduce the ban must be drawn up before the end of the year. Legal experts doubt whether the ban will hold up in court.