Leonie ter Braak believes that all cyclists in the Netherlands should wear a helmet to protect themselves against accidents, but despite this she does not wear one herself. “That’s nonsense!”
There is still a lot to do about nuisance young people on fat bikes and Minister Vincent Karremans of Infrastructure came to talk about this last night in RTL Tonight. There, presenter Leonie ter Braak says that she is annoyed by fat bikes. “They’re only 8 years old, right?! I know them in my street! I think 8 is very young!”
Very dangerous
Leonie pukes on fat bikes. “It also makes me laugh when I see it, because four of them pass by on one fat bike, right? With an age of 8, 9. Very fast too. I think it’s really dangerous. I just think it’s absurd that there isn’t an age. For fat bikes: 12, 14 or 16. I’m very strict, why not just from 16?”
Minister Karremans then said: “You are also dealing with children who live far away from school and now come to school with a kind of fat bike, which you may want, instead of their parents taking them by car.”
Beautiful legs
Those children who live far from school just have to pedal, Leonie said sternly. She used to do that herself. “And do you know what beautiful legs I have! Here you have a Twente woman at the desk and I lived outside. What’s wrong with a child cycling to school with a normal bicycle until he or she is fourteen?”
What does she think is best? “Suppose we bring it up to 14 years and children under 14 are not allowed to use an e-bike, but above that they are allowed to wear a helmet, then I think we are there?”
Helmet requirement
Leonie also wants helmets to be mandatory for everyone. “I also want to talk about the helmet. Why up to 18 and why not mandatory for all of us? Because elderly people on e-bikes often have accidents and they don’t wear them either. Why don’t we all just make helmets compulsory?”
There is little support for a general helmet requirement. “I don’t care about that! We may have thought it was strange to wear a seat belt in the car at first, but recently the rule that you were allowed to make phone calls while cycling also changed.”
‘Are you wearing a helmet?’
Minister Karremans then challenges Leonie. “Do you wear a helmet on your bike?”
Leonie: “If I am forced to, I will wear it.”
Karremans: “Why not now? Because you are doing it for yourself.”
Leonie: “Because it is not mandatory now.”
Karremans: “That’s nonsense, isn’t it? Because you do it for your own safety.”
Leonie: “I’m considering it, because I also have an e-bike and I go fast…”
Fine
Karremans finds Leonie’s attitude very strange. “But you don’t do something because it is an obligation, but for your own safety? Why wouldn’t you do it?”
Leonie: “Because I’ll get a fine and I don’t feel like that. That’s how it works, right?”
Karremans: “That’s not how it works.”
Leonie: “Yes!”