They are not to be missed. At several entrances to Amsterdam’s Vondelpark there are large LED screens with information about the fat bike ban that comes into effect on Monday. ‘Fatb verb’ and ‘Vond’, the lights flash at the entrance behind the Vondelkerk, which is covered in scaffolding due to the fire last New Year’s Eve. “The technology is a bit faltering,” says Bert Arends, who takes orders for two German tourists from his coffee cart on the edge of the park.
The Drenthe barista sees everything and everyone who enters and leaves the park. “Conflicts often arise between pedestrians and cyclists,” says Arends. “Cyclists come very quickly into the park and think that pedestrians should get out of the way.” But it is a pedestrian zone, so people are allowed to walk on the road, Arends knows.
Since the screens were installed, there have been significantly fewer fat bikes driving through the park, he notes. And then there are also traffic signs and warnings sprayed on the sidewalk stating that riding fat bikes in the Vondelpark is prohibited from May 11. Arends wonders whether the fat bike ban will make traffic in the park safer. “I see it this way: the bicycle is a means to express your behavior. If that is no longer allowed on the fat bike, they will soon do it on another means of transport.”
Running clubs
Fat bikers do not show up on the Sunday before the ban. Half an hour of digging in the middle of the park yields – in addition to a parade of mostly electric city bikes – five racing bikes, eighteen electric cargo bikes, a hand bike and two mobility scooters. The most dominant presence are the running clubs, sometimes with dozens of runners taking up the entire width of the road.
Even a police officer taking a tour on his motorcycle has not yet encountered any fat bikes. But they do cause nuisance and dangerous situations. The municipality of Amsterdam “regularly receives reports of (near) collisions,” said one press release about the ban. Recently, the officer stopped an eleven-year-old boy who was riding a souped-up fat bike through the park at 45 kilometers per hour, he says. He called his parents. According to the officer, safe traffic in the park is mainly a matter of “giving each other a little space, regardless of which mode of transport you are on.”
Fatbike in the Vondelpark, last Friday.
Photo Sammy Jo Muller
The municipality of Enschede introduced a fat bike ban in March, being the first municipality in the Netherlands. Just like Amsterdam, Enschede is working with an adjustment to the general local regulation, because national policy is taking a long time. The ‘entry ban’, which applies to the city center of Enschede during shopping hours, appears to be working for what it is intended for, a spokesperson for the municipality said. The public can shop in peace again and the nuisance has been reduced. Nine fines and thirty warnings were issued in two months.
Skinny bikes
Kees Buskemolen (67), who took a bike ride from Aalsmeer to the capital, thinks fat bikes are “clothes”, he says. He is just taking off his bicycle helmet to eat a sandwich on a bench. “They are often very young boys who think they are untouchable.” He allows them to roll out the ban “across the entire country”. But Buskemolen doubts whether it will work. The Amsterdam ban applies to tires that are wider than 7 centimeters. Manufacturers are already adapting their models to so-called ‘skinny bikes’ to avoid a ban.
Amsterdam councilor Melanie van der Horst (Traffic) will personally inform fat bikers on Monday that they are no longer welcome. After two weeks of warning, enforcers will also issue fines: 115 euros for people aged 16 and over and 57.50 euros for children between 12 and 15. After that, a ban may also come into effect in other places in the city.
‘The anniversary of Bob Marley’s death’
After two hours of searching, a fat bike turns up in the park. Only he doesn’t drive. The Burkinabe artist Papa Adama hangs on the handlebars above the wide wheels. “It belongs to my daughter,” he says about his two-wheeler. Adama has a painting in his hand and two plastic bags with returnable bottles and cans on his handlebars. He is homeless and can often be found hanging out in the park during the day.
Or did he know that from tomorrow he will no longer be welcome in the Vondelpark with the wide wheels? “Really? From May 11? That’s the anniversary of Bob Marley’s death,” he says. “I had seen the screens but didn’t know, thank you brother!” It will take time, because next month Adama will leave for his native Burkina Faso, after more than two decades in the Netherlands and four years on the streets. He wants one artist residency set up in his hometown of Ouagadougou, but still lacks start-up capital.
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