Now one one evaluation From the municipality of Amsterdam, the maximum speed of 30 kilometers per hour for cars leads to fewer traffic accidents, the question remains whether there should also be such a maximum speed for cyclists. The number of wounded cyclists who fall or bump into each other has risen. Traffic expert Walther Ploos van Amstel does see a maximum speed.
The Lector City Logistics at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam is thinking of a maximum bicycle speed of 20 kilometers per hour. “If you really look at how you cycle in Amsterdam and you look at the average speed over your entire ride, then you really do not exceed 18 kilometers per hour,” explains Ploos van Amstel. “That little piece, 100 or 200 meters, on which you get those 25 kilometers per hour, those are precisely those pieces that cause accidents.”
Ploos van Amstel is also critical of making cycle paths broader and more attractive or the design of full bicycle streets. “I have a liberal heart and I think everyone should know where they want to go and how they go there. But I don’t know if we should always facilitate that this can be done unhindered at full speed. We have not made our highways at 220 kilometers per hour either.”
According to him, it is important that everything is done to limit speed differences and therefore accidents on the cycle path. The traffic expert even hopes for a bicycle level.
The use of a maximum speed and the fine of cyclists who exceed this speed is not yet legally possible. Yet alderman Melanie van der Horst wants to do a test with it in the future, she wrote yesterday. Van der Horst also wants to see whether cargo bikes filled with goods is required or should and wants to consult with other municipalities with the government about measures against Fatbikes too fast.