News just in! We may finally be getting somewhere with the moped ban. From 8th April 2019, light-moped riders have to ride on the road in Amsterdam and not in the bicycle lane. These new rules are in force within the Ring A10 and more information on this will be released soon.
Ban will go ahead
In order to ensure that the transition goes smoothly, the riders will receive a letter about the new rules to inform them beforehand. There will be new road signs implemented and also temporary road markings. This is to make sure that everyone is aware where they need to be and to stop any confusion.
There will also be a massive information campaign in Amsterdam, so literally everyone is informed (this includes school children too) and it becomes common knowledge. Within the first 2 months there will also be traffic controllers. With this there will be an evaluation study that will look into the speed and the crowds and they will evaluate how it’s going basically.
Why the ban?
We spoke about this recently at DutchReview, when we were all under the impression that the ban was not going to go ahead, or was going to be heavily delayed (check out our rant here). Anyway, the ban had a lot of support behind it because the amount of people in Amsterdam were making these lanes unsafe. Collisions with bicycle users and pedestrians meant that people had enough and wanted the municipality in Amsterdam to do something.
To put it into perspective there were 8,000 moped users there in 2007 and in 2018 it climbed to 35,000 – a BIG jump. Well, the people have now been listened to and the ban will take place. If you ignore this ban? Well you’re riding on the cycle lane or riding without a helmet you’re looking at a 95 euro fine.
What do you think about the ban? Let us know in the comments!
I say YAY!!! They don’t belong on the bike lane..most of them are way too aggressive, bullying pedestrians and cyclists . Time to send them on the road with the big boys!!!
This is good news. We were in Amsterdam the other day and a speeding moped in the bike lane ran down a women near the Central Station. Luckily, she was not hurt badly. Starting next year the mopeds can join the many insanely speeding auto drivers.