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Various topics: 4: Why are fatbikes disliked in the Netherlands? Also anti-social entitled behaviour of pedelec riders.

in 2024 I returned to NL for a month in summer and had some interesting experiences:

In progress.

Fatbikes

A relative talked about issues with fatbikes (with which are meant: fat tyre pedelecs/e-bikes), going too fast and other issues, and I had not experienced anything of that, I had not seen people on such bikes going fast (she mentioned some of them going far faster than the allowed 25 km/h). The fat bikes in question are mostly cheapo ones, cost about 800 euro and they are in a chopper style. The appeal is apparently to youth and to immigrants who look at cycling as something beneath them.

During a week or so I had the following experiences:

These types of bicycles attract a certain type of people, who don't like the look of a standard bicycle, and/or who use the wide tyres to hop on and off curbs and ride on the side walk whenever it suits them.

The behaviour that I saw was enough to already see this category of bicycle as a problem, because they are often used by people who disregard all rules. All other issues I heard about (souped up, people riding too fast) I don't doubt, they have been in the news a lot too for that reason, and it just fits. And this is why people dislike such pedelecs (which are often not actually pedal assist but illegal with no pedalling required). The following point is almost certainly also an issue with riders on fatbikes (or rather fat pedelecs/e-bikes):

Entitled pedelec riders

This is another obvious change on Dutch cycle paths: the behaviour of pedelec riders who feel entitled to go 25 km/h everywhere.

In 2024 it was the first time I noticed anything like this, perhaps because I wasn't riding fast as I usually do (then I keep pedelec riders behind me). So I was taking it more easy and I hadn't ridden fast for a long time due to travelling to Ukraine and sale of my house.

Situation 1: On one occasion in Amsterdam a few people before me were going too slowly so I thought I would overtake them then some complaint from a woman on a pedelec that I should look behind me when overtaking. Excuse you?! Nobody does that and that is not needed, the person from behind should look at what is going on ahead and that is that I was overtaking slow riders. It was also on a narrow bicycle path which means you cannot just zoom past, you need to be careful and go only slightly faster than the persons whom you want to overtake.

I berated that woman and made clear that I do not look to look behind me, she needs to look at the situation ahead and that decelerating before overtaking on a narrow cycle path is needed. This person obviously felt that because the bike can go 25 km/h, that she should be able to ride that speed everywhere on cycle paths. That is impossible!

Then another situation: Within a city (Alphen aan den Rijn) I saw a cyclist riding on a large open area towards the cycle path. I wasn't sure whether he would watch out for other riders, esp. me, so I went to the left to make room for him in case he just rode onto the cycle path without looking at other cyclists, to avoid the possibility of a collision. He did look and slowed down but you never know in advance which is why I moved to the left for 'just in case'. Then I heard a groan, and noticed a woman on a pedelec who had to slow down because I went to the left on the cycle path. She had clearly not anticipated the possible situation otherwise she would have realised why I went to the left and she would have decelerated already too.

These people think they can just ride 25 km/h on the cycle paths, and that is not always possible. They don't anticipate, they are not able to deal with what is necessary to ride 25 km/h on cycle paths (as opposed to me, I ride that fast and much faster sometimes on cycle paths, but I have a long term experience with fast riding and with what is needed to do that safely.

The issue of not being able to judge speeds/situations is also why old people riding pedelecs have been getting into accidents since several years.

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