The safety organisation VeiligheidNL estimates that 5,000 fatbike riders are treated in A&E [ i.e Accident & Emergency] departments each year, on the basis of a recent sample of hospitals. “And we also see that especially these young people aged from 12 to 15 have the most accidents,” said the spokesperson Tom de Beus.
Now Amsterdam’s head of transport, Melanie van der Horst, has said “unorthodox measures” are needed and has announced that she will ban these heavy electric bikes from city parks, starting in the Vondelpark. Like the city of Enschede, which is also drawing up a city centre ban, she is acting on a stream of requests “begging me to ban the fatbikes”.
Having everything you need daily at a walkable distance only works in big cities, in small towns it do not work.
Of course that can work as well.
Only up to a point. Small cities have not the critical mass of inhabitants to make certain services logical or even sustainable.
We are talking about daily necessities. So schools, groceries, entertainment at the minimum. What of those things is unattainable for small cities?