‘Electric bicycles are life-threatening, make helmets mandatory’ | Columns & Opinion

Mess around

“Where we are tied to a billion rules with just about everything, let’s celebrate the strings in this country when it comes to the electric bicycle. You don’t need a driver’s license for it, in theory you should be allowed to get on it from the moment you can cycle without training wheels and you don’t have to wear a helmet. ‘Just mess around with this means of transport’, seems to be the motto.

Ware jungle

You see them tearing past all day long. Teenagers on bicycles with bizarre fat tires. Older people who have been retired for years on matching bicycles worth many thousands of euros. The cycle path has become a veritable jungle and not without consequences. Among cyclists aged 55 and older, the number of single-vehicle crashes increased by 42% in 2021. In the age group 12-17 years, the number of electric bicycle accidents that reached the emergency room increased from 4% in 2016 to 22% in 2021.

Immortal

It all comes as no surprise, does it? Bicycles that without any effort hit the 25 kilometers per hour, that is asking for misery. Then add a somewhat older driver with reduced responsiveness or a few worn knees and you have ‘an accident waiting to happen’. The same goes for an overconfident teenager who thinks he is immortal.”

funny keeshond

You don’t have to search long to find a bit of craziness. Last weekend I saw two girls of about 15 years old together on one bike that went very fast. Both nicely dressed in summer, the legs bare. Girl on the front feet on the frame, girl on the back completely engrossed in her phone and both screaming loudly. Or that older couple that came close to hitting each other with the steering wheels, thrown off balance by a droll keeshond in a basket at the front.

brain injury

Cycling is a skill we should not take lightly. Here in the Netherlands you have to master it down to the last detail, but let’s be honest: not everyone does that. Yet we collectively act as if we are experts in it by exposing the skull unprotected to the smashing asphalt. It is as if we are not aware of what brain injury is.

No catwalk

I admit it right away; such a bicycle helmet does not look good either. But it still seems better to me than sitting in a wheelchair for the rest of your life, possibly not even being able to write your own name. Moreover, a bicycle path is not a catwalk. Be beautiful somewhere else. I remember well that we all once went down the red or black slopes without helmets, laughing at that one crazy person who had one on. Today it is the other way around. Now we look back at that one freak who skis with nothing more than a hat on.

Not to be held accountable

Among the elderly, the helmet no longer seems to be a no-go; you see them driving around with it more and more. But please let’s also protect the heads of the youth. Just from everyone. A bicycle helmet should be mandatory and it seems to me in no way justifiable that it is delayed another day.

golden business

The number of road casualties with serious injuries has increased by 18% over the past ten years. Last year, 110,000 ended up in the ER, including 66,600 with serious injuries. A third of them are cyclists aged 55 or older. In 2020 alone 547,000 electric bicycles were sold, more than 30% more than the year before. I’m no expert, but I feel a connection. If you are looking for a golden business, you can now enter the charming bicycle helmet industry. And if you are careful with your head or that of your children, buy a helmet today.”

Don’t want to miss anything from VROUW? Especially for the most loyal readers, we send an email every day with all our daily highlights. Subscribe here.

–