Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan wants to remove mopeds from the city’s cycle paths and make helmets compulsory, he told current affairs show Buitenhof on Sunday.

‘The mopeds are extremely worrying for the council,’ the mayor told the programme. The city will continue lobbying national government for a change in the law because the issue is ultimately up to ministers, he said.

The mayor said city officials are doing all they can to ensure a change in the law. ‘I predict it will happen this year,’ Van der Laan said. ‘We will succeed in getting mopeds removed from the cycle paths.’

In Amsterdam, almost half of the people killed in traffic accidents in 2013 were driving a moped. In 2012, moped drivers were involved in 689 accidents, most of which took place on cycle lanes, the Parool reported in December.

However, transport minister Melanie Schultz told parliament last year she is not in favour of shifting mopeds from cycle lanes to the main road and introducing compulsory helmets.