The number of accidents involving cyclists, particularly people using electric or fatbikes, has risen some 15% so far this year, according to legal advice group Das.

Between January and April, the company dealt with 256 cases of injury involving at least one cyclist, Das said on Monday, which has been dubbed World Bicycle Day. The number of legal cases involving cyclists in 2023 was up 25% on the pre-coronavirus year of 2019 a5 1,222.

Most of the accidents which end up with legal action involve a collision between a car and a bike, often an e-bike or fatbike,” Das spokesman Rembrandt Groenewegen told the AD.

“The roads are busier, and cyclists and motorists are more often distracted by their phones, music, navigation systems and social media messages. That is contributing to the increase in bike-related accidents,” he said.

Motorists, he said, also need to get used to the increase in bike speeds.

Last year, 684 people died in a traffic accident in the Netherlands, 61 down on 2022. But cyclists accounted for the biggest group for the fourth year in a row and in 40% of cases they were using an e-bike, national statistics agency CBS said in April. Some 40% of them were over the age of 75.

Meanwhile, research by insurance comparison website Independer indicates three in four people think it is sensible to wear a helmet while riding an e-bike and one in three think helmets should be compulsory.

However, despite the support for the headgear, 82% of people in the Independer polls said they don’t wear one and have no intention of doing so.

“It is not in our culture,” Independer’s Menno Dijcks told the Telegraaf.

Amsterdam bikes

In Amsterdam, an experiment has been launched allowing cyclists with fast e-bikes to use the road rather than a designated bike path.

City transport chief Melanie van der Horst says the idea is to determine if speed rather than type of vehicle is a better way to separate traffic on the city’s busy roads, especially at rush hour.

In 2019 Amsterdam banned snorfietsen, or low-powered mopeds that have a speed limit of 25 km/h, from most of its cycle paths inside the A10 ring road and introduced compulsory helmets for users.