Amsterdam, Houten to experiment with 20 km/h speed limit on bike paths
Amsterdam and Houten will soon start experimenting with a 20-kilometer-per-hour speed limit for cyclists. The goal is to increase safety on bike paths, where bicycles, e-bikes, fatbikes, and mopeds all ride at different speeds. Amsterdam’s experiment starts in September. Houten will start the experiment on June 8, AD reports.
In Houten, the speed limit will apply to cyclists on Fossa Iberica, a busy, narrow street behind the Castellum shopping center. Over a thousand cyclists use this road every day. The municipality is installing traffic signs to alert cyclists to the speed limit and will install cameras to record the “position, speed, and type” of road users.
The speed limit won’t be actively enforced, and the police won’t be handing out fines. So the question is to what extent cyclists will adhere to it.
Houten residents don’t expect the trial to be a success if there are no consequences attached to not adhering to the speed limit, according to the newspaper. "If you introduce such a ban, you have to enforce it. Otherwise, it's pointless. So just put enforcement officers there and have them actually issue fines for observed violations,” a local told the newspaper.
The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management is still hopeful, despite the lack of enforcement. “The most important goal, namely gaining insight into behavioral change and its effects on road safety, remains easy to investigate,” a spokesperson said to AD.
If the trial is successful, more experiments will follow nationwide.
