Moving scooters to road decreased bicycle accidents in Amsterdam

Amsterdam's decision to move scooters from bike paths to the road had a "significant positive effect" on the number of accidents involving cyclists in the capital, Erik Donkers of traffic agency VIA said to Het Parool. Of all major cities in the Netherlands, Amsterdam has made the most progress in reducing bicycle accidents in intersections, VIA concluded in a study.

VIA compared the number of bicycle accidents in all Dutch municipalities in the period 2014-2017 to the number of accidents between 2018-2021. The agency then adjusted the data to the number of residents in each municipality.

Between 2014 and 2017, Amsterdam counted 5,476 accidents involving cyclists. Between 2018 and 2021, that number dropped to 3,464. In Rotterdam, accidents involving cyclists decreased from 4,589 to 3,856. And in The Hague, the number increased from 3,486 to 5,202.

Egbert de Vries, traffic alderman in Amsterdam, is pleased with the figures. Moving scooters and mopeds from the bike path played an important role in making traffic safer, he said to the newspaper. "But if you look at the figure, you see that the number of accidents is structurally decreasing. This is because we as a city invest a lot in making intersections safer," he said.