Maastricht, the Dutch city that punishes those who park their bikes anywhere

Dutch authorities tackle messy bike parking through a series of measures ranging from confiscation to increased penalties to recover them.

For example, the southern city of Maastricht This year, people were banned from leaving their bicycles abandoned in the street. And those who do so will have their bikes removed and the fines for getting them back will be higher.

According to The Guardian newspaper, city center cyclists must park on a bike rack and cannot leave their bikes on a pole or ramp. From January, those who have a bicycle confiscated will have to pay 50 euros (approximately $48,000) to take it out instead of 25 euros.

Maastricht has just over 120,000 inhabitants, around a fifth of whom are students, and bike parking This has been a problem for years, says the British newspaper.

According to the town hall consulted by the newspaper, so far this year, 2,159 “illegally parked” bicycles have been removed. In 2022, the total was 2,611. A new campaign aims to promote responsible cycling.

The municipality of Maastricht also imposed a maximum duration of uninterrupted parking for bicycles in the city center . This maximum period is 14 days . Thus, the municipality will remove bicycles parked too long after issuing a notice.

“It is positive to see that more and more people are using bicycles “, Maastricht Mayor Wim Hillenaar told the Guardian.

“But on the other hand, this sometimes causes problems in public space… and this decision is due to the fact that the number of poorly parked bicycles remains too high despite all efforts “he added.

Like Amsterdam and Utrecht, Maastricht has built bicycle garages, but has found that people still tend to tie their bikes to lampposts, because parking there doesn’t necessarily deter thieves.

Another problem that worries the country is the number of people traveling on cycle paths. The cyclists’ union (Fietsersbond) has expressed concerns about safety on cycle paths as they become increasingly busy. The organization said bike lanes in Amsterdam are particularly dangerous and is particularly concerned about the safety of students who frequently use bike lanes to get to university during rush hour.

According to the cyclists’ union, one of the main problems with cycle paths in the Netherlands is the large variation in the speed of cyclists . Regular bikes can’t move as fast as e-bikes, which can intimidate some users or make them unsafe. “40% of Amsterdam residents don’t feel safe in traffic,” Florrie de Pater of the Amsterdam cyclists’ union told AT5 television. “(This statistic concerns) cyclists and I think it’s too much,” he added.

The union argues that since e-bikes can travel up to 30 km/h, they should be considered road vehicles and excluded from using cycle paths. . “Almost everything goes thirty kilometers per hour in the city, so if bikes go more than twenty kilometers per hour, they have to take to the road,” de Pater told AT5. “The cycle path will then be reserved for vulnerable cyclists “.

Amsterdam’s deputy mayor, Melanie van der Horst, is already looking into how to solve the traffic problems occurring in the capital. According to AT5, the road advisor is already in talks with central government on updating e-bike regulations, including fat bikes. Plans reportedly on the table include minimum age for e-bike users, lower speed limits and stricter traffic rules.