Beer bike too large for the road
The verdict is in: the beer bike is too wide to be on the road as a bike and cannot be wider than 1,50 metres. A recent accident in Amsterdam involved a beer bike that was 2,20 metres wide and made it more of a vehicle than a bike, which is illegal.
People do have to peddle it to move it forward:
(Link: blikopnieuws.nl, Photo of Beer bike by Taco Witte, some rights reserved)
Seems a bit harsh. I’m no fan of the beer bike, but tourists seem to enjoy it & it creates jobs. It reminds me of how they got rid of the Segways a few years ago due to some technicality in classification (a ruling that also cost jobs).
Anyway, when will they get on to the more serious job of outlawing those bloody bicycle-taxis???
“It reminds me of how they got rid of the Segways a few years ago due to some technicality in classification (a ruling that also cost jobs).”
Not quite true. Dutch law says that if you want to operate a vehicle, it needs to be classified. Segway tried to get into the country without classification. If jobs were at stake, it was Segway’s own fault.
Plus, as I wrote elsewhere: “Segways are still illegal in the Netherlands, but the minister of transport has told the authorities to look the other way as long as certain conditions are met.”
“According to segway.nl, the rules for Segway use (while waiting for classification) are:”
“(These last three items come from the Segway temporarily being classified a snorfiets, a slow moped which in the eyes of the Dutch law counts as a sort of bicycle.)”
[…] company also makes bikes with a bar like the beer bikes we posted about. Then, there’s also cargo bikes for 8 kids, with an adult peddling […]