Dutch Study: E-Scooters, Fatbikes Cut Car Use but Raise Cycling Risk
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Breda, Netherlands – September 22, 2026 -- Light electric vehicles (LEVs) such as e-scooters, e-cargo bikes and fatbikes could reduce car dependency in the Netherlands but are simultaneously raising cycling accident risk on the country's shared bike paths, according to research from Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas).
Dutch cycling network faces new pressure from electric micro-mobility
The Netherlands operates the world's most extensive cycling infrastructure, with 22 million bicycles serving 18 million residents across a 153,000-kilometre network. Bikes account for 28% of all trips nationally, a model increasingly studied and replicated by cities globally. That system is now being tested by a growing volume of LEVs entering the same narrow cycle paths.