Legal in the Netherlands

[florin]

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday evening I saw on the news that the segway is found legal for the Netherlands by the "Koninklijke Landelijke Politie Dienst" (or in English: Royal National Police Department).

We are allowed to use it on the bicycle lanes and need to insure it as a little moped.

So today I will try to contact the dealer for some more info and for a price indication of a I180.

I will post new messages in this thread when I know more.

Kind regards,

Florin


Visit http://www.florin-webdesign.nl/segwayinfo if you want to stay up-to-date on the situation about the Segway HT in the Netherlands.
http://www.florin-webdesign.nl/segwayinfo/uploads/cavt41287ea7e3ec0

[Dragan]

That's great news, Florin! Let us know what you find our
Wayne

Segway of Alberta - Calgary
www.mysegway.ca

[Socrates]

Very good news! Here in Austria it became legal, seen as a bicycle. So it can be used in traffic like a bicycle and does not have to be insured like in The Netherlands.

Alexander

[JohnM]

No sidewalk use?

JohnM
If riding 2 hours is fun, then riding 20 hours is 10 times more fun.
RUSA #235

[florin]

Hi folks,

Here is a overview of the rules:

Max. speed 6 KM/H
No Sidewalks
Needs to have little orange reflecting stickers on the front of the fenders
Needs to be insured, equiped with a litle insurance plate on the back of the fender
minimum age of 16 years
need to have a scooter/car driving license


I know what you folks are thinking, 6 KM/H and no sidewalks, that's no fun. Well don't worry about the sidewalks, we have plenty of bicycle lanes, so that's not really an issue. 6 KM/H (black key speed) is borring slow, but as shown in the news video, the police will probably indentify it as a "snorfiets" (little moped) which speed has to be below 25 KM/H. The orange stickers and the insurance plate makes it quit difficult for the police to determine the maximum speed, only police officers who knows about the 6 KM/H rule might be a issue, but I guess not many police officers will know about it.

So I have ordered my red I180, on saturday I can pick it up, so to be continued. :D

Kind regards,

Florin


Visit http://www.florin-webdesign.nl/segwayinfo if you want to stay up-to-date on the situation about the Segway HT in the Netherlands.
http://www.florin-webdesign.nl/segwayinfo/uploads/cavt41287ea7e3ec0

[bystander]

Florin,

Thanks for the news about HT legality in the Netherlands. First of all, congratulations on your upcoming purchase. Secondly, what were the "Koninklijke Landelijke Politie Dienst" thinking when they decided to mix 6 KM/H traffic with 25 KM/H traffic?

I know you can't really answer that question. I hope bicyclists and snorfietsters don't mind the extra traffic. Perhaps they will "encourage" the HT riders to go a little faster...

As you have mentioned, hopefully enforcement of the 6 KM/H limit will be lax. But if they ever restrict use to black key only, one could pop the i-buttons from the colored holders and "accidentally" replace them in the wrong ones. What is the likelihood of equipping all the traffic cops with i-button readers to verify the speed limit of your key?

[Meng Wong]

I brought my Segway to Eindhoven two weekends ago and was scooting happily around the city center. Bike lanes are a dream -- very civilized! Gave lots of demos.

I must disagree with the 6 km/h limit though. Most bicyclists were moving at red key speeds. Going slower than speed of traffic just seems hazardous.

---
p133 since 200505

[florin]

Hi Bystander,

I don't think that any cop will check the color of the key that you used to start your segway ()how would they be able to do that?). I think it's more likely they will stop you when they think that your going to fast. When they think that your going to fast, they might want to check the speed, but that's no problem because in the meantime you already have switched off the segway and start it up again with the black key :D

Kind regards,

Florin


Visit http://www.florin-webdesign.nl/segwayinfo if you want to stay up-to-date on the situation about the Segway HT in the Netherlands.
http://www.florin-webdesign.nl/segwayinfo/uploads/cavt41287ea7e3ec0

[SegwayUtah]

Actually, "black key" is closer to 10 KM/H. 6 KM/H is roughly 4 MPH.

Did they actually pass a law restricting you to bike lanes and 4 MPH? That's just over walking speed.

Chris

[florin]

Hi Chris,

I haven't seen any official papers yet, I hope to see them tommorow when I will get my segway. I don't think they will change the law for the segway. The whole thing is a bit weird, treat it like a "snorfiets" but with a maximum speed of 6 KM/H, it might be that the journalist has made a misstake, when I now more I will post it here.

Kind regards,

Florin


Visit http://www.florin-webdesign.nl/segwayinfo if you want to stay up-to-date on the situation about the Segway HT in the Netherlands.
http://www.florin-webdesign.nl/segwayinfo/uploads/cavt41287ea7e3ec0

[Socrates]

Hi Florin,

I think the 6 km/h rule can be a joke only or will not be executed until You cause an accident. Otherwise all HT users need something like a blue key, because the speed limit of the black key is 9.6 km/h already.
The sense of insurance for cars, motorbikes, motorcycles, bicycles and also Segways, is the danger for people that results from fast-moving and more or less heavy things. So I ask myself where is the danger, which requests an insurance, of the Segway at 6 km/h? When somebody is in a hurry he goes or runs more than 6 km/h. Every bicycle is faster than 6 km/h and can easily go 30 or 40 km/h, downhill it can be up to 50 or more km/h which is the speed limit for cars in town.

So, the insurance for the HT is ok, when it can be used at full speed of 20 km/h. Paying for an insurance is not ok, when the HT can be used with the speed limit of 6 km/h only. This should be discussed again with the instance which made the Segway leagal in The Netherlands.

Alexander

PS: 1 mile/hour = a little bit more than 1.6 kilometers/hour

[florin]

Hi Alexander,

I totally agree with you, but think in small steps. I'm already glad that they consider the segway already legal with some conditions.

This is already a great step for the authorities, when they see after a while that the segway is really a safe device they will probably get more flexible. Everyone is now still completly new to it, insurance already indicated that after a year they will check the amount of damages with segways involved and then perhaps lower the price. The same probably applies for everyone else involved.

Kind regards,

Florin


Visit http://www.florin-webdesign.nl/segwayinfo if you want to stay up-to-date on the situation about the Segway HT in the Netherlands.
http://www.florin-webdesign.nl/segwayinfo/uploads/cavt41287ea7e3ec0

[JohnM]

Another spin on Dutch bike paths, recycled from bikeforums.net
http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-5327-p-2



I AM from the netherlands and a lot of bike paths s*ck BIG TIME!
Why?
1. inside the city the paths can give you nice short cuts occasionally as many roads are banned for cyclists, but the downside is that they are often made of bricks, tiles and uprooted by trees..and if this isn't enough, the whole sewage, electricity etc. system is underneath.
2. you run the risk to be right hooked by right turning traffic, so to avoid this we have had a law that stated 'slow traffic yields to fast traffic'for over 55 years until European laws repealed this.. now we just deal with a tripling of stop signs on bike paths.
3. bike paths have weird designs so they meander a lot, newer bike paths are even worse, since moped bikers were banned off bike paths since about 2 years and now the new bike paths are designed with SLOW cyclists in mind
4. if I don't want to ride on bad bike paths, I can't ride on the road because that's ILLEGAL.. I will be ticketed and people will harass me most of the time.. I still ride on the road when I'm in a real hurry,
especially at night.. (I'm very well lit though as I'm a randonneur who rides at night a lot) .
5. Our separate signing system is very lousy , we are banned from all major roads and bike paths meander into small towns and we have no idea where we are going since most maps are crappy and don't show what you need to know.. our smaller roads don't have numbers like the French roads and there's no map that shows the name of the roads except the full street atlas for the country, which is unsuitable.. that street atlas doesn't show bike paths though...

So here I am a fit and able-bodied cyclist with lots of time, who is fit enough to cycle everywhere I want to go, but who can't because it's too frustrating to get lost on the bloody Dutch bike path & signing system because it's too frustrating to ride on crappy quality paths when traffic is zooming by..

The only things that keep me sane is the ability to ride long distance (100K or more) organised rides inside the season (March-September) where all turns are temporarily signposted (if the signs aren't stolen) OR cycle abroad... France is heaven on earth for instance.. and Canada or Cuba aren't bad either

Fietser_Ivana

[florin]

Hi Johnm,

I think the view that Fietser_Ivana is giving is not correct for the whole Netherlands. Ofcourse there are places where the bicycle paths are bad quality, but I think that 85% of the paths are really ok.

Perhaps Fietser_Ivana wears wooden shoes, lives in a windmill and has tullips in his/her garden. Which doesn't represent the whole netherlands neither. I think Fietser_Ivana is generalizing thing a bit too much.

Take care,

Florin


Visit http://www.florin-webdesign.nl/segwayinfo if you want to stay up-to-date on the situation about the Segway HT in the Netherlands.
http://www.florin-webdesign.nl/segwayinfo/uploads/cavt41287ea7e3ec0

[JohnM]

http://www.m90.org/view_image.php?image_id=6246

Yikes!

JohnM
If riding 2 hours is fun, then riding 20 hours is 10 times more fun.
RUSA #235

[florin]

quote:Originally posted by JohnM

http://www.m90.org/view_image.php?image_id=6246

Yikes!

JohnM
If riding 2 hours is fun, then riding 20 hours is 10 times more fun.
RUSA #235


That's indeed scary [:O]

But, as always, when in doubt ask Google. Try the following link to get a nice impression of the average cycle paths in the Netherlands: http://images.google.com/images?q=fietspad&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

Kind regards,

Florin


Visit http://www.florin-webdesign.nl/segwayinfo if you want to stay up-to-date on the situation about the Segway HT in the Netherlands.
http://www.florin-webdesign.nl/segwayinfo/uploads/cavt41287ea7e3ec0