oktoberpaard

In a distant past I liked to compare hires tracks with the normal ones. It turned out that they often used a different master with more dynamic range for the hires release, tricking the listener into thinking it sounded different because of the high bitrate and sampling frequency. The second step was to convert the high resolution track to standard 16 bit 44.1 kHz and do a/b testing to prove my point to friends.

I’m not sure if I ever heard that one, but that’s indeed nonsensical. ISO 216 is a very nice system, though, and used in most of the world, not just Europe.

I’m just guessing, but I think it’s because with a throttle it would be considered a “snorfiets” (light moped with a maximum speed of 25 km/h), which would mean:

• minimum age of 16
• license plate
• insurance
• drivers license
• different traffic rules (mostly the same as bicycles, as opposed to 45 km/h mopeds)

I think they wanted to make electric bicycles with assisted pedaling an attractive alternative to noisy and polluting petrol fueled mopeds.

Also, we’re talking about a country with more bicycles than citizens, so treating them as “snorfiets” would mean that a lot of cyclist would be forced to share the road with faster motorized vehicles on some stretches of road (though not many), which would create other safety issues.

There are regulations, but they are not well enforced. Electric bikes (of any type) are allowed to assist active pedaling up to 25 km/h and can have a motor with a power of up to 250 watts. In that case, the same rules apply as for a normal bicycle. The issue is that they often go faster and that they often don’t require active pedaling. In that case, they legally fall under the same category as mopeds and need a license plate and have different rules applied to them, but in reality, many owners don’t follow these rules. I guess banning them from cycling lanes is easier to enforce than enforcing the legal limits.