Dutch trauma surgeons have raised concerns over the rising number of elderly people suffering severe injuries from electric bicycle accidents, AD reported on Tuesday.
While some injuries result from collisions, most accidents are unilateral, caused by incidents like falling from a stationary position or losing control due to high speed,
It sounds like it’s particularly impacting 65+ year old men - the same types who die from breaking a hip slipping and falling while walking.
I’m not sure to what degree this is caused by ebikes encouraging them to keep biking when they should have stopped, or ebikes just being more dangerous when they fall over.
There are a lot more links, but this is a good one. It appears many issues are possible: higher speeds, heavier bikes (maybe harder to turn), but then both require a faster mental acuity to manage them. Plus, we use a LOT of traffic circles, and very often bikes can be in blind spots - I read that circles and intersections are where most accidents occur. Older people also assume you’ll let them through, but then again - blind spots.
I’m not saying the Netherlands shouldn’t be used as an example of good infrastructure, but also there are challenges we haven’t resolved either. Let’s not ignore them.
Can’t seem to post links.
Search for “netherlands older ebike deaths injuries” in google/ddg.
I see e.g. https://nltimes.nl/2023/08/01/trauma-surgeons-express-concern-e-bike-accidents-among-elderly
It sounds like it’s particularly impacting 65+ year old men - the same types who die from breaking a hip slipping and falling while walking.
I’m not sure to what degree this is caused by ebikes encouraging them to keep biking when they should have stopped, or ebikes just being more dangerous when they fall over.
There are a lot more links, but this is a good one. It appears many issues are possible: higher speeds, heavier bikes (maybe harder to turn), but then both require a faster mental acuity to manage them. Plus, we use a LOT of traffic circles, and very often bikes can be in blind spots - I read that circles and intersections are where most accidents occur. Older people also assume you’ll let them through, but then again - blind spots.
I’m not saying the Netherlands shouldn’t be used as an example of good infrastructure, but also there are challenges we haven’t resolved either. Let’s not ignore them.