Amsterdam Calls Time on Boozy Beer Bikes

Amsterdam says it will enforce a new ban on 'beer-bikes' in the coming days after years of complaints by locals about rowdy tourists getting drunk and disorderly while pedalling along its famous canals

Amsterdam District Court says the so-called beer bicycle may be banned from the city centre to stop it from being a nuisance.

“The court agrees with the city council that the combination of traffic disruptions, anti-social behaviour and the busy city centre justifies a ban,” it added.

The beer bikes have become what has been called a ‘terrible phenomenon’ in Amsterdam. And a petition with 6,000 signatures that asked them to be banned has been upheld.

Beer bicycles have become a popular way – especially for tourists celebrating group events, such as stag parties – to travel around Amsterdam, and indeed some other European cities. They have even appeared on the streets of Belfast in recent years.

The contraption is actually a small cart fitted out with a number of bicycle seats arranged around a bar table and which is then powered by patrons, as they pedal along the inner city’s historic canals.

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