The traffic revolution that’s making cities cleaner — and happier
Protected bike lanes are transforming cities worldwide, cutting crashes, cleaning air, and turning daily rides into real climate wins.
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While much of that has to do with a car-centric American culture, there are real growing pains as cycling ramps up. Pedestrians already on the watch for cars now have to look out for bicyclists — not all of whom follow traffic laws. E-bikes present a particular challenge. Because they go faster and have more mass, they’re more dangerous both for cyclists themselves and for pedestrians in their way — especially illegal, fast e-bikes that are more moped than bicycle.
I have noted this when I visited Copenhagen last year: Cyclists are so much more relaxed and careful than they are in Germany. Especially, they go significantly slower, so that children or old people do not end up in an uncomfortable position. In contrast, in Germany, when I do in summer my commute along the river, there is no space and still people seem to train on road bikes at full speed on lanes that are no more than 70 centimeters wide. I think this is a cultural thing - some people swap the car with a bike, but then continue biking like they have been driving.
To put it in a short phrase: We not only need to get rid of cars, but also of car culture.
I live in one of the more bikeable cities in the US and pedestrians are more of a danger to cyclists than the other way around usually as pedestrians will loiter in bike lanes for some reason. The big bike offenders are kids on ebikes and the city's rental bikes which both attract people who couldn't care less about safety, otherwise anyone on their own bike tends to follow the rules or go slow enough to be able to stop.
as pedestrians will loiter in bike lanes for some reason.
I have read the explanation that humans walking perceive themselves primarily as humans and not as participants in traffic which have to watch out constantly for faster objects.
This makes a lot of sense to me since the "humans walking" mode of locomotion has evolved for millions of years without faster things being around.
I go to the Netherlands fairly often and it's more a (quickly) learned behavior to check for cyclists before crossing the bike path. Unlike motor vehicles, they can approach you silently, so you need to remember to look. In my experience, a couple of near-misses, followed by some pithy Dutch epithets, is all it takes to focus the mind.
My experience in San Diego as well.
In my experience, delivery riders and bike messengers are also reckless assholes.
I fully agree that the greatest hazard is the obliviousness of pedestrians. They don't look, don't listen (often because they've got earbuds in) and, though they generally know not to step in front of moving cars, they're perfectly fine with wandering into bike lanes.
Agree, people in Copenhagen are pretty relaxed about their commutes most of the time here, especially on bike. It helps that many drivers are also sometimes cyclists and pedestrians, so they understand it.
The real fear is people on hotel bikes. That's a real mixed bag
I very much agree... the optimal way to ride a fast bike or e-bike on a stroad with a painted symbol is much different than how to ride on a thin shared path and it's not always intuitively for riders to switch gears mentally. If needing to navigate around pedestrians, cyclists should be going 5-7 mph. (8-10km).
Yes, it'd be nice if people weren't dicks, irrespective of their mode of transport.
till people seem to train on road bikes at full speed
I call them psyclopaths - I wish they could be banned from cycle lanes. If they think they're as fast as cars, fuck off on to the road.
