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Old May 24th 04, 02:07 PM
Peter Clinch
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Default The _Observer_ on "deadly" bike lanes

David Arditti wrote:

The article also brings up problems with the position of CTC in the
statements by Geffen and Russell (both of whom I know). The author rightly
attacks the British systems compared to the far better segregated bike
engineering of The Netherlands and Denmark. But CTC has always tended to
oppose the segregating of cyclists and motor vehicles on British roads,
wrong-headedly (in my view) fearing it that creates more danger and
marginalisation for the cyclist - when anyone who looks at the situation in
continental countries can see that exactly the reverse is true - the danger
and marginalisation occur here, where we try to combine cyclists and motors
in the same unsegregated space, not there.


When one experiences the situation in the NL even if only for a few days
(my Dutch cycling experience) then it's soon remarkably easy to see that
there's probably More To It Than That.
It is an article of faith amongst many that segregation in the NL is
What Makes The Difference, but even where I was on roads shared with
motor transport (which seems to be rather more than the popular view in
the UK holds) it was very clear that I was being given one helluva lot
more attention and thought than is typical in the UK. I felt safer,
despits being on an unfamiliar bike on the "wrong" side of the road with
traffic laws I wasn't familiar with. How can that be, if the real
safety feature is segregation?

are caused by motorists not being careful" is a silly statement as it misses
the point. We all know that. The object of cycle engineering is to protect
cyclists from the mistakes of motorists.


But the problem is that unless you can make segregation *total*, which
of course you can't, then users of roads become less aware of cyclists
because they see them less. Which is why the junctions between cycle
tracks and roads are where the nasty accidents happen. And
superimposing cycle tracks on an existing road network means lots of
junctions in most cases. You won't get tailgated, but that isn't
especially common in any case. One thing which almost everyone agrees
on is that cyclists get safer when there are more of them. Difficult to
objectively prove /why/ that is, but the figures strongly suggest that
whatever the "why", it is so. If you remove cyclists from roads by
segregation there become effectively less of them, so things instantly
get more dangerous on the road when the road can't be avoided.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch University of Dundee
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

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