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The city of Eindhoven is building a reputation of making bold statements with large pieces of cycling infrastructure. After the world famous floating cycling roundabout, the Hovenring, and the 37 … Continue reading →

For this week’s extra post I rode around in my hometown ʼs-Hertogenbosch, including through the intersection of my last post. This ride was filmed on a Friday afternoon early September … Continue reading →

The city of ʼs-Hertogenbosch redesigned a major intersection. Until the 1970s this intersection was part of the main north-south route in the country. Fortunately, most through traffic now uses the … Continue reading →

For ride number seven of nine I cycled the Greenport Bikeway again. This was the first fast cycle route to be opened in the province of Limburg in 2015. I … Continue reading →

The curved cycle viaduct in this post livens up an otherwise rather boring looking industrial area under development in Venlo in the Netherlands. The bridge is almost a year old … Continue reading →

When you don’t own a car you need to consider how to take every single journey. Is the place I need to go to at cycling distance or can I … Continue reading →

The city of Utrecht finished yet another reconstructed street. The Voorstraat used to be the main east-west route through the city centre for centuries, but ever since that route was … Continue reading →

The bridge in Emmen from last week’s post was about 15 minutes cycling from the railway station. After I had filmed the bridge I filmed the ride back. This is … Continue reading →

It was entirely predictable that the recent review of the Highway Code, which includes a rephrasing of the advice on ‘two abreast’ cycling, would provide fruitful material for lazy opinion columnists and shock jocks, respectively filling newspaper pages and the air waves with confected outrage and re-heated clichés about selfishness, self-righteousness, and whining about how frustrating it is to be stuck behind a bunch of lycra-clad, testosterone-fuelled Bradley Wiggins wannabees riding five abreast, for twenty miles down winding country lanes, with a hundred cars queuing behind… (yes, yes, we get the idea).

What I find remarkable about these discussions is the brazenness with which an intrinsically selfish demand – that other people should travel in single file, unable to easily talk to each other, look at one another, and engage in a natural human way, purely for the convenience of someone driving a far larger (and typically empty) vehicle – is presented as being entirely reasonable.

To see how odd this is, we only need to reframe this demand from one being made by motorists of cyclists, to one being made by cyclists of pedestrians.

How reasonable would it be for me to demand that people walking on shared use paths should do so in single file, the person behind staring fixedly at the back of their companion, purely for my convenience and to avoid any delay to my journey as I pedal along? And not just that, how would it sound if I described pedestrians walking side-by-side (or even, gasp, three or four abreast!) as selfish, thoughtlessly causing frustration to cyclists? I’m sure you would agree that it would sound deeply entitled, and frankly ridiculous. But this is precisely the logic of those motorists who routinely make exactly this kind of demand.

It’s not hard to imagine other ‘reasonable’ demands by motorists that suddenly become deeply unreasonable, once those demands are being made by people cycling. One occurred to me by chance last week.

Behind the local Sainsbury’s, there’s a shared use path that runs into the town centre. It’s not a particularly good path, but it’s an important connection for people that know about it, and thankfully it has street lighting, which is necessary for several reasons, not least among them being that it doesn’t feel particularly socially safe without it. (The rear of the supermarket is a large, oppressive brick wall, and the path isn’t overlooked).

The evenings have drawn in quickly, and after a long hot summer I am now using this path in the dark. Last week, one of the street lamps wasn’t working, and this meant I had to cycle through a patch of darkness. And it just so happened that on this particular evening, concealed within that patch of darkness, there were two pedestrians lurking (or more accurately, just walking home, minding their own business).

Because the path isn’t busy at the best of times, I have to admit that I was complacent when I was cycling along, and simply wasn’t expecting anyone to be there in the darkness. However, I wasn’t so complacent that I was going to cycle into anyone, or anything (I have a pretty good reason not to cycle into people or things – namely that I would get hurt myself), and as soon as my headlight beam illuminated them, I was able to respond, easing off and steering around them, without any alarm, bar a mild bit of surprise that there were people there that I hadn’t anticipated.

For the briefest of moments, a thought – a selfish thought – flashed through my head that these people could have made themselves more easy for me to see. Perhaps some brighter coloured clothing, or some reflectives, or even a torch. It was pitch black, and they did seem to be wearing dark clothing.

But of course – just as with a demand that people should walk around in single file so I am not held up while cycling – that would be a ridiculous expectation. They were just walking in the town centre, on a path away from any roads, and it simply shouldn’t be necessary to change the clothing they are wearing, or add hi-viz or lights, merely so that idiots on bikes don’t crash into them on a shared path.

For the minutes remaining on the rest of my journey, I pondered the absurdity of writing a letter to the local paper asking, “as a cyclist”, for thoughtless pedestrians to “make themselves seen!” on shared use paths. I could even throw in an anecdote about how so many pedestrians have the temerity to be “invisible”, about how I’m always nearly having an accident because of them, and add in some language about how “irresponsible” it is of people to just walk around in ordinary clothes without making any effort to prevent cyclists from riding into them in the dark.

Such a letter would undoubtedly provoke a strong reaction. A cyclist, a self-righteous cyclist no less, demanding that ordinary citizens make accommodations for his dangerous behaviour! But again, this is the kind of letter that motorists write all the time, without even any apparent reflection on the selfishness of this kind of demand. Their expectation is that the people they are putting at risk should “make themselves seen”, and that to do otherwise is irresponsible.

Indeed, this goes beyond mere letter writing – the whole philosophy of people walking and cycling “making themselves seen” is embedded in mainstream road safety, reflected (excuse the pun) in the kind of advice that local authorities and police forces pump out at this time of year.

As the nights start to draw in, here are some tips for a safe evening journey from @SussexSRP:

Wear bright or reflective clothing when dark
When crossing, never assume you have been seen
If cycling, make sure you have working front and back lights#BeBrightBeSeen

— Horsham District Council (@HorshamDC) October 24, 2020

Now the clocks have gone back the evenings are getting darker a lot earlier. I’m amazed at the number of cyclists around who are all but invisible!! Lights are a legal requirement and bright clothing & a helmet are a very good idea for your survival… #BeSeen pic.twitter.com/gJJ6AfUGWc

— Sgt Olly Tayler (@DC_PoliceBiker) October 27, 2020

By analogy, I wonder how far I would get suggesting that “invisible” pedestrians should consider luminous yellow jackets “a very good idea for their survival” when being menaced by people cycling who aren’t bothering to ride to the conditions.

An even more extreme example would be me arguing that people walking should wear helmets to protect their heads, in the event that I crash into them when cycling. I could even garnish that demand with a suggestion that helmetless pedestrians are actually being irresponsible for not protecting their brains, or even some guilt-mongering about how a cyclist would feel if a pedestrian they hit died because they weren’t wearing a helmet.

Sounds selfish, if not callous, right? Welcome to the world of motoring, where advising people to wear safety equipment to “protect themselves” from the consequences of bad driving is… extremely normal.

Cartoon by Beztweets

One final form of this double standard (there will undoubtedly be many others). Take the ubiquitous demand that cyclists should always use “the perfectly good cycle path”, rather than sharing (or more accurately attempting to share) with motor traffic on the road. Let’s skip over the fact that no-one in their right mind would choose to “share” with sociopathic motorists if this cycle path was indeed “perfectly good”, and again consider what a pedestrian-cyclist form of this argument would take.

Imagine a road with a shared use footway on one side of it, and a pedestrian-only footway on the other, and then imagine me, a cyclist, demanding that pedestrians walk on the “perfectly good” footpath on the other side of the road, rather than walking on the shared use footway that I regularly cycle on, getting in my way, and holding me up. Again, I could garnish this with some suggestions about how it would be “so much safer” for them to use the pedestrian only footway, and that I can’t understand why they would put themselves at risk on the shared use side, when there is a safer option on the other side of the road. Yes, it might be more inconvenient for you as a pedestrian, but don’t you care about your safety? Don’t you worry about me cycling into you?

I've been thinking about this tweet a lot. Imagine how silly it would sound to suggest that people shouldn't walk in cycle-ped shared space areas, and that they should have to use the pedestrian-only pavements that are "just for them" #cyclelanes https://t.co/7Ib6NGzfgm

— Jenny (@jenjensheep) June 12, 2020

Frankly, this is the kind of argument that only a complete dick would make – a totally selfish demand that someone walking should be somewhere else, at their inconvenience, so they don’t hinder me. But that doesn’t stop it being made with tiresome frequency, so much so that every time I cycle on the road past even the merest fragment of shared path, I’m instinctively cringing in the expectation that a passing motorist is going to yell at me, or, worse, punish me with their car.

So the next time you think about making what you feel is a “reasonable” argument about how where someone cycling or walking should be, or how they should be dressed or behaving, try to imagine exactly that same demand coming from a cyclist. Suddenly it might not seem quite so reasonable.

Two intersections in the east circular road around Emmen (a town in the north-east of the Netherlands) were upgraded in 2014. To improve the flow of motor traffic the formerly … Continue reading →

A future fast cycle route will be linking Zaltbommel in Gelderland to ʼs-Hertogenbosch in North-Brabant. The 15 kilometre route will be built from 2020 to 2022 for a budget of … Continue reading →

The final part of a cycleway on a former railway line in Utrecht was opened this Summer by the alderman for traffic. Together with 30 residents, the executive councillor had … Continue reading →

In my latest post I showed you how the F261 from Tilburg to Waalwijk is taking shape. In this third ride of nine (which I will publish every Monday in … Continue reading →

A new part of a fast cycle route was finished in the ever expanding network of fast cycle routes in the province of North-Brabant. The cycle routes are primarily built … Continue reading →

In my previous post I showed the new cycle bridge near Cuijk, which was the missing link in the fast cycle route from Cuijk to Nijmegen. With the opening of … Continue reading →

We’re delighted that our Conference (jointly organised with RoadPeace) which was due to be held in April, will now happen as two webinars on October 22nd and 29th at 4 pm:

 “ Reducing Road Danger: Empowering Local Communities”.

Do register (for free) here https://t.co/hfeDTpGLaS?amp=1  as soon as possible.

•  

October 22nd – speakers

• Welcome – Baroness Jones, President, Road Danger Reduction Forum

• “Vision Zero: Enforcement and reducing road danger” (including using 3rd party reporting) Andy Cox, formerly Superintendent, Metropolitan Police Roads and Traffic Police.

• “How important is dashcam footage when a crash happens?” Ciara Lee, RoadPeace.

• USING THE TECHNOLOGY-
• Madison/Cycliq bike camera lights
• Nextbase Dashcams
• “Cycling Mikey“

• October 29th – speakers
• Welcome – Baroness Jones, President, Road Danger Reduction Forum

• “Reducing speeds in your neighbourhood – 20mph speed limits, Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) and Community Roadwatch” Jeremy Leach, Action Vision Zero.

• “Low Traffic Neighbourhoods: Winning over the local community”: Clare Rogers, London Cycling Campaign.

• “Involving your Police and Crime Commissioner” Victoria Lebrec, RoadPeace.

• PANEL DISCUSSION: Including Dr Robert Davis, Chair RDRF

SPONSORS:

Moore Barlow

Madison UK for CYCLIQ

Nextbase Uk Dashcams

We’re pleased that our conference, jointly organised with our friends RoadPeace, planned for April will now be run as two webinars on October 22nd and 29th starting at 4 pm.

Please register for free here https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reducing-road-danger-empowering-local-communities-tickets-123531503051 as soon as possible.

PROGRAMME:

•October 22nd – speakers

•Welcome – Baroness Jones , President, Road Danger Reduction Forum

•”Vision Zero: Enforcement and reducing road danger” (including using 3rd party reporting)” Andy Cox, formerly Superintendent, Metropolitan Police Roads and Traffic Police

•”How important is dashcam footage when a crash happens?” Ciara Lee, RoadPeace.

•”Using the technology” –

•Madison/Cycliq bike camera lights

•Nextbase Dashcams •

“Cycling Mikey“ •

• •October 29th – speakers

•Welcome – Baroness Jones President, Road Danger Reduction Forum

•”Reducing speeds in your neighbourhood – 20mph speed limits, Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) and Community Roadwatch” Jeremy Leach, Action Vision Zero

•“Low Traffic Neighbourhoods: Winning over the local community”: Clare Rogers, London Cycling Campaign

•“Involving your Police and Crime Commissioner” Victoria Lebrec, RoadPeace

• Panel discussion with speakers and Dr Robert Davis, Chair RDRF

The ‘Maasover’ bridge for cycling and walking takes people over the river Maas (Meuse). A straightforward and simple name for a beautiful bridge that looks very stylish, partly also because … Continue reading →

This is the first of nine extra posts with rides that I will be publishing every Monday in October and November 2020. I filmed most of these rides cycling to … Continue reading →

After a very long wait – according to a number of people and organisations – the city of ʼs-Hertogenbosch closed a city centre street to all private motor traffic. It … Continue reading →