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Some facts about cycling in the Netherlands: - After dark, head- and taillights are mandatory for cyclists, and you will be fined if you don't have them. - Cy

by mdemare 12y ago

Some facts about cycling in the Netherlands: - After dark, head- and taillights are mandatory for cyclists, and you will be fined if you don't have them. - Cycling on the sidewalk is prohibited. This too is enforced. - Cyclists in the Netherlands are not generally very respectful of traffic laws - they will run red lights when they can. - Practically nobody wears helmets. - 184 cyclist deaths in 2013 (out of +- 10 million active cyclists)

odiroot 12y ago
Cycling ban on sidewalks is not really enforced though. At least in Amsterdam from what I experienced. But people rarely drive on sidewalks, they don't need to with bicycle paths being really everywhere. On the other hand you get scooter drivers speeding crazily on the very same bike paths. I've heard it's actually legal but I'm not sure.
bsder 12y ago
> - 184 cyclist deaths in 2013 (out of +- 10 million active cyclists) Um, isn't that actually quite a LOT. Do we really want to emulate that? The annual cyclist death toll in San Francisco looks to be under 10 people a year. Right about the same level as the fatal car crash death toll per year. Complaining about something that really looks purely accidental from a statistical viewpoint is not going to make people very sympathetic.
- rlpb 12y ago
  > The annual cyclist death toll in San Francisco looks to be under 10 people a year. Out of how many active cyclists?
- ffumarola 12y ago
  The population of SF is ~840k. The SFMTA estimates that 16% of San Francisco residents are "frequent cyclists", defined as cycling two or more days per week. That means ~135k frequent cyclists. 184:10,000,000 = .0184 per 1,000 10:135,000 = .0741 per 1,000 SF = 4x higher For SF to be safer than the Netherlands, bike deaths need to pretty much disappear.
  - bsder 12y ago
    So, basically, cyclist deaths are effectively at the minimum you can reasonably expect in both areas. Okay. Kind of makes the ranting of the whole article pointless, though.
rvschuilenburg 12y ago
Interesting fact about those cyclist deaths: more than half were 70 years of age or older.

by mdemare 12y ago

odiroot 12y ago

Cycling ban on sidewalks is not really enforced though. At least in Amsterdam from what I experienced. But people rarely drive on sidewalks, they don't need to with bicycle paths being really everywhere. On the other hand you get scooter drivers speeding crazily on the very same bike paths. I've heard it's actually legal but I'm not sure.

bsder 12y ago

> - 184 cyclist deaths in 2013 (out of +- 10 million active cyclists) Um, isn't that actually quite a LOT. Do we really want to emulate that? The annual cyclist death toll in San Francisco looks to be under 10 people a year. Right about the same level as the fatal car crash death toll per year. Complaining about something that really looks purely accidental from a statistical viewpoint is not going to make people very sympathetic.

rlpb 12y ago
> The annual cyclist death toll in San Francisco looks to be under 10 people a year. Out of how many active cyclists?
ffumarola 12y ago
The population of SF is ~840k. The SFMTA estimates that 16% of San Francisco residents are "frequent cyclists", defined as cycling two or more days per week. That means ~135k frequent cyclists. 184:10,000,000 = .0184 per 1,000 10:135,000 = .0741 per 1,000 SF = 4x higher For SF to be safer than the Netherlands, bike deaths need to pretty much disappear.
- bsder 12y ago
  So, basically, cyclist deaths are effectively at the minimum you can reasonably expect in both areas. Okay. Kind of makes the ranting of the whole article pointless, though.

rvschuilenburg 12y ago

Interesting fact about those cyclist deaths: more than half were 70 years of age or older.