From: ens@ccu.umanitoba.ca
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles,can.general,ont.general,soc.culture.canada,ott.general
Subject: Re: Interesting facts about bicycles in Ontario (from MoT)
Date: 29 Jul 92 04:29:42 GMT
Organization: University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

In article <rlewis.712357827@muskwa.ucs.ualberta.ca> rlewis@muskwa.ucs.ualberta.ca (Robert Lewis) writes:
>
>Every study I have seen of the relative accident rates of roads and bike paths
>show that the latter have a higher accident rate than the former.
>[...]
>Calling out before passing, in my experience, at best makes no difference 
>and at worst is more dangerous than getting by people (pedestrians or the 
>average bike path cyclist, read poor cyclist) before they know that you are 
>there. [...]
>It should be clear 
>that I now avoid bike paths when ever possible (which is almost always, 
>[...]
>The fact that many people are more 
>afraid of rideing (properly) on the road than on the bike paths (where 
>there is 
>no 'proper' way of riding) shows no more than that most people know almost 
>nothing of cycling.  The more people cycle the less they like bike paths.  As 
>proof of such note that of the regular posters to this group the majority 
>would 
>at least agree that existing bike paths are less safe than the roads whereas 
>in the population at large I think that you would find that most think (or 
>rationalize) that bike paths are safer than roads.

I find all of this very hard to believe. A higher accident rate on
bike paths is reasonable since there is a higher density. But what
about accidents per bike and more importantly, what about injuries?

If roads are safer for the cyclist than bike paths in general, why do
European cities that have a much higher fraction on the population
using bikes, for a much larger proportion of their travel, have far
more bike paths than American cities?  I shouldn't generalize too much
but in Uppsala, Sweden where I spent a year (and along with most of
the population biked to work everyday, all through winter), there is
an extensive network of bike paths used by cyclists and pedestrians
alike. Given Sweden's obsession with safety, my guess is they didn't
build the bike paths to injure their citizens.  I had one accident
during my stay; it was with a car, on the road.

And couldn't we take a lesson from the Europeans and use bells on bicycles
to signal approach from behind; in some German cities it is required by law
to sound your bell if you approach a pedestrian from behind. It takes
far too long to decipher the message from someone "calling out" behind you,
especially if everyone calls out something different. On the other hand 
one quickly acquires the instinct to keep right at the sound of a ding. 

In cities like Oldenburg and Bremen in Germany, bike paths in less
travelled parts of town are often little more than a line painted down the 
middle of the sidewalk. Pedestrians often walk 4 abreast and simply
move aside (without looking back) at the sound of a bell. I have not
seen a speed limit on a bike path in Europe either, but then biking
there is not only the domain of athletes and environmentalists; most bikes
are 1 to 3 speed touring models and one rarely sees macho cyclists
cruising along at 50 km/h.

Werner