From: chris@wg.estec.esa.nl (Milquetoast)
Subject: Re: riding against traffic; bikepaths
Reply-To: chris@wg.estec.esa.nl
Organization: WG/ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 92 15:06:24 GMT

In article <1992Sep5.205459.15294@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>, rvanderb@nyx.cs.du.edu
(Rian van der Borgt) writes:
>  
>  
> I almost can't believe that someone would even consider to ride
> against traffic. Here (in the Netherlands, that is) noone would
> ever think of it.

In this part of the Netherlands (Leiden) they do. Usually this is for short
distances, so as to miss out a longer detour (e.g a roundabout). Seems to be
something they learn at their mother's knee, along with fitting 2 on a bike
(plus trailing windsurfer), riding in the dark and jumping red lights :-)

> And now about the bikepaths...:)
> Here most bikepaths are on the side of the roads and cyclists
> (almost) always have to use them.
> Again, no cyclist wouls consider to use the road when there's
> a good bikepath. (The majority of the paths are in a reasonable
> condition.)

I'm not convinced of this. The bike paths that I tend to ride on I would guess
split 50-50 between good (i.e. tarmac, smooth, not shared with pedestrians)
and dreadful (i.e. made of small paving stones, bumpy and shared). Given a
choice between a quiet tarmac road and a bike path made of cobbles and I'll
cycle on the road. It's quite common to see groups of racing cyclists ignoring
the cycle paths completely, and effectively blocking the road, because that's
the only place they can cycle at racing speed.


> I belive, from what I read in this newsgroup, that bikes here
> (in the Netherlands :-) are used much more than in the USA.
> Here, a bike _is_ considered as a means to go from A to B (to
> go shopping, to go to work, to school, to go out, etc).

Which is probably why the bike paths are so bumpy - with this much traffic on
them you need some way of keeping the speed down. In some ways this makes them
more dangerous than riding on roads in other countries. Because the cycle
paths are full of people who are commuting, often school kids, usually far
more interested in talking to each other than watching the road, it is far too
common to be forced to take evasive action if you want to cycle at any speed
(and I haven't got the physique or the interest to be a racer). Of course the
accidents and near misses may be more common, but in general they have less
serious consequences than those on the road.

Whinge over. It must be said that when the planners get it right, usually with
cycle lanes, but also with some of the long distance paths, that I find
cycling here much safer, more fun (and probably faster) than it was when I
used to live in the UK. 

Regards,


Chris
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Chris Rouch                                              chris@wg.estec.esa.nl
Serco Space Ltd                                            Tel: +31 1719 84672
ESTEC, The Netherlands                                     Fax: +31 1719 84192
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