Yesterdays The New York Times opinion piece was fair to Sher Kung, beginning with She was doing all the right things in the morning commute, but Timothy Eagan got the solution to this tragedy wrong. He says, Harsher penalties may deter some accidents, but I doubt it. It’s better to learn from places with long biking traditions, and to change the way we think about the road when on the road. In the Netherlands, deaths per total number of miles cycled are much lower. This is attributed to educated bike riders, who stay in the lanes, signal properly and obey traffic signals. Yes, it is safer in the Netherlands, but this is not because bicyclists follow all the rules... in Amsterdam, bicyclists are famous for refusing to follow the rules. The book, In the City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist provides an excellent explanation of this. amazon/In-City-Bikes-Amsterdam-Cyclist/dp/0061995207 No, the #1 reason it is safer to ride in most Northern European countries is that their infrastructure is much safer than ours. People can ride without helmets while talking on their phones and have far fewer head injuries than here. The US bike infrastructure is improving (see Seattles 2nd Ave Cycle Track) and, as more people ride, drivers learn to expect them and watch out for them. But it is also a fact that most Northern European countries automatically hold drivers responsible if they hit a bicyclist or a pedestrian. Lets not blame bicyclists for being killed. We need infrastructure and legal improvements to make our streets safer for everyone.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 17:25:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015