Not a 'helmut' thread - Is Berlin the safest city to be a cyclist?

Jawgap

Maybe money and a proper sense of fiscal responsibility isn't the only thing we should be borrowing from ze Germans....


From the beeb...

Is Berlin the safest city to be a cyclist?

"Berlin is enjoying a cycling boom, with miles of new cycle paths and more than half a million bike journeys made every day - but controverisally, a helmet is rarely seen."

He nicely puts some plain if obvious arguments.....

"What you really need to get people like me on their bikes is a general atmosphere of safety and tolerance of cyclists. ”

"We do not wear helmets. It is foolish, but we don't. I always mean to - but I don't. I realise that the brain is man's second favourite organ - but I still leave my helmet behind.

There is an argument now that if cities insist on helmets for bike-hire schemes, then people simply don't ride bikes. And if people don't ride bikes, then they're less fit and that means that more of them die of heart-attacks."

before concluding....

"Penalties are usually only imposed if someone is hurt.

With admirable German precision, the rules say that jumping a light that's been red for more than a second incurs a fine - but tell that to the irritating urban warriors who shoot through.

I never jump a red light - that would be stupid. Like not wearing a helmet."

alexanderomahon

See very few people wearing helmets in most European cities I've been to. The exception is London. One thing I thought was good about Germany was you were able to turn right when traffic lights are red.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_turn_on_red

Should be introduced over here to smooth traffic. (obviously turning left in our case)

bambergbike

alexanderomahon wrote: »

One thing I thought was good about Germany was you were able to turn right when traffic lights are red.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_turn_on_red

Only when a specific sign is present, though - and it's not common.

monkeybutter

I dunno?

Is it the safest city to cycle in?

The article gives us so little that I am none the wiser.

They have the best transport system in the world, bar none, I'd probably just take that.

Lumen

I find From My Own Correspondent most impressive when it's covering something I have no knowledge of, like the labour relations struggles of Lebanese sugar beet farmers.

When it's covering something I have even half a clue about I just get annoyed at the ignorance and obvious lack of research.

galwaycyclist

Lumen wrote: »

I find From My Own Correspondent most impressive when it's covering something I have no knowledge of, like the labour relations struggles of Lebanese sugar beet farmers.

When it's covering something I have even half a clue about I just get annoyed at the ignorance and obvious lack of research.

+ 1

While Berlin has managed to get more people cycling there are serious concerns regarding the safety and utility of some the infrastructure provided. (And as always its about more than just infrastructure).

There is a cycling map of Berlin that has a special symbol for "cycle facilities that are not suitable for cycling"

Berlins most unloved cycle tracks
http://www.tagesspiegel.de/mediacenter/fotostrecken/berlin/fotostrecke-abgefahren-ihre-unbeliebtesten-radstrecken/4031388.html

Issue about defective bike paths raised here (Google translate mangles this unfortunately)

http://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/fahrrad/verkehrssicherheit-nussbaum-spart-an-den-radwegen/6197320.html

As I understand it there is a big problem with "vehicle turns right accross bike path" type collisions in Berlin.

The Safety Myth
http://www.alle-macht-den-raedern.de/post/29268441721/der-sicherheitsmythos

Jawgap

Lumen wrote: »

I find From My Own Correspondent most impressive when it's covering something I have no knowledge of, like the labour relations struggles of Lebanese sugar beet farmers.

When it's covering something I have even half a clue about I just get annoyed at the ignorance and obvious lack of research.

It's Radio 4 - you must accept it's veracity.....:)

....the dross goes on Five Live, that you can scoff at

Lusk Doyle

I'd hazard a guess that it ain't the safest city to cycle in if you be of the communist persuasion :rolleyes:

Jawgap

Lusk Doyle wrote: »

I'd hazard a guess that it ain't the safest city to cycle in if you be of the communist persuasion :rolleyes:

Depends on the communists who were doing the cycling.....

bambergbike

Berlin is a place where mistakes we could learn something from and try to avoid repeating have been made in industrial quantities.
Berlin has 620 km of raised cycle tracks that cyclists used to be obliged to use. Police analysis of accidents in 1986 showed that cyclists on bike paths were much more likely to be involved in an accident, and that many of these accidents had more severe consequences than other accidents.
Various individuals and groups took court cases to get the blue signs indicating mandatory-use facilities taken down in individual locations, and the authorities have gradually become increasingly amenable to taking them down and not putting new ones up, not least because the blue sign can only be justified if the cycle track is well-maintained. New cycling facilities tend to take the form of lanes marked on the road. Only about 150 km of cycle tracks still have mandatory-use status now. That still probably still leaves quite a few cyclists fuming at being stuck with substandard, dangerous facilities, but things are improving.
According to the Berlin ADFC homepage, 150 000 cyclists took part in a recent demonstration in favour of having more of on-road lanes put in and more enforcement to stop people from parking on them: http://www.adfc-berlin.de/aktionenprojekte/sternfahrt/sternfahrt-2012/1213-sternfahrt-150000-radfahrer-erobern-avus-und-suedring.html
(19 different routes were used for the demonstration, with a total length of 1000 km; between them the participants cycled three million kilometres.)
Interestingly enough, the police in Berlin say that they are still getting lots of complaints from cyclists about being beeped at by motorists and told to use cycle tracks which are not mandatory-use even though the regulations making more or less all cycle tracks mandatory-use have now been gone for ten years: http://www.berlin.de/polizei/verkehr/liste/archiv/28671. Hopefully Irish motorists won't be quite as slow on the uptake ...

galwaycyclist

There was a review of the police report that Bambergbike refers to.

Its here in English translation.

http://www.john-s-allen.com/research/berlin_1987/Berlinsuppeng.pdf