Cycling For Everyone – Part 3

By John Pucher
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Motorist training in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany is far more extensive, thorough, and costlier than in North America:

* Drivers are required to take a minimum number of hours of driving instruction with private firms at a cost of at least 1,500 euros (US $2,500).
* Licenses are not awarded until the age of 18, two years older than in most American states.
* Both the written and driving portions of the licensing tests are so rigorous that many applicants fail one or more times before passing.
* Additional hours of driving lessons are required after each failure.
* For the first few years, licenses are provisional and can be revoked for dangerous driving.

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Traffic Regulations and Enforcement

Traffic regulations in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany strongly favour cyclists. Even in cases where a crash results from illegal or unsafe moves by the cyclist, the motorist is usually found to be at least partly at fault. The motorist is legally responsible for any crash with a child or elderly cyclist, even if they are cycling in the wrong direction, ignoring traffic signals, or otherwise behaving contrary to traffic regulations. In sharp contrast to North America, the priority legal status of non-motorists in northern Europe puts motorists on the defensive and forces them to drive with special attention to avoid endangering cyclists.

Dutch, Danish, and German police are far stricter than American police in ticketing anyone who violates traffic regulations. Cyclists caught riding in the wrong direction, running red lights, making illegal turns, or riding at night without functioning lights can expect at least a warning notice and possibly a ticket and fine. Penalties can be high even for minor violations. Not stopping for pedestrians at crosswalks is considered a serious offense and motorists can get ticketed for non-compliance, even if pedestrians are only waiting at the curb and not actually in the crosswalk. In most American cities, motorists increasingly run red lights for the first few seconds, which endangers both pedestrians and cyclists crossing the intersection. In response to this, many intersections in Dutch, Danish, and German cities have cameras that automatically photograph cars running red lights and stop signs. Similarly, radar speed detectors along roadways automatically photograph motorists exceeding the speed limit and establish a fine depending on the recorded speed. Guilty motorists receive tickets by mail together with photos of themselves “in the act,” even if the police do not catch them on the spot. The greater likelihood of being caught for violations obviously increases the motivation for motorists to obey the law.

Finally, the punishment for traffic violations by motorists is far more severe in northern Europe than in the United States. Motorists can expect hefty fines and points on their driving record for driving or parking in bike lanes, cutting off cyclists, or otherwise endangering or inconveniencing them. That is a striking contrast to the USA, where the police and courts routinely ignore cyclists’ rights violations on the road. Even blatantly dangerous driving and deliberate intimidation of cyclists by motorists are seldom punished. Many police are not even aware of the legal rights of cyclists, and neither the police nor the courts consider it worth their effort to enforce them.

Policies Encouraging Cycling in Northern Europe

Speed Limits in Cities

* Traffic calming of most residential neighbourhoods limits cars to speeds
of 30km/hr or less
* “Home zones” in many neighbourhoods give cyclists equal rights to road use and limit cars to walking speed (about 7km/hr)
* Car-free zones, one-way streets, and artificial dead-ends make car travel through the city centre slow and inconvenient
* Turn restrictions for cars but not for cyclists
* Almost no limited access highways (motorways) in city centres
* Strictly enforced speed limits and traffic rules in cities (with police cameras at red lights and stop signs)
* Automatic radar surveillance of traffic with cameras to photograph speeding motorists
* Advance stop lines and traffic signal priority for cyclists

Road and Parking Capacity Limitations

* Limited number of parking places in city centres
* Parking management schemes limit easy car access to urban neighbourhoods, often with resident-only parking or strict time limits
* Replacing car parking facilities with bike parking
* Combined bus-bike lanes that permit bike use but prohibit car use
* Deliberately narrowed roads in city centres force cars to drive slowly
* Special bicycle streets that sharply limit car speeds and give cyclists priority in roadway use over the entire width of the road

Taxation of Automobile Ownership and Use

* High taxes and fees on car purchase, ownership, and use
* Especially high excise and sales taxes on gasoline
* High hourly parking rates in city center, even in medium size cities
* High fees and strict training requirements for obtaining a driver’s license (over 11,500 in Germany)

The lenient treatment of American motorists is documented in Killed by Automobile, an analysis of 1,020 pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities in New York City from 1994 to 1997. Using police records, the authors found that “drivers were largely or strictly culpable in 74 per cent of cases where sufficient information existed for culpability coding, and were largely, strictly, or partly culpable in 90 per cent of the known cases. Hit and run, turning into pedestrians at crosswalks, and speeding were the top three driver faults in killing pedestrians and cyclists.” The police cited motorists for traffic violations in only one-fourth of pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities, although motorists were involved in 98 per cent of these fatalities and were unquestionably at fault in at least half. In only one percent of fatalities did the police issue summonses to motorists specifically for violating pedestrian and bicyclist rights of way (such as failing to yield in crosswalks or driving in bike lanes).

<a href="http://www.rightofway.org/research/kba_text.pdf">www.rightofway.org/research/kba_text.pdf</a>;

Whereas motorists in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany are presumed to be at fault in crashes with cyclists and are punished accordingly, the police and courts in the United States reflect the opposite view. It is not too extreme to describe the American situation as motorists getting away with murder, or at least negligent homicide. Clearly, such leniency with even the most deadly of driving behaviour only encourages more of it and puts bicyclists at much higher risks in the United States than in northern Europe.
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<a href="http://www.momentumplanet.ca/how-tame-motorists-restrict-car-use">http://www.momentumplanet.ca/how-tame-motorists-restrict-car-use</a>;

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