This bus driver is not expected to tolerate the danger of driving along Habsburgergasse or Mariahilferstrasse but this 50kmph squeeze the cyclist into the doorzone with your long bendy bus is Best Practice?
There is zero logic here and this death by design has to stop. No one with any sense what so ever would cycle along this road, it is just another example of modal share cleansing.
At least a responsible cyclist should be aware of dooring and and the necessary side distance to a possible overtaking vehicle. So do not provide an overtaking slot as long as you're not safe.
ReplyDeleteAlthough planners furnish streets, implementing severe and at least health dangerous isthmuses, its the cyclist's to choose his safety margin, in that case signalised by the dotted line. Only the pictogram is wrong, should be replaced by an open door pictogram.
Doug, do nor obey what an ignorant layperson tries to tell you, I know you're a pro, and so am I. What rests, instead of tilting like Don Quijote on windmills...just choose the correct, and law conform safe lane.
Tell the people, your kids, as I will do. The time planner will understand may come one day, till that time we have to educate the motorised traffic, and visualise our needs.
Btw in the inner city of Vienna a shared space (Tuchlauben - Bognergasse) is supposed to be closed for cycles, due to, so the argumentation, a lack of complaints.
Be visible, good luck stoffelix
A Pacaso's quotation might help
Aprende las reglas como un profesional para que puedas romperlas como un artista.
Learn the rules like a pro, to break them like an artist.
stoffelix thanks for your comment but I do not see how blaming the cyclists is going to help. If the cyclists takes the lane here and rides at a comfortable 15kmph then they will just create a bus full of cycle haters who want to travel at 50kmph.
ReplyDeleteI understand the need and the good advice of these coping strategies but they are not solutions they are just ways of dealing with problems.
The problem is that even while staying in the marked paths, you cannot avoid a dooring, because car doors, when fully opened are longer than they appear, and even if they do not reach you you might swerve and get into traffic. So it is very dangerous, what Vienna is doing here.
ReplyDeleteAnd nobody wants to go over the marked paths, because when you do, there will be the problem of car drivers getting very angry at you (I once got reared by a car driver for "driving in his lane"). So best thing would be to avoid situations like these ...
I am also a fan of vehicular cycling for myself, but on the other hand you do not have to have a drivers licence to cycle on a cycle lane, and also there is the 8 - 80 rule. And dangerous paths like this do not conform to the 8 - 80 rule. I am against markings on the street that tell cyclists to drive in the door zone. Sharrows might be ok, since they tell them to drive in the middle of the lane. Best would be seperate cycle infrastructure, built with as much money as the car infrastructure, but this won't happen soon. I think at first there has to be some demand for it, and then there has to be the budget ... and the will to remove some space for the cars, since unlike in the Netherlands where they could build everything new, many streets in Austria are to narrow for a parking lane, a driving lane and a cycle lane ...
Thanks for your comment Paul.
ReplyDeleteThe whole street was dug up and rebuild so cost is not the issue here.
I agree that the door zone is an issue (http://crowize-vienna.blogspot.co.at/2012/11/door-zone.html).
I am sure there will be no 8 or 80 year old cyclists cycling here because 8 year olds are not that stupid.
Then the only thing left to do would be to remove the parking lane ... to solve the space issue.
ReplyDeleteYou mean relaid the tram tracks.
ReplyDeleteYes
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