Near Miss of the Day 678: Amsterdam driver squeezes cyclist towards kerb

If you have a large fraction of the population doing something, that's "people" and people are unlikely to be much different across Europe (or possibly the world) in terms of paying sufficient attention / not making bad choices when driving. Most places people aren't highly motivated to follow driving rules either.

That doesn't mean giving up "existing driver education" as a lost cause or slacking off enforcement. Those are probably something you always have to keep running.  Like the drainage pumps in a country below sea level, maybe.

What the Netherlands has had great success at is making cycling not just an option but an attractive one for large numbers of "ordinary people" of all ages.

Quote:

pieces of shared streets are not very frequent and speeds are low

So the opposite of most of the UK (and much of the rest of the world)!

I think unless you reduced traffic speed / numbers to something almost like a Dutch "shared street" you won't have mass cycling. It's a bit circular (as the two affect each other) but it's "build like the Dutch" or somehow make the cars vanish. Without starting the former (thus giving people another option) I don't see the latter happening. Bikes, because I think hyperloops / trams everywhere / jetpacks would be vastly more expensive. (Although Big Bung theory suggests that sometimes it's easier to get a more expensive technology going than a cheaper decentralised one...). I'm not convinced rich_bc's smart shared taxis will take over.

Duncanap wrote:

I have only ever ridden in the outskirts of Amsterdam. The big difference for me is the presumption that if a car hits a bike (or pedestrian) it is the car drivers fault. End of discussion.

You can be riding no hands, with your eyes shut, and their insurance will still have to pay out, and if the police get involved they will be fined. So yes the drivers are pretty much as bad as in the UK, they are just aware that if they do hit someone it will cost them at least money, and possibly more.

The taxi drivers there hate it. But it works.

Not true.  If the driver, not the car, can show that the cyclist was breaking the law and acting recklessly, they can be exonerated, and it only applies to civil liability, not criminal.

I was about to repeat myself too eburtthebike but then I noticed Duncanap was making reference to insurance - so that's correct. Not sure about the police fine part? I imagine there's still plenty of "bet it was the cyclist's fault" in more serious cases though - the car is still strong over there!

I seams you know Amsterdam pretty well. This clip was taken on the Werengouw along the Buikslotermeerplein shopping centre in Amsterdam North. This is acutally a so called 'plusnet fiets' (main cycle infrastructure), but unfortunately this piece of road is a legacy from the 60s - 70s and has not been improved yet. 

(Only been to Amsterdam 3 times in my life and the last almost 10 years ago). Ah - thanks for identifying this. So the squeeze was here:

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.3968333,4.9395836,3a,75y,307.24h,91.5t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1shmufqQdh_PaYA5_89zi6bw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Yes - it doesn't look great for cycling yet. Due to low speeds it still looks better than many UK places though!

There's even some pavement cycling going on:

hirsute wrote:

Driver was a twat but it is hard to understand why you carried on into trouble.

Must be the dangerous tt bars.

Obvious - if you start pandering to cyclists they'll think they own the bloody road! Luckily in the UK we keep them in their place.

Aero bars can even be handy on an upright omafiets - those windmills aren't just ornamental.

Not really cyclists, just general roadcraft. You recognise hazards, mitigate issues and try and control things but at some point, control is simply stopping or slowing because most users are not very good.

Typically in a car I will find a bus at a stop and driver A squeezes through towards me. I can be confident that driver C who has no view will simply follow, so I adjust my speed to allow myself to stop to avoid a headon (and hopefully be near enough to give them a broadside of invective).

I cycle here 2 - 3 times a week to work. The space between the island and the curb is wide enough for a decent pass, so I did not really expect to get in trouble here. The problem is the driver doesn't pay any attention at all and starts closing me in just a few metres before the pedastrian crossing. I don't really understand the comment on the aero bars, I don't use them in busy traffic, but they are very welcome on the two large bridges I have to cross and other wind prone area's on my 15km commute.

Garage at Large wrote:

spam

FTFY

Garage at Large wrote:

Believe it or not some people here think it's entirely reasonable to ride, head down, ignorantly and dangerously, on TT bike / aero bars in areas with high numbers of pedestrians

Believe it or not, that's bollocks. Nobody has ever said anything of the sort.

Don't worry, the resident troll makes a thing of TT bars and bikes. It was just an injoke. (see subsequent comments from mdavidford and rendel harris)

I didn't think from the camera fov that there was enough space for a safe pass and to be out of hte door zone.