JOHN S. ALLEN'S BICYCLE FACILITIES, LAWS AND PROGRAMS PAGES |
||
 |
Top: Home page Up: About bicycle sidepaths |
 |
JOHN S. ALLEN'S BICYCLE FACILITIES, LAWS AND PROGRAMS PAGES |
||
|
Top: Home page Up: About bicycle sidepaths |
|
| The following is a press release of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrrad-Club, (German
Cycling Federation ADFC) reporting on a conference held in Salzburg, Austria, May 2-5
1990.
Translation by John S. Allen. |
15 August 1992 Argus (Publisher): VELO SECUR 90 [BICYCLE SAFETY '90] -- ISSUES OF BICYCLING SAFETY."Russian roulette" on sidepaths - sidepaths are the target of criticism |
||||||
Most
|
Because the separation of different types of traffic by means of sidepaths behind curbs makes excessive demands on users and leads to crashes, other solutions are being increasingly recommended for channelizing bicycle traffic. Experts from different backgrounds at the Velo Secur traffic safety conference in Salzburg were united in the opinion that sidepaths in urban areas are entirely unsatisfactory in many ways, and should not be used. | |||||
Contents |
The proceedings of the conference, published by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft
umweltfreundlicher Stadtverkehr (ARGUS, coalition for environmentally friendly urban
transport), with the 46 conference papers from the Velo Secur conference in Salzburg, give
a comprehensive summary of bicycling safety issues in the areas of traffic planning, crash
research, traffic education, bicycle design and traffic law. Political goals alone do not achieve a successful promotion of bicycle use, according to Heinz Kloss, of the city government of the host city, Salzburg. In 1986, Salzburg decided to increase bicycle traffic, which was 12% in 1982, to 20% by 1990. The goal was not attained, however, because the subjective reasons for avoiding bicycle use -- "too dangerous" and "not enough sidepaths" (see Figure 1) were not overcome. Suitable measures were not adopted, according to Kloss, in part because three city departments with different mandates were involved. |
|||||
|
||||||
| A number of conference papers, however, made it clear that many existing urban
sidepaths are fundamentally unsuitable for bicycle traffic, and lead to crashes. Oskar
Balsinger from the Canton of Bern indicates that a conceptually perfect physical
segregation of traffic places the highly excessive demand on users of interacting with
three or four intersecting networks (travel lanes, sidewalks, bikeways, tram/bus). Data presented by Wolfgang Rauh (ARGUS Vienna) show that bicyclists on sidepaths have more than three times the crash risk at intersections, and for this reason he compares use of sidepaths with "Russian roulette" (Figure 2). |
||||||
|
||||||
| Klaus Hinte, chief traffic official for the city and police department of Bremen, also
describes sidepaths as a safety problem. In his paper "From Bikeway Network to
Bicycle Traffic Network", he suggests that use of bikeways no longer be mandatory,
and that alternatives be promoted, for example zones with 30 km/h speed limits, traffic
calmed areas, bike lanes on the roadway, bicycle streets and "bicycle zones"
(including, for example, one-way streets on which bicyclists are permitted to travel in
both directions). Despite laws mandating the use of sidepaths, some bicycle traffic in all European nations must use the normal travel lanes even when sidepaths exist, as Harold Stolzlechner indicates in his survey "Comparison of Bikeway Provisions in the Laws of European Nations". In Austria, pedal-powered vehicles with more than a single track, as well as those with trailers, must generally use the travel lanes; in Germany, this is the case only where the sidepath is not wide enough. In Switzerland, bicycles with trailers are permitted on sidepaths only when they do not impede other bicycle traffic. In the Netherlands, bicycles or other pedal-powered vehicles with trailers may use sidepaths, as long as the total vehicle or trailer width is not more than 75 cm. |
||||||
Documentation: |
Velo Secur ("Issues of Bicycling Safety"). International conference from 2-5 May 1990 in Salzburg. Conference proceedings published by ARGUS (Working group for Environmentally-friendly Urban Traffic), Vienna, 1991. | |||||
Authors: |
Dipl. Ing. Oskar Balsiger, Public Works Department of the Canton of Bern, bicycle program; Chief Klaus Hinte, chief traffic official for the city and police department of Bremen; Dipl.-Ing SP Dipl.-Ing. Heinz Kloss, Salzburg city government; Dipl.-Ing. Wolfgang Rauh, ARGUS bicycle office, Berlin; Univ. Prof. Dr. Harald Stolzlechner, Institut für Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsrecht (Institute for constitutional and civic Law), University of Salzburg | |||||
To obtain
|
ARGUS-Arbeitsgemeinschaft umweltfreundicher Stadtverkehr, Fahrradbüro: [ARGUS, coalition for environmentally friendly urban transport, bicycle office] Frankenberggasse 11, A-1040 Wien, Tel. + 43-222-505 8435, Fax + 43-222-505 5719. Price incl. shipping: Austria ÖS 333,/other countries ÖS 348, / European Cycling Federation members ÖS 248; (Argus account Velo-Secur P.S.K.7.623.662), Germany DM 50, /ADFC members DM 35,50 (Argus account, Postgiroamt München 79416-802), Switzerland sfr 44,-/IG Velo, VCS members sfr 31,50 (Argus account Postcheckamt St. Gallen 90-11462-5). | |||||
| Top: Home page Up: About bicycle sidepaths |
Reproduced by permission of the AFDC. |
Auch auf
deutsch erh�ltlich! 
