Unfairly prioritising pedestrians
Its reputation is that of an idyll for cyclists, a city freed from the torment of cars. But while Amsterdam remains a model to most of the world, there are signs of trouble in paradise.
A series of developments have led the Amsterdam branch of the Fietsersbond, the Dutch cyclists’ union, to claim the municipality has turned on them, unfairly prioritising pedestrians in the city’s historic centre.
……………………..Unfairly prioritising pedestrians? But pedestrians are more vulnerable to cyclists than cyclists are to pedestrians.
Where once the cyclist was king, free to weave around the small roads of the centrum with abandon, it is claimed there has been a discernible change of attitude. At best cyclists are being treated as “guests” in the heart of the city, at worst as intruders to be expelled to outer lanes, it is suggested.
Meaning cyclists used to be allowed to zip around without paying attention to pedestrians? If so that’s not a particularly good situation.
“Amsterdam is still a cyclists’ paradise but it is getting more and more difficult to move through the centre,” said Jan Pieter Nepveu, a spokesperson for the Amsterdam branch of the cyclists’ union. “It starts with the proclamation of a pedestrian zone and before you know it, cycling is discouraged with kerbs and then fences. The centre becomes the domain of pedestrians. The municipality will have to defend cyclists against an increase in walkers, tourists and the catering industry.”
Or maybe cyclists will just have to go around the centre. Making cities the domain of pedestrians is a good thing.
Over 2019 and 2020, a trial was launched by the municipality to see if it could encourage cyclists to take “alternative routes” rather than travel directly on the Damstraatjes and Haarlemmerstraat, two central areas.
The “stress” caused by overcrowding and fast-moving bikes was said to have moved local residents and entrepreneurs to demand action. “The cyclist’s behaviour is the most important point in this issue,” a report on the experiment noted.
That’s just it, you see – fast-moving bikes are dangerous to pedestrians. People shouldn’t be biking fast through crowded areas full of pedestrians. (They also shouldn’t be riding motorized scooters on the sidewalks in Seattle. Ahem.)
[C]hoices are also being made that are clearly designed to constrain the free-wheeling spirit of the past, it is claimed. The most recent flash point has been the redevelopment of the Binnengasthuis site in Amsterdam’s university quarter, a complex of buildings that used to be a hospital.
What was once an important cycle lane running through the site is to be submerged into “a pedestrian area where bicycles are guests”, as a recent council agenda described it. The move drew about 50 protesters a week ago, including Saar Muller, 68, a a retired clinical physicist.
“The university intends to give pedestrians priority and divert the cycling through traffic through an unsafe road – narrow, many cars, loading and unloading,” she said. “This development seems to us to be part of a broader tendency to create ‘pedestrians first’ space…
But, again, why not? Why should cyclists be first instead? Pedestrians are the least intrusive and the safest so why shouldn’t they be put first?
I really wish bicyclists were more aware of how inconsiderate they are. Legally they are subject to the same laws as motor vehicles in most places, yet they break traffic laws contantly and without hesitation, and they ride along with a seeming sense of entitlement that defies all reason. I have driven on roads where the city government has felt it necessary to post restrictions to single file groups. They were riding 2 or 3 abreast and creating a nuisance to traffic in these areas. There is little to no enforcement to the laws, and they get away with a lot of dangerous and irresponsible behavior. They don’t stop at stop signs, they cut into traffic at whim, and they seem to think they have a right to ride however they want. They break speed limits when riding downhill in residential areas, they don’t observe traffic signals, and when it’s convenient, they use pedestrian paths. Pedestrian meaning people on foot. I have no sympathy for these arrogant assholes. Maybe they think they will be the next Lance Armstrong, like that’s something to aspire to. :P
If you ever wondered where Rachel McKinnon got his attitude from (on top of being male)…
Ha. Yes, Mister Get out of my way you walking peasants.
Twas ever thus. I can imagine much of the same sort of thing playing out previously, with motorists complaining about the prioritization of bikes. Extrapolating into the future, I can see the same song playing when pedestrians are forced to give way to people who want to stand still, sit, or lay down.
What is a clinical physicist?
What is a clinical physicist?
It’s apparently a thing: physics as applied to medicine.
https://medicalphysics.duke.edu/medical_physics
Don’t get me started – TOO LATE!!
As a Portlander who likes to bike commute but does not view cycling as the state religion, I can relate.
Portland Govt hates the car. They do everything possible to make that known. After all, this is the city that took the only two roads that fed into the on and off ramps of an eight lane double-decker bridge, and turned them into one (car) lane bike thoroughfares.
Portland traffic engineers talk about measures to ‘calm the traffic’. The traffic may be calmer but I can tell you the driver’s heads are exploding.
Portland cyclists want dedicated bike lanes. They got them, but they still ride on sidewalks, cross in ped crossings, dart around traffic, etc. In short many just want free rein. Don’t give a mouse a cookie or a cyclist a lane.
Compounding this is the problem of Portland Peds. Yes, there are problem areas in the burbs with inadequate protections but in the city core, Portland Peds have the survival instincts of a Texas armadillo. In the core, a crosswalk is any damn place the urge to cross strikes. And since every Portland ped dresses like a ninja at night you pretty much need thermal imaging to drive safely. Then you have the bus riders who insist on standing in the middle of the street to watch for the bus. Not sure why they are afraid of missing a 10 foot tall 60 foot long multicolor monstrosity but hey.
The police don’t respond at all to property crimes, and 200 trouble makers have been granted a license to trash the downtown, but heaven help you if you park downtown and don’t feel like walking two blocks to find a functioning parking meter. in an instant, parking enforcement rappels from hovering choppers to slap a ticket on your windshield. Unless it’s a stolen car or a zombie RV in which case it will likely remain until it’s reclaimed by the elements.
Thanks I feel better – no, no the pandemic has had no effect on my nerves…