I can only speak for the UK, where some numbskull has allowed cyclists onto the pavement (sidewalk). People get hit by these cyclists and have no recourse. Being hit by a bike travelling at 15-20kph (as many do) is no joke. People have been killed.
Some cyclists are a danger to themselves and others. At the moment there's not that much cycling TBH (particularly in winter), but as the popularity grows and there are more people on bikes & sharing roads with cars, the more important it is to ensure the people riding them have enough control. To make a hand signal while braking to make a turn, or to be able to look behind them before manoeuvring...
A test would only involve some checks on the riders control of the bike and a multi choice test on the highway code. The latter should be passable by anyone with a motor vehicle anyway. When I did it there were 30 of us doing circuits and a couple of examiners the cost was nominal. It was done less than half an hour.
It is dangerous. I checked. An average of 100 people killed and approximately 18k casualties every year. That's why pretty much everywhere recommends wearing a helmet and a few insist. Many more countries enforce helmets for children. Encouraging people to think it's NOT dangerous makes them careless. At the moment ~9% of people cycle at least once a week...
Only if it's self defense proficiency. As a trivial example on Friday I pulled to a full stop at a 3-way in a civic park intending to turn right. Two cars were stopped behind the sign to my left. Since the first car reached the intersection first I waited for it to go through before entering behind it. The second driver however freight trained through the stop sign behind the first car without stopping, leaning on the horn at the apparent effrontery of a cyclist using the road. What traffic lessons help here?
Many experiences have been much worse in the potentially fatal sense of worse. Maybe it's the overall societal tension finding expression but the current level of anti-cyclist aggression on road and path is unprecedented in my 30+ years of street riding. It's approaching psychotic.
It’s also common around here to see idiots trying to “train” on bike trails “because the roads are too dangerous”. Often tri-geeks on the aero bars. Those are a danger to everybody. If your going to go THAT FAST, get out threre and brave the traffic - don’t go running over moms pushing strollers.
Unless it's allowed. There are sometimes signs saying it's a path is shared, sometimes not. But, in effect even if it's not, it is, because a law only exists if it's enforced...
If you want to see Le Tour why not go to the original broadcast source?
https://www.france.tv/sport/cyclisme/tour-de-france/
Go to 'refaites un tour ( H)' and you have access to all etapes in replay of male contest. ( you'll have to register though, but from experience no spam or other annoying things). In French of course. 🙂
Female tour is availlable too.
I used to watch the tour for years, but then the coverage got spotty in the US and I’m not gonna pay for it. I used to ride a lot when I was younger, but life got in the way and we moved to a city where they’d just as soon run you in the ditch as anything. I live in a very small rural town now, but the only place to ride is a two lane highway with bull haulers screaming by at 75 miles per hour. Even with a decent shoulder it gets nerve wracking so my old steel Bianchi just sits in the garage collecting dust. It’s the only bike I kept.
I watched religiously for years until coverage got spotty too. Unfortunately, I didn’t even go out of my way to look for it this time. Guess I’ve got to decide if it’s worth “buying” this year to catch up on. I haven’t had time to sit glued to the TV this past July anyway.
That's foul.
There's a former British rower who, after retirement, was cycling across America as part of a discovery channel TV programme. He got whacked on the head from behind by the wing mirror of a truck who's driver clearly didn't like cyclists and wasn't going to give an inch. Life changing is the only way to describe his injuries...
I have been ran off a full size shoulder into the ditch several times by 18 wheelers. Thank goodness for helmet mirrors and rumble strips. That’s why I quit riding. Not worth it.
Forget the bitumen roads and go Gravel, way less cars ( but more scars to me, i often get scratched by vegetation 🙂 ).
And i forgot to say in message 66: you have to register but it's free.
And i forgot to say in message 66: you have to register but it's free.
I wish. Farming community with 1 1/2 lane dirt lanes roads. Even easier to get hit. Have to stick to my old Gary Fisher 26” and the little town (700 people max). Old people cruising.
I don’t fear the 18 wheelers and bull haulers. I get far more bull$#1+ from people in cars. Rednecks with Trump stickers (and hate everybody), retirees who think they are entitled to the world, and overworked moms trying to cram 12 days worth of errands in a week.
For a different perspective, go to Frankfurt (am Main) in Germany. Cyclists heaven, they've been handed the city at the expense of pedestrians. You can cycle 100km and more in a day and get from the city centre into the Taunus mountains unhindered. Other than having to cross an occasional road, you'll never have to compete with a car. Paradise but with an astonishingly high AQ.
It also has some of the rudest most inconsiderate, entitled cyclists it's ever been my misfortune to meet (Bremen and Berlin weren't brilliant either). They treat pedestrians with contempt, they cycle in areas clearly marked for pedestrians, routinely ignore no cycling signs, traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and are outraged if you don't leap to one side fast enough and they have to slow down. Heaven help you if you make one stop and put their foot on the ground.
So some cyclists can dish it out too when there are more vulnerable people around and no-one to enforce the rules.
It also has some of the rudest most inconsiderate, entitled cyclists it's ever been my misfortune to meet (Bremen and Berlin weren't brilliant either). They treat pedestrians with contempt, they cycle in areas clearly marked for pedestrians, routinely ignore no cycling signs, traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and are outraged if you don't leap to one side fast enough and they have to slow down. Heaven help you if you make one stop and put their foot on the ground.
So some cyclists can dish it out too when there are more vulnerable people around and no-one to enforce the rules.
No matter what the rules are (traffic, physics, whatever) it is wrong to intentionally treat humans (on bicycles or not) such that they might be injured or even killed. If you live in an area or culture where this behaviour is the norm I'd suggest you move to a better place.
The mirror opposite of Toronto in many aspects except stop sign running, which everyone does. Some parks are effectively entirely pedestrian areas save for a couple of 4' strips of shared use asphalt in either direction that are mandatory for cyclists. Those strips attract pedestrians like catnip. 4' of park available to cyclists out of 200' seems intolerable. Bike lanes are VIP and city vehicle parking or pedestrian chat areas. No one looks before walking across a bike lane save for those jumping in front of you while you still have time to stop. It's an inexhaustible goldmine for sociologists.
On yesterday's ~12 mile ride mostly off city streets I was almost hit twice by cars, including one narcoleptic completely on the wrong side of an empty park road staring out the passenger side window. That's three near misses over two clear sunny day rides.
Heading out again tomorrow. Hold my beer.