Cycling Lessons Learned from Amsterdam

Post by prawn » Wed, Apr 01, 2015, 8:46 AM UTC

victorhooi wrote: post #40

D_Alex wrote: post #26

I don't know about Vancouver, but here in Australia you must wear a bike helmet when riding a bike. That stops many people riding bikes (please do not argue about this, it has been done to death), and unfortunately has - probably - had the unintended effect of worsening public health. The pictures from the article show not a single person wearing a helmet... there is a lesson here I'd like the Australian regulaors to…

I also live in Australia, and am an avid cyclist - I ride to work every day, and I'm sorry but no , I strongly disagree. There is nothing wrong with wearing a helmet - I've come off my bike before and its made a potentially very bad situation painful rather than life-threatening - and really look, on the list of worries of cyclist, having to wear a helmet is the least of our worries. (The law about "not riding on a f…

Last year, I was part of a "citizens' jury" in Adelaide tasked with making recommendations to the South Australian government about improving road sharing safety involving cars and bikes. It took a few months of presentations and deliberations.

Permitting riding on footpaths where appropriate was one of our recommendations.

Riding without a helmet, perhaps in the CBD or in conjunction with an improved bike hire scheme, was one of my proposals that didn't win consensus with the group.

We made about 30ish recommendations all up, and almost all were endorsed by the Premier for trial.

The whole process was very eye-opening. I drive to work, but I would ride if it were safer. I hope we'll gradually see improved infrastructure here in Adelaide, at least by the time my children are at riding age.

Post by codfrantic » Thu, Apr 02, 2015, 8:03 AM UTC

ulikunkel wrote: post #32

fit2rule wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lesson is, people are less prone to want to wear a helmet in Australia because its very hot and you get quite sweaty. Whereas in Amsterdam, people want to leave their heads free because its mostly pretty cold, and you want to wear a proper head covering - like a beany or scarf - and this isn't always compatible with bike helments. However, I've observed many times over people wearing helmets in Amsterdam. Its not…

Nobody in Amsterdam wears a helmet while biking. The one exception might be sports cyclist who ride at high speeds. They usually won't show up in the inner city tough. Biking in Amsterdam is pretty safe. But this is mostly because of the infrastructure, and more importantly because dutch drivers are used to cyclers on the roads. Most bike accidents in Amsterdam are caused by foreign drivers that are not used to looki…

>Nobody in Amsterdam wears a helmet while biking.

Also many tourists and a lot of expats! I also see more and more kids riding on the front / back of bikes wearing helmets, their parents usually going helmetless.

Re: Cycling Lessons Learned from Amsterdam

Re: Cycling Lessons Learned from Amsterdam