Big help would be using an actual bike bell by all bicyclists (if you exclude the most logical solution by creating decent bike lanes).
Oh and actually paying attention. This weekend, I had to use a bike lane with both directions (which should be avoided on that place anyway since it’s barely manageable). Couple comes in the opposite direction. One stays on their right side, the other: continues to cycle in the middle and doesn’t go out of her way. How tf do you miss seeing a cyclist coming from the opposite direction on your bike lane?
One issue I notice in Antwerp is people not respecting one-directional bike lanes, where you’re only supposed to ride in the direction due to the narrower width. Super annoying to get run off the lane by someone riding the wrong direction. Also, mopeds totally ignore the signs preventing their class of vehicle from certain stretches, of course.
Ik mag met mijn auto ook geen trage autos zomaar voorbij steken..
Fietsersbond en Vias: meer mensen moeten de auto laten en de fiets nemen naar het werk!
Mensen nemen effectief fiets naar het werk: Ik moet deze baan iedere dag 2x doen en tis trager dan mijn auto dus SPEEEEEEEED DING DING get out of my way niet iedereen heeft heel de dag de tijd!
Fietsersbond en Vias: surprised Pikachu face.
En dan heb je mensen die met 2-3 naast elkaar rijden aan 5km per uur, het hele dubbelrichting fietspad innemen en dan verbaasd zijn dat je aggressief belt en ekeer roept omdat je aan 20-30km (niet elektrisch) afkomt, niet kunt passeren terwijl je in tegenstelde richting rijd. En ja dat kan gevaarlijk zijn maar sorry waarom is die mensen hun recht om het fietspad te gebruiken als snelle voetganger meer waard dan mijn recht om efficiënt te zijn in mijn verplaatsing op datzelfde fietspad? Iedere dag 2x een halfuur of iedere dag 2x 3 kwartier is een verschil van 2,5 uur per week, ongeveer 10u per maand van me leven dat ik aan andere dingen kan spenderen en nooit meer terugkrijg.. Want als dat effectief zo is kan dan evengoed de auto terug nemen, is vaak wat file maar indien het NOG sneller is omdat ik achter Pepe met zen hond moet rijden..
Good arrangements make good friends.
A trip to Amsterdam or Den Haag will show you an abundance of signalisation and road markings showing which cyclist has right of way. I like that we’re getting more bike lanes, but we should think ahead to improve our cycling infrastructure if we want to prevent tension among cyclist (and between cyclists and cars/pedestrians) in the future.
I don’t really think we should stop with relying on “hoffelijkheid”.
Verplicht invoeren van een rijbewijs zou helpen samen met een verplichte nummerplaat op de fiets
This is actually a symptom of a good evolution: it means the number of cyclists is increasing.
Logically the available space needs to increase which means taking space away from cars.
What i see on my daily commute, people overtaking in ( blind) corners.
That’s wanting to crash.
I cycle myself but damn, belgian cyclists are terrible. Idk why, belgians are extremely polite people in social life, they drive very carefully but when a belgian man rides a bike he acts like it’s a bloody race! I started to treat other cyclists as projectiles aimed at me, they never avoid collision and often I have to evade people who act as if they were actively trying to ram me.
The focus here is on the problems with cyclists whereas the biggest problems relate to the car centric infrastructure. For instance, many cyclists of different sizes and speeds need to share one narrow lane in both directions whereas the cars get 3 lanes in 1 direction (e.g. Wetstraat).
I ride 20km to uni and in the early morning you have like 50 older people who also want to ride to work and they go like double my speed (i ride at like 22km/h atm) and they get annoyed if you dont move out of the way immidiatly even if they rang like 5 meters from you. Also people that have a weird electronic bell that doesnt sound at all like a bell and i think its coming from somewhere else….
Is it so hard to stretch out your arm left or right to indicate where you’re going? That’s how I learned to indicate where I was going when I was a kid.
Zug zug across the street from right to left without looking behind you or making clear where you go. If you have a deathwish, be my guest and do it in a place where you won’t bother anyone.
I can only talk about biking in Brussels (hello Wetstraat), but few small things would make a big improvement. For example cyclists indicating if they are turning, to which direction, and if they are stopping. Ride on the correct side of the road, and not in the middle of everything. Bike bells are also good if used. I also walk a lot and would wish cyclists to be careful and stop at the zebra crossings if there are pedestrians.
Another bigger improvement would be decent bike lanes and good path designs.
If everyone could ride a bike properly the problem would be solved, too many people don’t have a good connection with their bike and lack the confidence
What annoys me the most is those gasoline scooters who use the bicycle lane only when they can skip red lights. Also, old people on speedpedelecs who have rear viewing mirrors, but never seem to use them. Oh man, I have so many things that annoy me while riding my bike… I also feel that an electric bike should be for people who have real issues with riding a normal bike, like bad knees or something.
It is very tricky to go somewhere on bike between 8-8:30.
You got the cars, all the parents, the slow kids, the fast kids, the three in a row kids. The tule parents, the bakfiets parents, the slow kid viking next to them parents, the ebike granny, the fake sport speedilec, ….
I fit in many of those categories, but like they say, repect, looking and some patience avoid any crash.
Altho a wider bike path would fix most things.
All these new and different vehicles with their own unique traveling speeds on the road made it more difficult for us humans to use our brain capacity to predetermine where and how people are going to travel towards. Our unconscious minds to be reprogrammed towards this. I believe it’s only a phase and people will adapt towards the new situation after they became capable of better judging others behaviour on the road.
Also the upswing of e bikes and their sometimes relatively inexperienced drivers doesn’t help. Many bikers aren’t used to travel at faster speeds (different break times, heavier bounces by changes in road infrastructure) and are in a phase to develop better reflexes and overall awareness on the road.
Some think they have the right to drive at the left side assuming they travel at superior speed which is often not the case, resulting in unnecessary issues. Some think they are allowed to even drive on the roads whilst catching up cars in a ‘schoolstreet’, why?
Being more aware of your surroundings, indicating your directions with your arms and overall politeness, attentiveness and empathy will help each other outside.
A good thing we have all this infrastructure in Belgium these days with rising fuel prices.
Bottom line being, we will adapt.
The thing that annoyed me the most is that there are many people that simply don’t know the bloody rules. I “crashed” into two people last year that decided to just turn left, while I was overtaking them, who then proceeded to get angry at me as if I made the mistake and no matter what, they wouldn’t accept that they were the idiots.
The best argument was that because I didn’t ring a bell, I wasn’t allowed to overtake them…. like wtf?
Don’t spit at/yell at/put your middle finger up at your fellow cyclists who stop for a red light would be a nice suggestion…
If people would adjust their speed to the situation, things would be a lot safer… Cyclists seem to wanna go their own speed regardless of what the traffic around them does…
‘…zodat de ene fiets de andere veilig kan inhalen.’ Well, here’s an idea: You slow down, make notice of your presence, the cyclist in front of you makes room, you overtake. Instead of yelling or ringing while keeping the same speed and flying past regardless if they made room or not.
20 comments
Big help would be using an actual bike bell by all bicyclists (if you exclude the most logical solution by creating decent bike lanes).
Oh and actually paying attention. This weekend, I had to use a bike lane with both directions (which should be avoided on that place anyway since it’s barely manageable). Couple comes in the opposite direction. One stays on their right side, the other: continues to cycle in the middle and doesn’t go out of her way. How tf do you miss seeing a cyclist coming from the opposite direction on your bike lane?
One issue I notice in Antwerp is people not respecting one-directional bike lanes, where you’re only supposed to ride in the direction due to the narrower width. Super annoying to get run off the lane by someone riding the wrong direction. Also, mopeds totally ignore the signs preventing their class of vehicle from certain stretches, of course.
Ik mag met mijn auto ook geen trage autos zomaar voorbij steken..
Fietsersbond en Vias: meer mensen moeten de auto laten en de fiets nemen naar het werk!
Mensen nemen effectief fiets naar het werk: Ik moet deze baan iedere dag 2x doen en tis trager dan mijn auto dus SPEEEEEEEED DING DING get out of my way niet iedereen heeft heel de dag de tijd!
Fietsersbond en Vias: surprised Pikachu face.
En dan heb je mensen die met 2-3 naast elkaar rijden aan 5km per uur, het hele dubbelrichting fietspad innemen en dan verbaasd zijn dat je aggressief belt en ekeer roept omdat je aan 20-30km (niet elektrisch) afkomt, niet kunt passeren terwijl je in tegenstelde richting rijd. En ja dat kan gevaarlijk zijn maar sorry waarom is die mensen hun recht om het fietspad te gebruiken als snelle voetganger meer waard dan mijn recht om efficiënt te zijn in mijn verplaatsing op datzelfde fietspad? Iedere dag 2x een halfuur of iedere dag 2x 3 kwartier is een verschil van 2,5 uur per week, ongeveer 10u per maand van me leven dat ik aan andere dingen kan spenderen en nooit meer terugkrijg.. Want als dat effectief zo is kan dan evengoed de auto terug nemen, is vaak wat file maar indien het NOG sneller is omdat ik achter Pepe met zen hond moet rijden..
Good arrangements make good friends.
A trip to Amsterdam or Den Haag will show you an abundance of signalisation and road markings showing which cyclist has right of way. I like that we’re getting more bike lanes, but we should think ahead to improve our cycling infrastructure if we want to prevent tension among cyclist (and between cyclists and cars/pedestrians) in the future.
I don’t really think we should stop with relying on “hoffelijkheid”.
Verplicht invoeren van een rijbewijs zou helpen samen met een verplichte nummerplaat op de fiets
This is actually a symptom of a good evolution: it means the number of cyclists is increasing.
Logically the available space needs to increase which means taking space away from cars.
What i see on my daily commute, people overtaking in ( blind) corners.
That’s wanting to crash.
I cycle myself but damn, belgian cyclists are terrible. Idk why, belgians are extremely polite people in social life, they drive very carefully but when a belgian man rides a bike he acts like it’s a bloody race! I started to treat other cyclists as projectiles aimed at me, they never avoid collision and often I have to evade people who act as if they were actively trying to ram me.
The focus here is on the problems with cyclists whereas the biggest problems relate to the car centric infrastructure. For instance, many cyclists of different sizes and speeds need to share one narrow lane in both directions whereas the cars get 3 lanes in 1 direction (e.g. Wetstraat).
It reminds me of what’s explained in [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07o-TASvIxY&list=LL&index=9).
I understand Vias doing this, as they are dominated by the car industry, but I have no idea why the Fietsersbond is participating in this myopia. They also did it on [Bruzz](https://www.bruzz.be/mobiliteit/snelle-fietsers-op-de-bon-zijn-niet-de-koning-van-de-voetgangerszone-2022-05-09) recently (where the comments were more appropriate). I’m starting to wonder whether they’ve received a ‘new management’.
I ride 20km to uni and in the early morning you have like 50 older people who also want to ride to work and they go like double my speed (i ride at like 22km/h atm) and they get annoyed if you dont move out of the way immidiatly even if they rang like 5 meters from you. Also people that have a weird electronic bell that doesnt sound at all like a bell and i think its coming from somewhere else….
Is it so hard to stretch out your arm left or right to indicate where you’re going? That’s how I learned to indicate where I was going when I was a kid.
Zug zug across the street from right to left without looking behind you or making clear where you go. If you have a deathwish, be my guest and do it in a place where you won’t bother anyone.
I can only talk about biking in Brussels (hello Wetstraat), but few small things would make a big improvement. For example cyclists indicating if they are turning, to which direction, and if they are stopping. Ride on the correct side of the road, and not in the middle of everything. Bike bells are also good if used. I also walk a lot and would wish cyclists to be careful and stop at the zebra crossings if there are pedestrians.
Another bigger improvement would be decent bike lanes and good path designs.
If everyone could ride a bike properly the problem would be solved, too many people don’t have a good connection with their bike and lack the confidence
What annoys me the most is those gasoline scooters who use the bicycle lane only when they can skip red lights. Also, old people on speedpedelecs who have rear viewing mirrors, but never seem to use them. Oh man, I have so many things that annoy me while riding my bike… I also feel that an electric bike should be for people who have real issues with riding a normal bike, like bad knees or something.
It is very tricky to go somewhere on bike between 8-8:30.
You got the cars, all the parents, the slow kids, the fast kids, the three in a row kids. The tule parents, the bakfiets parents, the slow kid viking next to them parents, the ebike granny, the fake sport speedilec, ….
I fit in many of those categories, but like they say, repect, looking and some patience avoid any crash.
Altho a wider bike path would fix most things.
All these new and different vehicles with their own unique traveling speeds on the road made it more difficult for us humans to use our brain capacity to predetermine where and how people are going to travel towards. Our unconscious minds to be reprogrammed towards this. I believe it’s only a phase and people will adapt towards the new situation after they became capable of better judging others behaviour on the road.
Also the upswing of e bikes and their sometimes relatively inexperienced drivers doesn’t help. Many bikers aren’t used to travel at faster speeds (different break times, heavier bounces by changes in road infrastructure) and are in a phase to develop better reflexes and overall awareness on the road.
Some think they have the right to drive at the left side assuming they travel at superior speed which is often not the case, resulting in unnecessary issues. Some think they are allowed to even drive on the roads whilst catching up cars in a ‘schoolstreet’, why?
Being more aware of your surroundings, indicating your directions with your arms and overall politeness, attentiveness and empathy will help each other outside.
A good thing we have all this infrastructure in Belgium these days with rising fuel prices.
Bottom line being, we will adapt.
The thing that annoyed me the most is that there are many people that simply don’t know the bloody rules. I “crashed” into two people last year that decided to just turn left, while I was overtaking them, who then proceeded to get angry at me as if I made the mistake and no matter what, they wouldn’t accept that they were the idiots.
The best argument was that because I didn’t ring a bell, I wasn’t allowed to overtake them…. like wtf?
Don’t spit at/yell at/put your middle finger up at your fellow cyclists who stop for a red light would be a nice suggestion…
If people would adjust their speed to the situation, things would be a lot safer… Cyclists seem to wanna go their own speed regardless of what the traffic around them does…
‘…zodat de ene fiets de andere veilig kan inhalen.’ Well, here’s an idea: You slow down, make notice of your presence, the cyclist in front of you makes room, you overtake. Instead of yelling or ringing while keeping the same speed and flying past regardless if they made room or not.