The Dutch cycling organisation Fietsland Nederland is putting an unlikely issue in the spotlight – the tens of thousands of short posts intended to stop cars driving on cycle paths. Each year, these seemingly innocuous pieces of metal claim the lives of 12 people and injure 12,000 more. Elderly people are particularly prone to their dangers.
The posts have been placed to protect the cyclists, but actually they’re having the opposite effect. Fifty cyclists die each year in accidents not involving motorists. Some 46,000 sustain injuries. The posts play a role in one in four of these accidents, say researchers from the northern University of Groningen.
The researchers claim the posts are often placed at blind spots or at points along the road, like a bend, where the view is restricted. When the posts are painted red and white, all white or covered in a metallic paint layer, they are usually visible. But the investigators also came across brown and even black ones.
Cycle path
The posts are often installed out of habit as soon as a cycle path has been laid. But the Groningen researchers conclude it would often be safer to remove them. If the posts are temporarily taken away during maintenance work on parks or village greens, “there are rarely incidents of motorists driving on the cycle paths.”
The ‘safety’ posts can be particularly dangerous for the elderly. They don’t see as well and if they collide into a post, the injuries sustained are often serious. Some Dutch municipalities have said they will remove any unnecessary posts.
(jn/imm)
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I've noticed that so many of the things done in the name of 'safety' seem to cause accidents. For example in the U.K. speed cameras were installed in the name of safety, when they went in accidents increased. Now that they are coming out accidents on the motorway are going down. I suspect because the cameras made people stress out and be paranoid instead of paying attention to the road. In California they make large trucks go 55 miles per hour when the speed limit is often 70. So you have vehicles moving at radically different speeds which is a concern by it's self this also causes road rage when people get stuck behind a truck and can't get into the passing lane. All done in the name of safety.
The truth is the safety communists who seem to have taken over every western nation aren't very good at thier job. In this time of austerity perhaps it's time they found new employment. We might all live longer if they did.
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