Gray with colors

Winter in Vienna generally means gray. A lot of gray sky. It's cloudy and foggy. If at least it would snow! But it very rarely does. What to do?

I survive this time of the year by wearing some colorful clothes. An additional benefit of this brightening up is that it also increases visibility. Today I set off with Paula for a short gift shopping trip. Since it's cold one has to wear proper protection anyhow. My choice of the day was a blue and red woolen combination. Feels much warmer already, doesn't it? What are you favorite winter cycling clothes?

Ready ...

... and go!

Paris is more beautiful on a Vélib'

Vélib' is the popular bike share program in Paris, France. Vélib stands for "vélo liberté" (bicycle freedom) and "la ville est plus belle à vélo" (cycling makes the city beautiful) is their welcoming slogan. End of August I stayed in Paris for two weeks, and luckily I also had the time for a spin on a Vélib'. Here are some of my impressions...

Me on a Vélib' near Paris 6 University

Painted-on bike symbols in Paris

I've only been in Paris for a week, but gathered more impressions than I can deal with. It's even harder to sum it all up. Paris is many things I love -- stunning, green, multicultural, open, relaxing and (within the last days) also sunny. Despite its size, I walk most of the time or use the metro. Throughout the week I work, but I try to catch hold of some special features that Paris offers. Well, among many other things, Paris is famous for the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. Let's have a look at some other paintings today...

What I particularly like are the cycle paths and bike lanes throughout the town. They are really wide and clearly marked. Some of the bike symbols are boxed in green. Can anybody tell me the meaning of that?

  

Segregated two-way cycle path and bike lane in Paris

Wow! Bike blossom time!

It's really amazing. On the weekend the temperatures went up, the sun returned after a few months of just gray sky -- and suddenly there are many many more cyclists to be seen on the roads. Spring time kicks in, yeah!

Today I even decided to cycle without a cap and without gloves. The wind in my hair just felt so lovely. Oh, how I missed that! On the other hand, my hands got really cold. On the way back from uni I wore some thin gloves again...

Truly amazing to see the bike paths in the rush hour. It's bike blossom time! Yeah, baby :).

And you're really cool if you find a chewing gum that matches your bike ride.

Parking offenders and a trip to the industrial area of Vienna

Today I just cycled to work and back. The round-trip is about 12km. Last Wednesday morning, however, I cycled about 20km extra. No, not for work. I went to the MA67 and back. The MA67 is the magistrate in Vienna responsible for parking violations. Why I went there?

About half a year ago I reported 13 cars that were parked on a bike lane, the sidewalk and in a "no parking and no stopping at anytime" zone. Right beside a school. They were parents picking up their children. One of these people filed a protest and I had to go to the MA67 for a witness report and to hand in a photographic proof.

Illegal parking on bike lanes is often just considered a trivial offense

Snow clearance in Vienna

Currently we have some snow in Vienna. Finally :). I'm very happy about that. I love the white beauty, and also the challenge to cycle in this weather. Snow clearance in Vienna works almost alright. Let me show you some examples.

Most bike paths I used so far have been plowed. Well, if the last clearance was a while ago then they were again covered with snow. That can be very dangerous if the snow freezes. I am always very careful to not ride in some existent tracks. Cyling like that gets quite exhausting after a while. And it makes me slightly angry when I see that both the street and the sidewalk are completely free of snow, but nobody bothered to plow the bike paths for the whole day.

Cycling along one of the major bike paths in Vienna -- the Gürtel: morning (left, center) vs. evening (right)

On the other hand, I certainly have to complain about the bike lanes. Although they make up most of Vienna's bicycle network, they are almost ignored in the winter. In fact they are often used as spare space and filled up with the snow of the car lanes and hence (at least partially) covered in snow, mud or grit. There are very few examples of cleared bike lanes. Still, these conditions are acceptable if I can safely cycle on the road, but it's very annoying e.g. in a one-way street when I have to move into the oncoming lane. It's also dangerous because some car drivers don't respect the circumstances and still overtake in the same way as they usually would (cycling in the middle of the lane is often not an option, because it might also be covered in mud).

It's not only the fault of the snow plows though. This muddy dirty snow is often created by cars pulling in and out of parking lanes beside the bike lanes. These problems, in fact, are closely related to the fact that bike lanes in Vienna are generally designed too narrow.

Rather poor (or simply no) bike lane clearance

Overall I dislike is the priority of the snow plowing in Vienna: all car lanes first, then sidewalks (if not to be done by house owners) and at the very bottom bicycle infrastructure. When I have to see that, e.g. at the Gürtel, car drivers have about 4 (almost dry) lanes in each direction and I have to struggle on a snow- or mud-covered bike paths then I get sad and angry. It's obvious that cyclists are not treated equally by the authorities. I don't even want to imagine the untroubled winter biking conditions in Copenhagen and other, similarly civilized, parts of Europe.

And I can understand people that don't want to use their bikes in the winter. No, cycling in the winter is not dangerous, but more efforts are needed to make it really safe and enjoyable. For those who still cycle in such conditions: don't forget good lighting etc., ride carefully and have fun. I will :).

Side roads often look like that (quite ok since one can choose where to cycle :))

If necessary, how does snow clearance look like in your country? Is your bicycle infrastructure cleared of snow regularly? Do you ride your bike when the roads/bike lanes are not plowed or do you switch to public transport or car? Why (not)?

Time for tights

After a long-lasting wonderful summer ...

... I'm now ready for a colorful fall.


Let's cycle into the golden sunset together!

First (and second) time cycling in Budapest

As I already mentioned last week, I'm currently attending a Mobility Week Workshop in Budapest, Hungary. It's a meeting of 30 young Europeans from basically 6 different countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Hungary, Spain). After exploring the city center and area around the youth hostel Casa de la Musica, we will set different goals and work on how this area could be improved mobility-wise.

My bike impatiently waits for our departure at Wien Südbahnhof

I. (another girl from Vienna) and myself brought our own bikes along. Unfortunately, this is unnecessarily complicated since bike transport is only possible on the slow regional trains. Apart from the longer traveling time (4 rather than 3 hours) this also includes also other disadvantages for cyclists. For example, we had to change trains twice and always drag all our luggage and the bikes up and down the stairs at the stations (no elevators, not even rails on the stairs for wheelchairs – how do disabled people manage that?). Apart from that we didn't arrive at the main station Keleti in Pest but further outside at the Deli station in Buda.

I. at Györ station: changing trains means draging bikes and luggage up and down the stairs

Such things really annoy me. I don't understand why they discourage people to bring along bikes on long distance journeys. I think the EU should really try to work towards a excellent train network that includes possibilities for bike transport. Nowadays it's almost impossible to bring bikes (except folding bikes) on long-distant trains and the situation actually gets worse and worse, at least in and around Austria after the Austrian railway network ÖBB introduced their new Railjet trains that simply don't transport bikes. Such things just make me sad.

So, after all, how is cycling in Budapest? Before we left, we heard all kinds of stories basically saying that cycling in Budapest is very dangerous and that car drivers are aggressive. I must say that I didn't have that impression at all. Of course, there is a lot of car traffic. The roads and lanes are wide and the motorists get priority over everybody else. But cycling in traffic is not so bad. Car drivers leave a lot of space to the side when overtaking and nobody ever honked at us. With all our luggage (both of us had a 50l backpack and a small one) we found our way to the hostel easily and safely. We only had a problem once after we got on a bike path as this one actually lead us away from the Erzsébet bridge rather than onto it. So we ended up carrying our bikes up and down stairs (again) and crossed the Danube on the sidewalk of the bridge. Well, the view was great and we took some nice pictures :-). Though our first cycling trip in Budapest was actually quite pleasant.

Night view from Erzsébet bridge to Buda, Danube and Pest

The next day we cycled through Budapest on rented bikes from Budapestbike in the whole group of 30 people. That way we could see some of the bicycle infrastructure in the city. There is not much and of course there are many improvements that could be made. Compared to Vienna, however, I quite enjoyed that the bike lanes on the road are so wide here and even have an empty space between the parked cars (absolutely necessary and should be standard anyhow, but Viennese planners apparently don't believe in "dooring"). I didn't like the segregated two-way bike paths so much as they are quite narrow and not so visible from the car lanes (always problems with cars turning right that only see cyclists at the last moment). Still, I liked their clear and straight design and that they had a center line. At some places the surface was quite rough though. Very often the bike lanes are painted red at junctions, but the color already faded away.

Cycling in Budapest: cycling in traffic, on a bike lane and a two-way bike path

What I really miss here are one way streets with contraflow cycling traffic. That is something that works very well in Vienna and that really safes me a lot of time in everyday life. They do try to implement such things here too. As mentioned in one of the talks, they also have one advanced stop lane for cyclists (meaning that cyclists can stop in front of the first row of cars at traffic lights, also referred to as 'bike box') and so-called suggested cycle lanes (simply bike pictograms on the road with no real bike infrastructure – I reckon that they are much more efficient than small signs beside the road saying that this is a bike route, as these are not really seen by car drivers).

Concerning bike infrastructure (and generally traffic and spatial planning), Budapest still has a long way to go, but cycling is possible and safe if one is cautious. Cycling, however, is certainly not pleasant here. Still, cyclists in Budapest already represent 3-5% of the modal split which is quite similar to Vienna (as far as I know we have 5% cyclists, but already 8% in the “summer months”), and the numbers are continuously increasing.

More about other aspects of traffic in Budapest and a flashmob by “radical pedestrians” at the Blaha Lujza square in the next post. Stay tuned.

Information of the whole idea and activities in the Mobility Week Workshop on the official website: mobilityweekbudapest.eu. Have a look at the project diary.

Stylish cycling in the heat

Well, probably some people will disagree that temperatures around 33°C are hot (that's 92 F), but I already don't like that kind of a temperature. Still, I can deal with it...

Generally I wear a lot of wide, loose, thin and light-colored cotton clothes. Cycling in them is no problem as the air flow then constantly cools. Even in that suffocating heat we currently have in Vienna. Well, you may want to carry a spare shirt to change with you if you sweat a lot. Choose good sunglasses. And don't ever forget to ride in style :-).

By the way, it's better not to carry a backpack (to avoid sweating on the back) but to put everything necessary in a basket or on the carrier.

What's the summer like in your place and how do you deal with it? Has anybody got good solutions for handling high humidity?

Summer cyclists in Vienna

How to not get stuck in traffic jams

I might state the obvious but: walk or ride a bicycle. The first is actually pretty fast in the rush hour, but riding a bicycle of course is faster for long distances. Public transport is only good if it is separated from the rest of the traffic and therefore doesn't get stuck in the middle of cars, for example subways and trams or buses with their own lanes.

A stylish and fast cyclist on the Alserbachstraße, surrounded by a lot of metal

In Austria, single-track vehicles, i.e. bicycles, mopeds and motorbikes, are allowed to drive past non-moving vehicles wherever they want to, in particular on the right at red lights. That's already quite useful although of course usually not that fast as there is not so much room for so-called undertaking. I use it a lot in the mornings on a certain narrow one-way street where I otherwise would have to wait at least 10 minutes behind someone's exhaust. Well, motorists like to do that -- I don't.

What's it like in your country? Do you have a similar law for undertaking? Actually in Austria this law is “new” (apparently it's allowed for motorbikes since 1997 and for bicycles since 1989) and some people behind steering wheels don't know it and try to block cyclists. It just tend to shout “StVO §12 Abs. 5” then (that's the very passage in our traffic regulations). Of course one has to choose a speed that is according to the available space in order not to damage anything. Sometimes the gaps are so small that I have to stop and lift my handle bar to get past side mirrors. But in fact I enjoy it a lot and it's very efficient too.

Even more useful and also more convenient to bypass traffic jams are bike lanes on the road or segregated bike paths. Well, in Vienna we more or less only have so-called “multiple use lanes” which can also be used by trucks if they are too wide. Such bike lanes are handy, at least when they are not dangerously constructed too narrow beside parking lanes. There are also a few such bike lanes between two car lanes. Although one cycles is in the middle of moving cars it is far less dangerous than cycling beside parked cars and also allows to turn in both directions easily. Anyhow, that's what I can tell from my own experience, but see for yourself. The pictures in this post show such a bike lane on the Alserbachstraße in Vienna.

Guys on bikes

In Vienna there are many guys on bikes, but unfortunately most of them are rather unfashionable. Well, there are also exceptions. Here are some:

Left: guy with cool hat, Middle: guy in suit and newspaper on the carrier (very rare), Right: not so fashionable guys, but ok

Who wouldn't want to wait behind them at a red light? ;-)

Sadly, I have say that most of these guys here didn't respect some traffic laws. Except the one in the left picture they all don't mind riding in the wrong direction of one-way bike paths/lanes. The men in the right picture even directly waited on the arrow pointing in the opposite direction (although I have to admit, that the only other option to get from that point to the other side of the ring road is to carry the bike down and up the stairs of a pedestrian underpass).

Dear flatteneres

I know you guys are quite busy, but may I ask for your attention for a minute. I guess you don't know me, therefore I will let my bike talk. Today, after work, I was at the Cineplexx Reichsbrücke to watch “Slumdog Millionaire” with a friend. As there were no bike racks where I could safely lock my bike to (although there is free parking available for costumers that drive a car), I used the railing instead. This seems to be a common spot as there were also other bikes. And maybe you go there more often to check out on the bikes.

So when the movie was over and we returned to my bike, I found it with a flat tire. Well, you know, I still have my spare inner tube that impatiently waits to be used. But I had to disappoint it again. Apparently my front tire – as you know – didn't have a puncture, because you just removed my cap and let my air out. Although I'm grateful that I only had to inflate it again (that didn't even take a minute), my spare inner tube is rather frustrated now. I don't really want the treatment that one of my friends recently got (both of his tires were gashed and beyond repair), but I wouldn't mind if you eliminate the inner tube of my front wheel forever.

For that purpose I will use my bike as I always did – as a simple means of transport in the urban environment –, and also park it outside. May you enjoy to demolish other peoples' belongings and hopefully vent your anger by deflating their bikes.

Yours faithfully,
anna

PS: I still had fun on my ride back home ;-P.

Better late than never – cycling season opening in Linz

The general esteem of cycling in my hometown can be concluded from bicycle-related events. Last Monday was the official "cycling season" opening. To me, this was almost four months too late. Since I only found it out that day, I didn't have my camera with me when I went there. Well, I didn't miss much. Some speeches by city representatives, and short bicycle tour through the city, where last year's improvements as well as planning for this summer were discussed: some one-way-streets opened for cycling in both directions, parking facilities, and new bike lanes. Nothing really exciting. Almost.

A really nice idea (I already knew from other cities) is a block of notes to be left as just a friendly reminder to motorists illegally parking their vehicles in bike lanes.

Do Not Park In Our Lanes!

Your vehicle is parked on a bike lane and/or footway! This is an offense against the road traffic regulations and can cause an administrative penalty up to € 726 and a towing with cost. In case of repeated disorderly parking you can reckon with a complaint.

I had this dialog with the nice lady in the town hall who was giving away the blocks.

Lady: How many would you like to have?

Me: Two or three, please.

The lady began to tear three sheets from a block.

Me: No, I mean three blocks?

Lady: But this' very much!

Then she gave me one block á 20 sheets.

Me: Thank you so much! This will do for a week!

Anna cycling in Barcelona

Hola, this is actually anna from Vienna. I'm currently visiting Catalonia. It's a surprise visit for the other Anna, organized by her boyfriend Xavi. He also ensures that I do a lot of bicing and sightseeing while Anna is busy at work :-). I've been to Barcelona before in 2002, but only for one day. I think many things have changed the face of the city ever since, especially the cycling boom that has started with BiCiNg (Anna was damn right about that). So here are just a few of my impressions and comparisons to Vienna:

Bicycles
The vast majority of the cyclists here use BiCiNg bikes, second probably being folding bikes (quite unusual for me). BiCiNg bikes have three gears (the new Citybikes in Vienna will also have that), pneumatic tires (compared to solid rubber tires in Vienna), a refreshing red color and all the good stuff (fenders, chain and skirt guard, front rack, lights). In Vienna borrowing the city bikes is more involved, but you can choose the bike yourself. Here, the system chooses it for you and sometimes you have to repeat the procedure if you catch a broken bike.

Me bicing at the seafront this morning
By the way, can anybody explain me the sense of a smaller front tire?

Bike lanes anyone?

The city council claims that we have ~1000km of bicycle infrastructure in Vienna. That's not exactly true, cause sometimes they only put a small green sign beside the road and call it a bike route. No change in design whatsoever, not even lower speed limits. Most other parts of the "real" bicycle infrastructure are bike lanes, more precisely Mehrzweckstreifen which probably can be translated by "multiple use lane" (if anyone has a better name for it, let me know). By definition they are also bike lanes but are separated by a broken rather than a continuous line. That means that cars and trucks in the lane left to it can use this Mehrzweckstreifen if they are too fat. As you can imagine this already leads to problems, because most people don't know (or don't want to know) that cyclists always have priority on a Mehrzweckstreifen, that parking and stopping on it is not allowed etc. That's simply because cyclists have to use bicycle infrastructure if there is one (it's the law). In Vienna cars are parked on both sides of basically every road, and most bike lanes are not even 1m wide. Hence cyclists have to ride directly in the door zone, where cars wouldn't drive anyway because it's too dangerous. I always ride very far left on them, nearly on the line itself. If I have to cross the line (e.g. due to badly parked cars beside it) I shoulder check and signal.

But there are also Mehrzweckstreifen that are well-designed. Here's one example of such a bike lane that is ~1.5m wide. It is a bike lane that allows riding against a one-way street. In general I would call this a proper bike lane that should work. Never underestimate human stupidity though. Since I use this bike lane regularly I know of the problems. Here are just a few:

• The road is cleared of snow, the bike lane isn't. That's particularly nice if the snow freezes.

• Once the snow is gone, grit is left on the bike lane. That's dangerous and causes many flat tires.

• Even after the winter there are literally massive problems - illegal parking. Every third time I pass this bike lane, somebody parks on it. I'm so fed up with this. I always have to shoulder check, signal and move into the oncoming traffic that doesn't expect a cyclist to be in that lane (it's a one-way street after all). Sometimes it's even impossible for me to see whether there is oncoming traffic, e.g. if a truck is parked in such a way that I can't see the junction ahead. I think I once read that in Germany illegally parked cars get partially blamed in case an accident happens. In Austria we don't have that. So if I have an accident because I have to leave the bike lane it might be entirely my fault, because I should have used the bicycle infrastructure and otherwise would only be allowed to walk the bike (especially in a one-way street). The police doesn't care about illegally parked cars on bike lanes, even if they accidentally see one. I've never seen a car that got a ticket :-(. And have you ever tried to talk to a person that parks illegally yourself? I could fill a whole blog with such stories, but it's too depressing thus I won't..
  

• Another problem are cyclists themselves, in particular cyclists that are not familiar with the road traffic regulations and only ride a few times in the summer. Believe it or not, but some people don't know that bike lanes are only to be used in one direction (the same direction as the car lane next to it, except in one-way streets). We also have some one-way bike paths that work the same way (arrows indicate the direction in which one is meant to use it). It happened to me more than once that cyclists tried to ride in the wrong direction (even on very small bike lanes/paths with many regular cyclists on them) and nearly crashed into me. I don't know if they just don't know the law or deliberately endanger fellow cyclists. I always tell them, but so far it never happened that somebody actually stopped and turned around or moved to the other side of the road. They didn't even apologize. Sad too.
  

Am I complaining too much? As I said, the bike lane itself is perfectly well-designed. The traffic planners just didn't take into account that some people are stupid and ignorant and that the misuse of the bike lane is too easy.

Sidewalk cycling and bicycle infrastructure

I never cycle on sidewalks. Not only because I'm not allowed to. Even more, because I think it's way to dangerous. Firstly, it is dangerous for pedestrians cause cyclists are much faster than them. The speed of cars on the road is much closer to the one of cyclists than the pedestrians' speed is (<5 km/h). But it's also more likely for cyclists to get hit by cars. Why, you ask? Well, car drivers don't expect cyclists on sidewalks and easily overlook them when they turn. And even if everybody would watch out, sometimes it would still be impossible to see each other (e.g. if there is a line of parked cars in between). Turning cars are a threat, no matter if they come from ahead or behind. You can only avoid such accidents if you ride really slow and completely stop at each intersection. But that's not very energy efficient and slow. So why cycle on a sidewalk in the first place? Just don't do it. On the road you are much more visible to car drivers - hence safer - and also much faster :-).

Well, as I already mentioned, in Austria we are not allowed to cycle on the sidewalk. But we have bike paths (one-way or both ways) on sidewalks. And there are also a lot of so-called "combined foot and bike paths" that are for both pedestrians and cyclists (either separated by a line or not). And some of this constructions are just as dangerous as cycling on sidewalks. Unfortunately I'm forced to use them (if one has a road bike s/he doesn't have to cycle there, but I don't have one). Sometimes they are an advantage, e.g. if it is a short cut that I couldn't use otherwise, but they are a huge disadvantage and risk if they are just built to keep the road bicycle-free.



Combined foot and bike paths: The left picture clearly shows a short cut. One has to ride slow and watch out for pedestrians, but it might be an advantage. It's in Linz, where many combined foot and bike paths exist. The right picture shows a combined foot and bike path in Vienna (just the little bit where my bike stands). What you don't see is that cars have 4 lanes in each direction! And cyclists have to share a space with pedestrians that's even so small, that two pedestrians can't get by very well. The tragedy about it: due to our traffic regulations I have to use this combined foot and bike path and can't cycle on the car lanes! And this is an arterial road in the middle of Vienna (Gürtel at Volksoper, for those who know it). It's a real shame to call something like that a bike path and add it to the ~1000km of bike lanes in Vienna that the city council is so proud of. I don't know who plans bike paths like this, but it surely wasn't a cyclist.

A lot of accidents between cyclists and cars/trucks in the city happen on bike paths and bike path crossings because cyclists are not visible to car drivers there, but still feel safe (although they aren't). In addition, most car drivers don't shoulder check, what makes it even more risky. For truck drivers it's even more difficult to see you since they can only use their mirrors - never ever stop right beside a truck at an intersection! Last year many cyclists have died this way - overran by a turning secondary car/truck on a bike path (crossing).

Don't get me wrong. I do like bike paths out of the town, but generally not in the town itself because there are way to many dangerous junctions. Ok, it's not a natural law that they are dangerous, but due to bad traffic planning, dense housing and illegal parking a lot of them are. In the city I prefer sufficiently wide (!) bike lanes on the road because there I'm visible to car drivers and much safer. Or even better, low speed limits and many restricted areas (30 km/h zones, residential streets and such) with no bike lanes at all. And a few bike paths beside busy and important roads with a lot of (heavy) motor traffic. Appropriate bicycle infrastructure meets the hierarchy of the road.

Another bad example of a bike path in both (!) directions. How small might it be? 1-1.2 meters? Do you think that two cyclists can pass each other? Compare it to the car lanes next to it and form an opinion yourself. There are 4 of them in each direction - the location is close to the previous picture. At this particular spot you can even see 5 lanes. Well, space has to be saved somewhere, doesn't it? I just don't get why they built a bike path there in the first place. To get the road bicycle-free I suppose.. Also note that cyclists and turning car drivers have to be really careful at this bike path crossing to not interfere with each other. Such designs bear extra potential for conflicts rather than avoiding them.

If you want to see some good examples of bike paths you must go to Copenhagen or Amsterdam etc. Maybe I sound a little bit to pessimistic - but in Vienna there are hardly any. But ok, I will take some pictures of well-designed bicycle infrastructure in the future too, I promise ;-).

Positioning on the road

Where am I supposed to cycle? Actually, this question is not so easy to answer. Our "Straßenverkehrsordnung" (austrian road traffic regulations) says that it's not allowed to cycle on sidewalks, that one has to use a bike lane/path if there's one and furthermore this, §7(1):

"Der Lenker eines Fahrzeuges hat, sofern sich aus diesem Bundesgesetz nichts anderes ergibt, so weit rechts zu fahren, wie ihm dies unter Bedachtnahme auf die Leichtigkeit und Flüssigkeit des Verkehrs zumutbar und dies ohne Gefährdung, Behinderung oder Belästigung anderer Straßenbenützer, ohne eigene Gefährdung und ohne Beschädigung von Sachen möglich ist. [...]"

which translates to "The driver of a vehicle must, if not stated otherwise, drive as far on the right as it is possible concerning ease and liquidity of traffic but without endangering, constraining or harassing other road users, without putting oneself in danger and without damaging things." Ok, I'm a bad translator, but well, I guess you get what it's about.

The thing is, most beginners mistake this regulation with "you have to drive as far right as possible to let cars pass easily". And that is really dangerous. Why? This is what I'm going to explain in this post. So I don't tell you, what distance you have to keep from the right edge or where you have to ride on a bike path. The thing is: You have to feel safe! Where would you ride if there was no other road user around? That's where you should be riding anytime, even if there are a hundred honking car drivers around you. Of course, the busier the road, the more careful you have to ride (shoulder check etc.), but it shouldn't change anything about your position. And, even more important, don't overestimate the lines that divide the bike lane from the rest of the road. I'm not telling you to ignore the traffic rules, but you should be able to tell when a bike lane is actually more dangerous for you than the rest of the road (e.g. if it is only half a meter wide and directly beside a line of parked cars).

I'm now going to make you feel unsafe in order that you can estimate the dangers on the road better - and to find a good position for yourself :-). Plus, if you are self-confident enough to take the space you need, also car drivers will respect that.

• Opening car doors: Whenever you pass a parked car, be aware that there might be somebody inside, driver or passenger, that wants to get out of the car the minute you pass by. And unfortunately, some people don't check if it's safe to open the door before they do so. And even if you manage to swerve around, there might just be another car overtaking you that can't.
• Empty parking spots: If you don't stay in your track, cars will overtake you and cut you off. Have you ever seen a car following wiggly lines when they want to drive straight on? Don't swerve in and out of the parking lane!
• Pedestrians: Some pedestrians don't look before they cross a road, especially when they "hear" that no car is around. If you can't observe the road edge well (e.g. because of parked cars, bushes, walls etc.), stay away from it.
• Tram rails: There are two options where you can ride - right of the right rail or in between. With rails it is even more difficult or dangerous to swerve, especially when they are wet. That's because it is not so easy to cross them, i.e. much easier to fall off.
• Manholes, potholes, speed bumps etc.: Well, they are not that dangerous, but certainly uncomfortable if you hit them.
  
• One-way and small streets: It mostly happens in one-way streets and on bike lanes that cars squeeze by letting hardly any space for you. If you don't feel safe in such a situation cause the road is not wide enough, don't allow it and ride in the middle of the lane. They might honk, but be aware that it's not your fault. In the end it's the width of their fat cars that prevents them from overtaking and not your small bike.
  

There's one basic rule that you can apply if you're on a road without bike lane and don't know where to cycle: don't ride further right then the right wheel of the car in front of you is. And stick to your track.

If you feel comfortable to undertake (that is overtake cars on the right that had to stop at a red light) you can do this with less distance because you're the only vehicle that is moving. But you should still be aware of the dangers above (maybe a passenger wants to get out of a standing car at the very moment).


A taxi half parked on the bike lane. Can you see whether somebody wants to get out? Maybe there is a child or dog behind the cab that wants to cross the road? Might that little bump cause trouble and do you have to reduce speed? Isn't that bike lane to small and too close to parked cars to ride safely? Well, a bike lane isn't safe just because it's a bike lane. You have ride safely yourself.

Would you want to use this bike lane against a one-way street? In such situations I mostly get off my bike and walk on the sidewalk - or don't use this route at all. I certainly can't cycle safely inside of the marked bike lane. Without parked cars it wouldn't be a problem though.

Tram lines: On the street in the left picture I cycle on the small concrete bit in between the right rail and the cobblestones or in the right half in between the rails. On the second street I definitely ride in between the rails.















There's a long list of situations and how to deal with them on "How to not get hit by cars". It also contains some tips about positioning on the road -- e.g. "ride further left" is mentioned in nearly every situation. Apart from that, the most important "tool" for a cyclist imho is a shoulder check. Never forget that.

Hm, I think I wrote quite a lot now, maybe too much. Was it helpful? Can you add something that's important to you?