“Lëtzebuerg: e Vëlosland?”

Is Luxembourg a cycling country? In a commentary RTL TV editor-in-chief Guy Weber, himself an avid cyclist speaking from personal experience, gave a clear answer. He did this Monday, March 27th 2017 on prime time national television. A lot of people made use of the comments section on RTL’s Internet site, where the original video can be watched. The polarised debate in these comments turns around the questions how cyclists allegedly violate traffic laws all the time and even whether they have a right to be on the road in the first place. Some chosen comments are put on display. Finally some fallacies about road tax and cycling infrastructure are debunked.

For the understanding of the international cycling community in Luxembourg and abroad, here is an unauthorised translated transcript of Guy Weber’s commentary:

“Recently at lunch hour, I was riding my bicycle between Neuhäusgen and Senningerberg. It was cold and raining. I was riding out into the middle of the lane, as there was dirt by the road’s edge that could have caused a tyre puncture.

Suddenly, a car rapidly approached from behind. The driver honked aggressively. Once. Then twice. And then a third time, as the driver overtook me.

I was made very well aware of the driver’s view that I was nothing but an obstacle on the road. How could I have possibly not known that the road is for cars, and for cars only? When motorists are equipped with 200, 300 and 400 horsepower, cyclists, riding at 30km/h, must make way for them. Well, dear motorists, the road does NOT only belong to you. There’s room for everyone. Please do not forget that people cycling need room too, and please allow for a safe distance when passing them.

I know that cyclists often ride abreast, instead of riding in single file. We do make mistakes. Wouldn’t it be nice, during the upcoming fine weather, where more people will be riding on two wheels, if motorists and cyclists could respect one another? Wouldn’t it be nice if we could inspire ourselves by the examples set by Amsterdam and Copenhagen?

I have been road biking as a hobby for 28 years. The aggressiveness of people driving cars has been increasing. Everyone’s in a hurry. There is no respect left. I find this very sad. For me, it is clear: we do not have the mindset of a cycling country, despite all of the efforts made in order to encourage active transportation. We do have superb landscapes, lots of cycle paths and good roads. What is still missing is the essential respect towards each other, unfortunately.”

Over 60 on-line comments: a summary attempt

RTL.lu news site is (in)famous for its reader comments section. Guy Weber’s rant made no exception, as over 60 comments were made below the video. When doing a rough clustering of these comments, the situation looks surprisingly balanced. Less than 1 out of 4 comments is clearly anti-cyclist. A fraction of the same size can be found that is “cycling self-critical”: people who say they cycle themselves, but do not approve misbehaving of other cyclists. Nearly 1 out of 7 have a more or less neutral position, not demonising motorists or cyclists. Largest fraction (but less than half of all comments) is “pro cycling”.

Let us have a look at some of the comments:

Zooming out: society has evolved and traffic reflects it

“Egoism and lack of education in our society have arrived in daily traffic, and few people seem to have a problem with that situation. Lots of people are writing stupid comments because they have no idea of what they are talking about.” (highlighted text)

Zooming out II: car industry is the new kid on the block, some have older rights on the road!

“That motorists have to pay taxes is what they deserve, as they are polluting the environment and as they are responsible for the deaths of lots of people. Be aware of the fact that roads do exist for thousands of years, and have been used by walking people and for commerce. The car has made its apparition quite recently and car industry is pushing back older road users. It is completely wrong to assume that roads belong to motorists!” (highlighted text)

The Punisher: cyclists are the main disease on the road

“In my opinion, cyclists shall be punished for not following traffic rules. They are violating law every minute, but nothing happens. I do not understand that cyclists just pick the rights that suit them and that they think they have priority right everywhere.” (highlighted text)

The Punisher II: more cyclists bashing

“I think that generally spoken, cyclists do violate traffic laws more often than motorists, who are here being demonised. It is the cyclist who thinks the road belongs to him, despite him not paying a single cent for the use.”

Who is the real victim on the road?

“It is deplorable to read all those arrogant comments here, when one thinks of the number of casualties among cyclists in crashes with responsibility of a motorist” (highlighted text)

The fascist: only what a motorist does has meaning, cycling is irrational

“The road belongs mainly to the motorist, whose journey has a sense and an objective. Unlike those fantasy stimulating journeys of pro cycling imitator.”

The World traveler: empirical confirmation that bike commuting in City of Luxembourg feels less safe than in New York City!

Writer of this comment compares cycling in rush hour of New York City to that of Luxembourg City: NYC motorists have more respect than those in Luxembourg, he tried himself and felt safe in Big Apple!

Cyclists not paying road tax and not using cycle paths where they exist are recurrent topics, to be addressed in final section of this post.

“Cyclists are not using cycle paths built with tax money they don’t contribute to!”

Both is wrong, here’s why.

“Roads were not built for cars” is a highly recommendable book by Carlton Reid

Nowadays, a lot of cyclist do pay car taxes too, simply because they also drive a car. But even those not owning a car do pay other taxes. The way the tax system in Luxembourg works makes it silly to pretend that specific car taxes are directly used to build roads. By the way, the same fallacy can be found in other countries. The tax argument is a classic one among anti-cycling people.

In fact motorists pay a tax based on CO2 emission levels of their car. Their engines do pollute air and accelerate climate change.

Video says it all, situation in the UK is comparable to that of LU (via @iPayRoadTax)

“The cyclists do not use cycle paths all the time” is another fallacy. What about motorists using residential areas to rat race in the morning rush hour? Why do they not stick to the main arterial roads when driving their bottoms inside city center, when they could have used public transportation instead?

Cycle paths do not exist everywhere, are sometimes unsuitable or even dangerous.

Luxembourg has a national “piste cyclable” network of around 600km (2017). Network of highways is 152km, national roads (N) is 837km and “chemins repris” (country side road) 1.891km. Building only 1 kilometer of cycling path is probably the least expensive you can buy, because they are less large, need no specific safety equipment and have to support less accumulated weight of vehicles running over them than any other type above.

In other words, with the money required to build only one kilometer of highway, you can probably create a complete cycling connection way longer than 1 kilometer between two villages for example.

And LVI just recently pointed out that cycling path network still lacks essential connections on several spots. In other words, it is unfinished work.

Cycling can’t solve every problem, but it solves quite a lot. Being anti-cyclist is simply stupid, especially compared to the overall low costs of supporting cycling

It is disturbing to see a moral superiority among some motorists not asking themselves any question about their own footprint on society and environment etc., but not even hesitating a single moment to question the freedom of others to go where they want by their chosen mean — a simple bicycle!

In 2015, 33 people lost their life on the roads in Luxembourg. No (Zero) person inside a car died because a cyclist crashed into the car.

Loosing as a motorist a few seconds of time while overtaking a cyclist seems to be a bigger issue than the life of other people. Even casualties caused by car drivers on pedestrian crossings are often normalised by the press, who then emphasises the fact that the pedestrian somehow unexpectedly crossed the road.

Driving a car today requires a lot of patience because of jammed roads. It is so easy to blame cyclists, even if it is not true.

To transform Luxembourg into a real cycling country, this mentality issue must be addressed. Guy Weber spoke out loudly what most cyclists think.

(thanks to @mikebikelux for his valuable help and advice in preparing this blog post)