Prague is not a popular city, but a car city, “car first” continues to apply
If Prague wants to improve something, increase the safety of cyclists, it should push for bicycle lanes not to disappear. And when winter comes, she should make sure that the bike lanes are cleared of snow.
We are experiencing another wave of covid. As it grows, and it will grow, more people will travel by public transport, which will be reflected in the streets of Prague. On the one hand, there will be more cars (if it is still possible at all), and on the other hand, there will be more cyclists, scooters and e-bikes, even though it is getting colder outside outside.
So what changes in cycling around the city? And what is changing, especially in the crowded, car-congested capital? From 1 January 2022, a new regulation of safe distance when overtaking cyclists, adopted by both the House and the Senate, will come into force. The mandatory minimum distance between motor vehicles and the cyclist should be 1.5 meters. In places with a maximum permitted speed of up to 30 km / h, only 1 meter will suffice. This does not apply to marked bicycle lanes in the city, where cyclists must have enough space, even if 1.5 meters does not meet the safe distance.
The shift with the legal safety distance is large, it shows that our approach to cyclists, to alternative transport in general, is changing quite fundamentally. On the nets, you often feel that cyclists see the overwhelming majority of you, but the cyclone novel passed most through both chambers, where it gained the necessary majority of social things. So in the end, most cyclists probably take rather than don’t. Now, of course, it will be about enlightenment and the approach of the police, which would purely theoretically (the management of the traffic police did not support the amendment by chance, on the contrary), should observe the safety distance to control, lead drivers to it.
Speaking of bicycle transport, a lot has changed for the better in Prague. More and more bicycle lanes in the streets, slowly, very slowly, this “clean” means of transport is beginning to count. The leadership of the Prague City Hall is now in favor of the wheels, which plays a big role. I recently had a long conversation with the representative of the capital and the deputy mayor for transport, Adam Scheinherr (PRAGUE TO ME). He was interested in seeing one as a cyclist fresh road change, which concerns cyclists, takes a look at them. In his efforts to improve the situation and in how it turned out, it is good to see how Prague is trying to coexist with cyclists and motorists.
The change of arrangement concerns the intersection of Povltavská and Bulovka streets in Prague 8 (see attached photos). A little closer to the Povltava estuary Blanka tunnel. About eighty thousand cars spit into it every day. It is unfortunate that Blanka flows to the banks of the Vltava and allows a better, more comfortable trip to the city. Povltava is constantly full, very often clogged, richly endowed with smog.
An enlightened councilor is trying
In front of the Povltavská intersection with Bulovka Street, which climbs up to the Bulovka Hospital, there is a cycle lane on the right, and next to it, behind the railing, there is a cycle path that leads in the opposite direction. I wrote again about the situation when you want to turn from Povltavská to Bulovka by bike. It was hell. During the day there is a ban on cars to turn to the hospital, but the bike path leads there. Two traffic police officers told me two years ago that I had to stop at an intersection, get off my bike in full traffic, climb my bike to the sidewalk, and wait at the crossing as a pedestrian for cars to let me go (although I prefer the pedestrian by law). I personally experienced several crashes there when the car released me and the driver behind him ignored and did not slow it down.
This year, they started building something further from the crossroads, and Councilor Scheinherr thought that the change could be used for a safer way for cyclists towards Bulovka. Hallelujah.
It was wild during the construction work. The crossing was pushed lower under the crossroads, so you crossed into a narrow, dirty, overgrown halfway, which essentially disappears under the viaduct, there is no. (After all, the old crossing also led there.) In addition, they dug a giant hole under the viaduct, so you crossed the bike, but you could not go under the viaduct, ie to Bulovka Street, you had to go around the hole on the road and cars with angry drivers drove against you. . Insanely. Absurd. Dangerously.
The new crossing is moved just past the intersection of Povltavská and Bulovka streets in the direction from the Blanka tunnel (it used to be just in front of it) and allows (as one of the few in Prague) to wish it by bike, you don’t have to ride a bike. However, when you ride a bike, you do not have priority over cars, while when you know the bike, theoretically, you are on foot and you have priority (but someone will not let you go anyway, no one will force the driver to do so). The change now also in the fact that just before the crossroads on Povltavská there is a cycle lane, which mysteriously disappeared in front of it, you get on it, and when you want to turn into Bulovka street, you have to stop (one car after another places) and somehow get to the other side. If nothing is going on, then on the bike, if the cars are going, you have to wait (it is best to take refuge on the sidewalk). If you are coming from Bulovka Street, you have to cross the road for cars in the opposite direction when you approach the sidewalk on the left.
Why I describe it and why I write about it at all. The situation has probably improved a bit for the cyclist: he is allowed to go up the sidewalk from above, and if there is nothing, he can go cycling (nothing is there except at midnight on New Year’s Eve). From below, the turn is extremely complicated, but at least you get to the existing sidewalk.
But that’s the end of it. Streams of cars travel through Povltava on weekdays, fifty are allowed here. A traffic light is missing at the crossing. why? It would be the lights that would be really safe. Answer: the local police also rejected these changes, a traffic light would hamper the flow of traffic. More precisely, the flow of road transport. Some ecology, “wellbeing” the city, cyclists, the police probably don’t care at all.
Another way to turn that intersection into a safer area is to introduce thirty. Then the crashes would certainly decrease, pedestrians and cyclists would feel safe, the situation calmed down overall. He can do this miracle in his thirties. Yes, but the traffic would increase, the drivers, who are still in the first place, would swear, standing in line.
Disappearing cycle lanes and the right to reincarnate again
And it is actually perfect to see why there is still such an awful number of cars in Prague (and in other big cities, as readers write to me after every cycling text) and why people still walk or ride so badly or ride bicycles or other self-propelled vehicles. : it is a city for cars, not a city for pedestrians and cyclists. There is still the idea that you have to get everywhere by car, that the car is the most natural means of transport that must take precedence at all costs. The right to drive everywhere still applies here. Prague is not a city, but a car city.
You can see it quite typically on the bicycle belts, which have been added a lot. You can see this more precisely in the way transport designers let the cycle lanes disappear and reappear. You ride a bike in a cycle lane, a narrowing is approaching (for example, a bend just in front of Prague Castle, or a pedestrian crossing under the Castle, where people go to the park) – and the cycle lane ends. why? What’s the logic? The logic of “car first”, car first. Sure, the driver must not knock you down, but visually it is guided that the bike lane has disappeared, if you have nothing to look for, you should evaporate with the bike too. After the bend, after the transition, the cycle lane reappears. You can incarnate again and go. It’s plain, Czech, traffic nonsense.
No one will explain to me why the bike lane does not continue in a narrowed place, so that the driver who can knock you down knows that he has to brake, that he should not stuff next door (which, of course, many do and you have a stomach in your throat).
So if Prague wants to improve something, increase the safety of cyclists, it should push for the lanes not to disappear. And when winter comes, she should make sure that the bike lanes are cleared of snow. The current practice is exactly the opposite, who cleans the sidewalk, if he accidentally cleans it, he throws snow into the road, ie into the bike lanes. (And I just add that the road law does not prohibit cycling in the winter, just as it does not prohibit driving in the winter.) One more suggestion: no one cleans bike paths from snow, a mistake. The city should also be able to arrange this, the cyclist is no less than the driver.
It is great that Councilor Scheinherr has pushed for some improvement at the extremely dangerous intersection of Povltavská and Bulovka streets, and cyclists are grateful to him. But honestly, it’s not enough, not much has changed. A traffic light would be ideal and the place would certainly be to reduce the speed to 30 kilometers per hour. As in many other places in cities, especially in residential areas where many people live together. (I know, reactions at thirty are as enthusiastic and friendly as reactions to the intention to quit internal combustion engines.)
The obligation of 1.5 meters will help cyclists and drivers, after the accident it is too late, says Kindl (DVTV video from April 16, 2021)
It is important to have a minimum lateral distance in the law, it is late when you find out after an accident from a forensic expert, says the co-author of the amendment. | Video: Martin Veselovský