Motorist Douchebagicus

Left-turning cyclist has temerity to move into lane's middle. Is hanging good enough for him??

The smart way to promote cycling is by being positive -- who can argue with that? As the old adage says: You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

But this morning I'm going to follow another old adage: honesty's the best policy. Although I try to give them the benefit of the doubt, I've gotten sick to death of motorists whinging about cyclists. Cyclists don't stop at red lights, they say. Cyclists scare children and the elderly. And, of course, the compulsory and bogus claim that cyclists don't pay for roads. (In fact, everyone who pays sales and income taxes pays for roads.)

A rising chorus of opinion makers behave as if the increasing popularity of cycling has introduced danger onto once safe city streets. Where peace and predictability reigned, we now have mayhem.

In New York, we hear complaints by the Wall Street Journal that the city's new bike-sharing system has "begrimed" the city and endangered the public. The New Yorker ran a similarly alarmist opinion piece in the wake of two freak traffic fatalities caused by cyclists (Look at the map of people killed by cars in New York in 2013. It was more than two.)

I don't deny that bicyclists are sometimes guilty of bad behaviour. I've run red lights, I've biked on the sidewalk, I've gone the wrong way on a one way. But looking at the relative harm and danger posed by cyclists versus motorists -- there's no comparison.

Cars spew noxious fumes into the air we breathe (50-90 percent of urban air pollution is caused by motor vehicles); cars maim and kill people (1.24 million traffic deaths/year worldwide; 30,000-40,000/year in US alone), cars take up the majority of public space in cities, cars isolate people from public interaction and habituate them to unhealthy, sedentary daily routines.

Motorists who whinge about cyclists bring to mind an article recently circulated on Facebook. The writer, an American sociology professor, proposes a specific definition of "douchebag" as someone who breezes through life with an obnoxious attitude of entitlement. The article uses the term in connection with racial politics:

The douchebag is someone—overwhelmingly white, rich, heterosexual males—who insists upon, nay, demands his white male privilege in every possible set and setting.

However, I think "douchebag" works just as well in the context of transport politics. It perfectly describes a motorist (black, white, male or female), who—despite having free residential parking (as in Budapest), free-of-charge access to city streets, the right to pollute the air with no carbon or other tax, and a traffic management regime that overwhelmingly caters to private cars—goes into a tizzy at the slightest intrusion against motorists' free rein.

In Budapest, there is an officially registered lobbying group fighting against the cycling movement. They call themselves "Movement for a More Humane Parking Policy"—as if free parking were a human right on par with freedom from torture or freedom of speech. Some years ago, this group, which as far as I can tell is just two guys, held a demonstration on Múzeum körút, where they "occupied" a newly created bike lane by parking their car on it. They made a video in which a woman -- ostensibly a passerby, but probably the wife of one of the organisers -- complained, "These bicyclists are trying to push us out of the city!" If only!

But parking activists are by no means the only motoring douchebags in Budapest. Just yesterday, I had an encounter with a choice example. I was on my usual morning commute on Margit körút heading toward Margit Bridge. At the point where the road forks—either left to the bridge, or straight to Bem rakpart—I veered, as usual, into the middle of the right-hand lane, and hand signaled to the left. As soon as I got into the the centre of the lane, the motorist behind me honked, and then, just before I entered the turn, he accelerated hard and roared by just centimetres from my handle grip.

Cyclists -- they act as if they own the roads!!

Further down the road, I slapped his side-view mirror to get his attention—it worked. He pulled over at the first opportunity, into a bus stop, got out and demanded why I hit his car (shiny black BMW coupe). He said I had no right to be in the middle of the road. I told him I hit his car because he'd nearly run me over, and that I had every right to get into the middle of the road to take a left turn (In fact, the Hungarian road rules say you must move to the middle in this situation). The guy wouldn't have any of it -- the idea that a cyclist could impede him and his Beemer for even a second was an outrage. We yelled back and forth for a bit, and eventually he got back in his car and sped off. Douchebag.

Two beers -- no problem!

The latest proposal would allow moderate drinking and cycling as long as you don't present an "accident hazard."
Photo from here.

It looks like Hungary may soon show a more lenient view toward drinking while cycling. As part of a rethink of the more onerous elements of the traffic code, the zero-tolerance policy on drinking while cycling has come under scrutiny.

This came to light in a press conference hosted by the governing party's point man on the issue, Fidesz MP Márk Bíró, and a guy who seems to be the only private-sphere stakeholder who's been consulted: Kázmér Kovács, legal advisor to the Hungarian Auto Club.

It would appear that cycling groups are being left out of the process. But the call for lenience on drinking and cycling was mooted and, surprisingly, it came from Kovács. The car club attorney suggested that penalty levels be set on a gradual scale when blood-alcohol levels are in the range of 0.5 to 0.8 percent. He suggested further that for alcohol levels this low, citations shouldn't be issued at all unless the cyclist is causing an accident hazard or is riding on a main road.

Kovács has in mind farm workers who have a few at the end of the day. "Currently, you can get a fine of tens of thousands of forints if you're riding from one farm to another on a dirt road after two glasses of beer," he noted.

Given the rural concern behind the proposal, it's not clear that this will help Budapest tipplers. We don't have many dirt roads here. 

But hopefully, the discussion will cover urban considerations because it's a big issue here, as evident from the full-to-bursting bike racks outside beer gardens on any given summer night. Many car owners bar hop by bike because they don't want to risk heavy penalties for drinking and driving.

During boot camp for the national police's new Budapest bike patrol, recruits received some sensitivity training on this very issue from the organisers of Critical Mass. One point that was stressed: many cities take a lenient attitude toward drinking and cycling for the practical reason that it's more desirable than drinking and driving.

The proposed modifications to the traffic code (KRESZ) will be taken up at the next meeting of the government's Cabinet, according to index.hu. Once approved, they could come into force on September 1.

Cyclists with comments or suggestions are urged to send them to: kreszmodositas@gmail.com.

Bike Cops Take Subculture Sensitivity Training

They are among us.

Nearly a decade into Budapest’s bicycling revolution, the police are at last rolling out a cycling patrol squad in the capital. An article in Index.hu both stokes and allays my misgivings about it.

The worrisome part is that they'll be patrolling precisely those areas where cyclists are apt to be drinking adult beverages and are therefore liable for drunk-driving citations. On the bright side, the patrols have taken some sensitivity training on the local cycling subculture, including the part about why lightly-buzzed bikers are not the biggest menace to society.

Bicycle patrols are not new to Hungary, but to date they have been confined mainly to the countryside, where cycling has historically been much more common. Now that cycling has also caught on in Budapest, the National Police have decided to urbanise the concept.

As in the countryside, the new bike patrols in the city will cover popular summer recreation routes. These include Budapest’s two largest public parks (Margit Island and City Park in Pest), the connecting routes in between and the shared bike and foot paths on both banks of the Danube River.

The new scheme includes just 10 bicycles – mountain bikes painted in the blue and white colours of the National Police Force. They're equipped pretty much the same as any bike, with the exception of a special compartment for handcuffs just below the rear carrying rack. A squad of 40 officers has been selected for the detail, working in shifts from the early morning until 9 p.m. everyday.

According to the index article, the new squad is not meant as a crackdown on scofflaw cyclists. The officers say they will look to maintain order amongst all traffic regardless of mode.

In a sign of good will toward the cycling community, the new patrols were sat down for a presentation about the city’s cycling subculture by Károly Sinka ("Sinya"), co-director of a local bike-courier business and a leader of Budapest’s Critical Mass movement. During his talk, Sinka told the officers that parts of Hungary’s traffic code just don’t make sense from a cyclist’s point of view. A prime example is the prohibition on cyclists riding in certain priority bus lanes -- including Fő utca on the Buda side, Sinka said. If a cyclist follows the rule and instead rides in the next lane over – in the middle of the carriageway -- he or she becomes much more of an obstruction to motor traffic, he said.

Sinka also mentioned the zero-tolerance drink-driving rule. It’s clear that a significant portion of those riding bikes during Budapest evenings are drinking alcohol and police could bring charges against everyone of them, he conceded. "However, it’s not certain if it’d be worth it,” Sinka said, adding that the police in many large cities are expressly asked not to perform blood-alcohol tests on cyclists. “Most such cyclists, as long as they’re not staggering, do not pose any danger to traffic.”

Reckless motorist caught on helmet cam

This is fascinating. A local cycling blogger made a video of a reckless motorist with a helmet camera, and used the evidence to file a successful civil complaint with the district police.

 The incident, which occurred in late January on Király utca, is detailed on the blog Sajat Zsiron ('On your own fat', a cycling idiom for riding alone or at the head of a peloton without the benefit of a draft). As the video shows, the cyclist was riding down the street at a point where it splits into three lanes: a bus lane on the right (legally forbidden to cyclists in Hungary), the middle lane in which the cyclist was riding, and then a lane on the left for oncoming traffic. Adhering to traffic rules, the cyclist kept on the right edge of the middle lane as a fast-moving Honda approached from behind. The Honda driver pulled ahead to overtake, trying to squeeze through a very narrow gap between the cyclist and an oncoming Mercedes SUV in the adjacent lane. Seeing that the gap was too narrow, the cyclist veered right into the bus lane. And it was in just the nick of time too, because the Honda veered right as well, narrowly avoiding a head-on with the SUV, but actually brushing the arm of the cyclist as it raced ahead.

It happened on a weekend and there was hardly any traffic. The passing motorist apparently made the dangerous move simply to get through an intersection whose light was about to change.

The blogger decided to use the clip to file a complaint with the police. Having never tried this, the cyclist had no idea what might happen. And after consulting with a Hungarian helmet-camera internet forum, it was apparent that no one else had either. The blogger also consulted a lawyer for the Hungarian Cyclists' Club who was similarly clueless about what might happen, but gave encouragement nonetheless. 

To make a long story short, the cyclist was pleasantly surprised to get a friendly and prompt reply from the VI District police. Just a week after reporting the incident, a lieutenant made contact and took down the cyclist's personal data, typed up a statement and assured that the video would prove useful in the case. Not only did it clearly capture the offending driver's license plate number, it showed exactly what had happened in undeniable fashion.

But then came silence. Nothing but bureaucratic dead air week after week as the cyclist waited for a decision. After more than two months passed with no news, the cyclist figured the complaint had probably become mulch at the bottom of the lieutenant's case load. But finally, on April 26, good tidings arrived in the mail: a court decision on the case stated the driver had been  fined HUF 50,000 and had 5 points docked from their driver's record.

In the next day's update, the blogger writes:

"I felt unspeakable joy in that moment when I realised that the police really do deal with us (cyclists)."

The post stresses that the goal was never to financially destroy the motorist. Rather, it was simply to draw their attention and get them to consider that you cannot jeopardise another's life in such a manner, that cyclists have no protection against speeding metal objects, and that motorists therefore need to watch out for us.

Illuminating result

Image from fall 2011 Critical Mass borrowed from here.

The results are in from Budapest's latest "ninja" count -- and it shows a significant uptick in the use of bike lamps compared springtime.

As you may recall, the organisers of the city's Critical Mass carried out a pilot survey of bike-lamp use this past March. Volunteer counters across the country observed more than 2,000 cyclists and found that 57 percent were in perfect compliance with requirements (having both front and rear lamps); 77 percent had at least one light (front, rear or both); and 23 percent were riding ninja style, with no lamps at all.

Last week, a follow-up survey was carried out and the improvement was remarkable. The share of cyclists in perfect compliance was up by 12 points to 69 percent; the portion with at least some lighting was up nine points to 86 percent; and the number of “ninjas” was down by nine points to 14 percent. The spreadsheet with the full dataset is available on Google dox here.

In his post on the count, lead organiser Gábor "Kükü" Kürti enthused about the "very positive" results, although cautioning that a more proper comparison will have to wait until March, when numbers can be compared from spring to spring.

Some comments to Kükü's post expressed skepticism that the result could be completely attributable to behavioural change. I'd have to agree that such a major change in mindset and habits would be unlikely to occur in just six months' time.

I was thinking there could be a few other possible explanations:

• In springtime, you have a lot more fair-weather cyclists who are riding bikes fresh out of storage and, naturally, with dead batteries in their lamps. Whereas in fall, the riders have been riding continuously all summer and their equipment, including lamps, is mainly in working order.
• Over the last couple of seasons, there's been a huge, and rapid improvement in the bike lamps on offer. The latest LED lights, with multiple diodes, have huge candle power and the batteries never seem to run out. At the same time, Hungarian bike shops are offering more and more commuter-style bikes that are pre-equipped with front and rear lamps powered by dynamos. It could very well be that the better offer on the marketplace has had a positive impact on lamp use even during the last six months.
• More optimistically, we all know there have been lots of new people taking up cycling during the last couple seasons. It could be that these relative latecomers to everyday cycling are generally more safety-conscious than the more kemény mag (hardcore) types who dominated the scene earlier. At any rate, I've noticed a lot more cyclists during the last season or two who are wearing reflective vests and jerseys, along with headlamps and other lights, than I used to.

Whatever the cause of the increase, it seems to me that even last spring's results were positive enough to disspell the prejudice that cyclists are a bunch of heedless sociopaths. Even the first survey showed that the overwhelming majority of night riders had at least one working lamp on their bike. That indicated to me that most people want to ride safe -- even if only for selfish reasons of personal security. The fact that some of these had a missing lamp or one with dead batteries is not a sign of willful disregard of the law or public safety. At worst, it's a sign of procrastination or forgetfulness. 

The latest survey gives hope that there's something afoot that's influencing more people to ride with working lamps. It'll be interesting to see if the good numbers hold up in the springtime.

 

Second Periodic Nationwide Ninja Count

The guys at criticalmass.hu are organising a nationwide bike-lamp count tonight from 7-7:20. They're seeking volunteers to stake out positions on local bike routes during this time window and count all passing cyclists and the extent to which each one complies with traffic code requirements on lighting.

This is the second time such a count has been done; the first was conducted last March. In that one, volunteers took counts at 85 sites, 48 in Budapest and the rest in 21 smaller towns and cities. In total, 2,461 cyclists were counted. The overall result was that 57 percent were in perfect compliance with the rules, having functional front and rear lamps; a further 20 percent had one good lamp (either front or rear); and 23 had no lamp at all ("bike ninjas" in the bike-world parlance).

As Critical Mass organiser Gábor Kürti noted in his post about these results, one of the main causes of accidents involving cyclists is that the cyclists simply aren't noticed. Few would argue that having lamps can help alleviate the problem -- at least at night time.

The 23 percent of cyclists riding around as ninjas is far too high, in Kürti's opinion, and he hopes these regular counts, once or twice per year, will help raise awareness of the problem and track its evolution.

If you'd like to take part in the count, it's quite simple. The directions, in Hungarian, are given here:

A Case for Clearer Rules

The rather dangerous bike path crossing at Újlaki rakpart, circa 2007.
A road resurfacing has since improved it cosmetically, but it's no safer.  

I've always maintained that the main driver of unruly behaviour among some local cyclists is that no one really knows what the rules are. In Budapest, where every bike path or lane seems to be designed ad hoc according to the political compromise of the day, you can't ride according to a coherent set of rules. On one street, you're up on the sidewalk riding in the same direction as motor traffic, on the next you're riding on the carriageway against it, and on the next you're riding in the middle of a pedestrian promenade with no clue where you should be.

The national traffic code (KRESZ) outlines rules for cyclists, but these can be confusing. For instance, KRESZ says you're not supposed to ride your bike on sidewalks unless you're under 12 years of age (in which case it's ok as long as you don't go faster than 10 km/hr). Confusingly, though, the majority of "cycling infrastructure" in Budapest is on the sidewalk. Where a crappy painted-line bikeway is marked on the sidewalk, it's compulsory to ride on it unless there are so many pedestrians it's impossible to get around them.

Then there's the more-or-less common-sense rule to ride on the right side of the curb lane when on the carriageway. Cyclists tend to stay to the right of traffic on their own volition, the better to avoid getting run over. However, according to KRESZ, where there's a priority bus lane -- and these are always along the curb -- you aren't allowed to ride there. KRESZ requires you to instead ride in the next lane over, ignoring your survival instincts by pedaling down a maximally exposed lane marker with buses barreling by on your right and "fast lane" motorists whizzing by on your left. This is a situation I won't put myself into. I flaunt the rule everytime. My only hesitation is the harassment I'll suffer if a BKV driver comes from behind. The police couldn't care less, but BKV drivers become sticklers for law and order when a defenseless cyclist gets in their way.

Another confusing situation arises where bike lanes/paths cross roads. The default rule is that cyclists should yield to motor traffic, unless they dismount and walk across the street. It can be counter-intuitive, especially when the bikeway is a shared pedestrian/cyclist path. On the path, cyclists and pedestrians share space as co-equal non-motorised travelers, but at road crossings, they're supposed to follow entirely different rules.

And there are exceptions to the default rule. Depending on the crossing, cyclists might actually get priority, and be able to stay on their bikes and ride across the intersection, having the right of way over motorists. Special signage marks these crossings, but it's not clear why one intersection prioritises cyclists and the other doesn't.

Then there's the crossing on the Buda Quay bike path just north of Szépvölgyi út. Here, cyclists (as well as pedestrians) actually come to stop signs at the crossing of Újlaki rakpart. I bike through this un-signalled crossing twice daily, week-in and week-out -- it's on my commute. And despite the fact that cyclists have NO priority here, they seem to command a de facto sort of right of way. It's probably because it's the most dangerously located bike/pedestrian crossing in the city -- on a 50 km/hr thoroughfare with blind curves hiding it from traffic coming from both directions. Motorists familiar with the road approach cautiously, and when they see a waiting cyclist, they tend to stop -- even though they aren't required to do so. Even though, according to KRESZ, shouldn't do so.

It's really a typical situation in Hungarian cycling (or maybe in Hungarian life in general). The rules say one thing, but people's behaviour follows another code altogether. On most days, this seems to work fine. But then tonight, as I was riding home in the dark, with streets glistening in a light rain and visibility not that great, I came up to the Újlaki rakpart crossing and, as usual, the first car to approach braked to let me pass. Unfortunately, the driver in the car just behind didn't know about the unwritten code for this crossing. Wham! The nice motorist who yielded to me was rewarded with a smashed rear bumper. I honestly felt bad for the driver. But I didn't stop, and pedaled on. What could I do?

Friendly Chat with Mr. Dickhead

Had a Bruce Banner moment yesterday on my ride home. It wasn't entirely the motorist's fault, although he was definitely being a big asshole. But it's also true that I came to the scene in somewhat of a funk. A couple hours before, my wife had phoned to tell me that some lowlife had busted into our building's storage shed and stolen my son's new bicycle. What kind of vermin steals a little kid's prized possession? It made me so mad I wanted to rip someone's head off.

So when this cookie cutter suit in a white BMW/Mercedes/Audi (Why do people pay such exceptional sums for things that are so patently unexceptional??) plants his ass smack in the middle of the crosswalk while WE got the green -- well, he seemed like the perfect stand-in for the jerk who stole Lance's bike.

As I followed the serpentining queue of walkers and cyclists in between the cars and around the butt end of the asshole's coupé, I gave his rear window a good thump with my fist and sneered provocatively around my shoulder as I got through the intersection. I fumed and cussed as I pedaled along the bikepath next to the road, and who should appear again for a little point-counterpoint, but Dickhead úr, pulling up to the kerb and shouting through the passenger window to find out why I had pounded on his BMW/Mercedes/Audi.

I threw down my bike and invited him to get out of his car so we could discuss it. But he kept in his coupé (or should I say chicken coupé) and kept shouting. I was just in a rage. I think I'd just primed myself for a punch up, and now I was reduced to trying to make an argument about the Hungarian traffic code with some guy who obviously didn't care. Anyway, trying to argue in Hungarian was beyond hopeless. I couldn't speak straight in my own tongue.

Anyone who can't grasp why these things make me so mad is as brainwashed by car-culture norms as Dickhead úr. I look at it from the point of view of space allocation. The scene was along Arpad fejdelem utja, just north of Margit Bridge. Here cars have six wide lanes plus a big median for turning. Pedestrians and cyclists have one sidewalk and, in certain sections, a skinny bike path to boot. You could state that cars have, conservatively, seven times as much space as either pedestrians or cyclists.

And here's a motorist telling me the reason he was on the crosswalk when pedestrians and cyclists had the right of way was because, "I had nowhere to go."

The way he reasoned it, it was bumper-to-bumper traffic and he simply could not get through the intersection. Of course, by law, if it's bumper-to-bumper traffic and you can't get through an intersection, then you shouldn' t enter the intersection in the first place. The proper thing to do is wait behind the stop line until there's sufficient room to get all the way through.

I didn't have the patience or clarity of mind to explain this to Dickhead úr. I hope I succeeded in insinuating it by giving his car window another hard wallop as he burnt rubber to leave me -- and get out of the bus lane he was blocking.

Ninja count results

Following up on my last post on the Hungarian "ninja" count ...

On Friday evening, approximately 85 volunteers across the country spent 20 minutes along various streets and bike paths and counted passing cyclists while also noting how well they were illuminated.

In total, 2,461 cyclists were counted and of those 77 percent had at least one lamp on their bikes, with the other 23 percent falling into the category of "ninja," meaning they had no lights and were practically invisible. My guess was that 80 percent would have light, which was almost correct.

The number who had both a front and rear lamp -- being in perfect accord with legal requirements -- was just 57 percent. Not so good. If I'm reading the numbers correctly, 6 percent had just a front lamp while 12 percent had just a tail lamp.

The excel sheet with all the numbers, including places where the counts were made, was posted by Critical Mass head honcho Gábor Kürti here.

Ninja count

It's cycling season again, and one of the principals at criticalmass.hu wants to know what portion of cyclists in Hungary ride with lights at night. He's calling for volunteer counters around the country to make sample bike-traffic counts along routes of their choosing between 7 and 7:20 p.m. on Friday.

You're just asked to count passing cyclists for 20 minutes while noting how many have just a front lamp, haw many have just a rear lamp, how many have both, and how many have neither. You then upload the results as a comment to the original blog post. The full details are there (though only in Hungarian).

The call for volunteers doesn't say what inspired the idea, though the issue of bike lighting is certainly a timely one. Legal requirements on bike lighting were tightened up in last year's revision of the Hungarian Traffic Code. Cyclists are now required to not only have front and rear lamps after dark, but also side reflectors on their wheel spokes, and, if you're riding outside city limits, a reflective vest on your person.

During last fall's Critical Mass in Budapest, police, for the first time ever, were handing out citations to participants without all the requisite bling. In recent months, the national police have warned they'll make extra effort this spring to enforce cycling rules. They've threatened to screen bikes for required lamps with random checks that might even take place during daylight hours. (Tip to police: spotting lampless bikes is easier after dark.)

Anyway, I have nothing against legal requirements for bike lights. Even in bike-friendly Netherlands, this is one area where the authorities are quite fussy with cyclists. I won't get on a high horse in this matter, having found myself past dark on many occasions with lights that were dim to dark because of dead batteries. That said, the "bike ninjas" speeding through the Budapest night without lights are a pet peeve of mine. It seems the minimalist aesthetic among some fixie riders can make them averse to putting anything on their bikes, including lamps. Ironically, unlit cyclists are probably most dangerous when they're on bike paths, where there are no car headlights or street lighting to illuminate them reflectively.

But aside from puristic fixie riders and the occasional battery-bereft duffer (me!), it is my impression that the majority of riders DO use lights past dark. My ballpark guess would be 80 percent. We'll see in a couple days how close I am.