I've seen it change too. When I was younger, I visited Vienna yearly and there the attitude has changed I feel. 15-20 years back you had better stay on the sidewalk or risk being cut off etc by cars, but now it seems they love their cyclists.
On a side-note: cyclist in Berlin are very annoying they park their bike in front of you at EVERY traffic light and are then exceedingly slow to get moving again.
Now that I think about it, it might just be that the attitude changes with the introduction of cycling lanes to keep cars and bikes separated
Stopping in front of cars is done to gain the best visibility. That's why cities are introducing bicycle boxes at intersections. A bicycle is alway slow to get moving, unless it has an electric motor, that's why cyclist hate stopping and will sometimes cruise through a stop sign or red, because it feels safer than trying to pick up speed while cars are revving behind you and trying to squeeze by.
In the UK there is a specific area at the front (which cars will often decide to stop in) just for bikes to stop, called a bike box. I believe it is safer for them to be out in front rather than pushed to a side, or caught between cars.[0]
In my experience, in an urban environment, it doesn't matter how fast you get moving again, there's another traffic light right ahead
We have quite a few of those in Boston. I'm often hesitant to use them as intended because I'm pretty sure it'll just piss some ignoramus off. It's just not worth the chance. And in other cases, the lead car is already stopped on it (and also encroaching into the crosswalk as well).
One change I'd really love to see implemented is moving the traffic light pole to the near corner (as opposed to the far corner or suspended in the middle). This encourages drivers not to creep into the intersections because they wouldn't be able to see the light.
You wouldn't have thought that these things would be enforced, but an employee of mine got caught stopped in one in his car by a camera and had to take a 1-day course to avoid getting points on his license. He had absolutely no idea about them as apparently they don't have them in his home country of Portugal.
I've often wondered how much preparation/study of the local laws does one need when driving in another country?
If you lived in country A and were planning a holiday in country B, then yes I'd spend a bit of time googling their laws. But on a 2 week "coast to coast" road trip travelling through a dozen countries? I probably wouldn't bother.
However, if I knew nothing about the UK "bike box" and was driving as a guest, something tells me it would be blindingly obvious what it was for. No? I mean, it's a symbol a bike surrounded by thick white lines. https://goo.gl/maps/zz1TvLM6fcv
That's no excuse — Portugal uses the same road markings, as does most of the world. A solid line across the road shows where to stop when the light is red. It's defined in the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic Signs and Signals:
"A transverse marking consisting of a continuous line across one or more traffic lanes shall mark the line behind which drivers are required by
the sign B, 2, "STOP", referred to in Article 10, paragraph 3, of this Convention, to stop. Such a marking may also be used to show the line be
hind which drivers may be required to stop by a light signal"
We have that, too. And I don‘t really understand it.
I mean, bikes accelerate much slower. So what realistically happens is that bikes weasel through cars and the right curb to the front, distribute themselves over the whole width of the lane. And when they get green they... have to go over to the right side again (single-file!) and are being overtaken (usually with little room) by all the cars.
I‘ve just read the article you linked, and the HGV aspect is a good one. But in my home town, those bike boxes aren‘t on streets with real goods traffic, but on residential streets.
The main problem with cycling is that some cyclists are safer in the road while others are safer off of the road.
I happen to live in an area with wide (car width+ shoulders) so most of the time I'm there. However, there are a handful of left turns I make that result in me being in the vehicle left-turn lane at the signal lights. When the green arrow shows I'm lights-out sprinting through the intersection so I'm not holding up vehicle traffic. Cyclists can actually accelerate much faster than vehicles over the first couple of seconds and it's only 5 seconds or less through an intersection.
Having said that, my sprint power from a dead stop is from 6 - 15 watts / kg, depending on my motivation level. If someone is coming away from a dead stop at a lower power-to-weight ratio they should probably not be in the road since they will unnecessarily hold up traffic.
Also, it's not just the athletic power, but the bike design and the technique of the rider.
I ride a hard-tail mountain bike I converted for commuting with some more appropriate city tires. I am no triathlete, but I know enough to shift into the right starting gear before I stop and to sit with one pedal up in a position that allows a good power stroke to get rolling again. I am often first across a large intersection when the light changes, although a few drag-racing cars may catch up (against the general trend in which drivers seem more distracted and slower to respond to light changes these days).
I see younger, healthier riders who wobble all over the intersection like a little kid learning to ride. They have their bikes in the wrong gear or have a bike with fixed gearing. They fumble around trying to get both feet on the pedals before they even have enough forward movement to balance. And, some ride bikes that seem to be configured in the worst possible way for balance and efficiency, with bad geometry, seats and handlebars in the wrong place, or absurdly heavy materials...
>"there are a handful of left turns I make that result in me being in the vehicle left-turn lane at the signal lights"
This is caused by traffic laws seeing everything in the road as being similar to a car, which is counter-productive, forcing slower traffic such as bikes to cross lanes for left turns.
It is much more sensible and safer for cyclists to do hook turns, instead of using the vehicle left turn lanes.
How do you measure this on a bicycle? I know you can do that on a stationary rower (I was exceedingly happy when I could hold > 1 hp for 30 seconds) - do you measure on gym stationary bikes?
On a side-note: cyclist in Berlin are very annoying they park their bike in front of you at EVERY traffic light and are then exceedingly slow to get moving again.
Now that I think about it, it might just be that the attitude changes with the introduction of cycling lanes to keep cars and bikes separated