One Swedish Cyclist's Lament: How Hard Should it Be to Bike to Work?
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden 
on 12.13.08
As in world bike-capital Portland, Oregon, so in (relative) biking backwater Gothenburg, Sweden - short-hop urban biking can be a breeze, but try biking from the far suburbs in to central city locales. Your mileage and your experience will vary wildly.
Kristina Johansson, a cyclist and student in Gothenburg, decided to log a personal protest to send to city's elected leaders (who supposedly have as a goal to increase cycling within the region and reduce car use). Johansson, who filmed herself going from her home in Bergsjön to the heart of the city by bike, found multiple problems impeding the progress of even intrepid cyclists. Johansson's route is unique, but her bike problems are universal. Read on for her five complaints about sub-par cycling conditions.
1. Suddenly Disappearing Bike Lanes
This is a common problem the world over - look at this bike lane in LA! A stretch of bike lane suddenly peters out and drops an unaware cyclist directly back into (also clueless) car traffic. A related problem is a road with a generous shoulder used by cyclists where the width of the shoulder suddenly decreases to a dangerous sliver. While a contingent of cyclists believe that bikes and cars should simply learn to share the road, a majority of cyclists and prospective cyclists polled on TreeHugger want clearly defined, separate roads and paths.2. Lacking Signage
Especially at roundabouts or in other traffic intersections where cars must practice kindness or sharing, in Gothenburg annd other cities bikers can be left without a clue of what to do. This can make some bike types very aggressive, or cause them to disregard the rules of the road, further upsetting motorists that may already be irritated with bikes on "their" streets. As with all things cycling, there are pros and cons to adding more signage to city streets. More signs don't necessarily make the various players in traffic more courteous, and removing all signage, as Hans Monderman did in the Drachten experiments, can actually improve flow.3. Parallel Bike and Pedestrian Lanes
This is a common practice in Europe and it has definite cons as well as pros. The biggest con is that pedestrians cross frequently and sometimes unwittingly into the bike lane, and become angry or even frightened when a cyclist rings a bell or toots a horn. The pros? Well, it's better in almost all cases than competing with cars. Still, many cities are far from designing complete streets to give equal, separate space to bikers, peds, and motorized traffic.4. Biker Vulnerability/Poorly Timed Bike Traffic Lights
Along Johansson's route there are areas where pedestrians, bikes, subways and cars all cross with no help from traffic signals, with cyclists creeping into the intersection or whizzing through. While Johansson (in the video anyway) has Sweden's legally-required bike lights fore and aft and is wearing both a helmet and a safety vest, she seems very vulnerable next to cars, trucks, and trams. Even the pedestrians seem to have it better with the clearly marked crossings. Sometimes, there are shoulder height traffic lights specifically for bike crossing - and in Denmark planners are experimenting with special RFID-driven signals to reduce right-hand turning lane accidents between cars and bikes. But unaccountably the lights don't last long enough in Johansson's example for the average biker to get through an intersection.5. Unkempt Bike Lanes
In some places bike lanes become roads and then become bike paths again. Along those paths are sudden potholes, buckling tree roots and shifts in path levels, all treacherous obstacles for the average biker. Some cities go to great lengths to keep bikers on the move - go Toronto! - but in others, including Gothenburg, fixing hazards doesn't get top priority.Johansson's conclusion: In Gothenburg, at least, planners are still placing the needs of "bilister" (translation: car drivers) first and foremost before cyclists and pedestrians. One glimmer of hope - Gothenburg just passed a congestion charge.
Read More on TreeHugger and Planet Green
Urban Cyclists: Stick Together, Don't Inhale?
Think Like a Driver, Act Like a Cyclist
Cyclist Awareness Test
Physically Separated Bike Lanes
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so when you say " bike-capital Portland, Oregon" you meant US bike capital, or i am i missing the sarcasm.
Actually, the example given as "Problem 2" is not unclear at all. The bike lane is clearly marked (at least when there is no snow). Traffic on the road have to give way to bicyclists before they cross a bike lane(*). They can even loose their drivers license if they don't. When cyclist cross a road from sideway to sideway and there isn't a bike crossing, they have to give way to traffic on the road before they cross. If the bicyclist use the same lane as cars, the same rules apply to the bicyclist as to a car. Biking on sidewalks are not allowed in Sweden.
Of course, it's been a while since I got my drivers license. Rules may have changed since then.
(*) Same rule applies to zebra crossing without signals for pedestrians (or when signals is turned of on a crossing with signals). Traffic on the road have to give way if someone shows intent to use the zebra crossing. This rule was created a couple of years ago and have led to the removal of many zebra crossings :-(
Actually, the example given as "Problem 2" is not unclear at all. The bike lane is clearly marked (at least when there is no snow). Traffic on the road have to give way to bicyclists before they cross a bike lane(*). They can even loose their drivers license if they don't. When cyclist cross a road from sideway to sideway and there isn't a bike crossing, they have to give way to traffic on the road before they cross. If the bicyclist use the same lane as cars, the same rules apply to the bicyclist as to a car. Biking on sidewalks are not allowed in Sweden.
Of course, it's been a while since I got my drivers license. Rules may have changed since then.
(*) Same rule applies to zebra crossing without signals for pedestrians (or when signals is turned of on a crossing with signals). Traffic on the road have to give way if someone shows intent to use the zebra crossing. This rule was created a couple of years ago and have led to the removal of many zebra crossings :-(
I hate to rot the sniffle amigo, but although Portland has done a lot of good work with regards to biking, it is nothing compared to any northern European city. I've never been to Gothenburg, so I can't compare, but from what I've seen in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Munich, Vienna and elsewhere, Portland might as well be Los Angeles
I've been to Gothenburg a few times and don't remember it being real bike friendly. Malmö and Lund on the other hand are great...tons of bikes, good infrastructure and flat. Stockholm is decent too. I'm sure Gothenburg will catch up in the not to distant future.
i think they mean 'World Bike" like they mean when they say things like "World Championship Baseball...",where only the US is involved in it..
Bicycles still have quite a few strikes against them.
1) They don't pay fuel-related taxes
2) They don't have insurance or registration fees (that I am aware of)
3) With a few exceptions, most law makers are car-drivers (again, to the best of my knowledge), and people tend to look out for their own immediate well-being and need --> thus the current discussion by pro-bikers
4) The above reasons give validity to some car-drivers thinking that they have more of a right to the road than the bicyclist -- which I would say is not all that unreasonable (and I am a staunch biker
I personally see -- if the bike movement gets MUCH bigger -- lawmakers starting to force the same kind of requirements on bikers as they do on motorists. That is, bike-specific taxes, insurance, and registration type fees. Mandatory helmets, markers, and vests are paving the way.
Sirerdrick, in many cities roads are paid for through property or sales taxes which cyclists do pay. The land which roads are built on is public land which everybody has a right to.
So stand up tall, you have as much rights to space on the road that motorists do.
Hey Sirerdrick
If you bike on a Federal installation, you have to wear helmet, vest, gloves strongly encouraged. Lights for night use and so on are the norm.
On the plus side I have not heard of any (adult) riders being hit on the installations.
Gothenburg has about 7% of the population riding bikes each day. Portland has 6%.
Gothenburg isn't a great example. Malmø, to the south, has a 25% bike usage rate. Stockholm has 700 km of bike lanes. Even Trondheim, Norway to the far north has 8%.
There are dozens and dozens of European cities that are better examples. The Swedish girl is right in many ways, but the massive difference is that motorists in Gothenburg are cyclists, too and they live in a biycle culture, so they are aware of cyclists.
Regarding the other comments, bike licences are the stupidest invention in transport history and you won't find them anywhere in Europe. Cyclists already pay for the roads like anyone else and since bicycles don't weigh anything, the reduced wear and tear on the roads means less maintenence and fewer roadworks.
among many other arguments.
author replies+++++++++
Hi, Mikael,
I respect the arguments that you put forth, and wonder where you got your statistics for ridership. Can you share where they come from?
You say that motorists in Gothenburg are cyclists. That may well be true.
However, I feel that motorists in Portland (and here I speak of city riding only, not suburban riding) are vastly more experienced at dealing with riders, and more courteous toward them (in spite of publicized road rage examples). From my experience, they are better at sharing the road with cyclists without getting spooked, and they seem to have a better eye out for riders. That's not my experience riding in Gothenburg.
P.S. To all commenters, please forgive me for equating Portland as the global #1 biking city. Big mistake. I should have said, in the U.S. as the link does. Sorry about that.
In general response to the article from a "commuting "cyclist, which in the USA is a different sub-species from "roadies" and "mountain bikers", with 18 years of urban, suburban and rural
riding most parts of the US. Most relevantly in Portland, OR for the last 5 years:
Your complaints are valid however if this is the worst you can do Portland has you beat.
The road conditions you filmed (no, I can not read the captions) are like Portland on a slow night after everyone has gone to bed. The pedestrians were yielded to and your right of way
was obeyed. Automotive traffic in the US is much more aggressive, territorial and
About 1:50 in to the video clip a car passed too close behind you however that driver also made that merge dangerously close to the vehicle he passed in front of. This is normal driving
behavior for automobile drivers in the US.
1) Point one was addressed quite nicely in the above article. These disappearing bike lanes don't exist in great numbers in Portland but they we still have easily dozens of these narrowing
choke points; my favorites are bridges with a suddenly truncated bike lane and no sidewalk.
2) In Portland, as in the rest of the USA, signage is primarily dictated by a federal DOT that is financially enslaved to automotive dollars. Any signage that pertains to bicycling is
underfunded or simply not deployed on a national level. This leaves the states and local governments to make up and fund their own signs; this has lead to mostly incomplete deployment of
signage and confusing incompatibility between states cities and sometimes even neighborhoods.
3) I suspect I am missing something from the video and the message however all bike lanes here run parallel to sidewalks. It's bad enough that joggers will take to the bike lanes, jogging 3
or 4 abreast, blocking the bike lane when there is a perfectly serviceable sidewalk that they legally should be using.
4) No light signal sequences are modified specifically for cyclists. Downtown Portland's core area is fairly easy for a bicycle to keep up with (even up hill). There are some bike specific
signals but are usually completely different signal phases or not part the road network.
5) Just go to BikePortland.com ( http://bikeportland.org/2008/12/07/leaf-issue-also-piling-up-in-eugene/ )
Now to Sirerdric:
Bicycles still have quite a few strikes against them.
1) They don't pay fuel-related taxes
I personally see -- if the bike movement gets MUCH bigger -- lawmakers starting to force the same kind of requirements on bikers as they do on motorists. That is, bike-specific
taxes, insurance, and registration type fees. Mandatory helmets, markers, and vests are paving the way.
Perhaps you believe that bicycles don't pay their way and thus should not be on the road.
Please peruse:
>Delucchi Study Finds That U.S. Motorists Do Not Pay Their Way ( http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/09/20/delucchi-study-finds-that-us-motorists-do-not-pay-their-way/ )
>a study about cyclist/motorist funding of transportation for the US or even Oregon that is as articulate as this from Canada (http://www.vtpi.org/whoserd.pdf) They give an example of a typical motorist and typical cyclist, breaking down their funding and use of infrastructure. It turns out, Frances Footpower overpays $252 per year and Mike Motorist underpays $236 per year.
author replies+++++++
Hi, cbfhtu68.
Interesting links. Thanks. The Gothenburger filming the segment isn't trying to make a comparison to Portland. She's interested in moving Swedish politicians. My point was that her complaints are somewhat universal. Somewhat. I guess you are saying that from the film she's got nothing to complain about, no? However, the feeling I get riding in Portland is less vulnerable than the feeling I get riding in Gothenburg.
It's great the girl is shouting up her city council. It's important to highlight, however, that Gothenburg is in a country that is used to cyclists, regardless of your personal opinion.
I have a summer house in Höör, a small town, and there are separated bike lanes throughout the region, like there is all over Sweden.
While Gothenburg lags behind other Swedish cities - even chilly Västerås has a whopping 33% trips by bike - it is still a city in a strong cycle culture. Something Portland is working hard on, but still something that is foreign in most of north american. Your perception of cycling in Portland and Gothenburg may be interesting, but it doesn't show the big picture.
All the stats are on my website Copenhagenize.com - which is your one-stop resource for such European facts.
Shared use lanes (I think the parallel lanes you referred to) are in almost all cases *worse* than using the road. Cyclists on shared use lanes have reduced priority at junctions, greater angle between main areas to check at junctions and just greater risk at junctions. It may not be in the road, but most of the issues are with junctions crossing the road, and junctions on a shared use lane are worse than being on the road.
Fully separated cycle facilities with priority over side roads like they have in Netherlands is a completely different (and better) kettle of fish.