Almost every second Danish cyclist now admits that the traffic rules are broken at least once during rush hour.
Surveys have already shown that motorists think cyclists are the worst in traffic. And now the cyclists themselves admit that they are breaking the traffic law.
This applies especially during rush hour. In fact, one in two cyclists says in a new survey that the Swedish Road Safety Council is behind that they break the law at least once during rush hour.
– The bicycle is a healthy and cheap means of transport. But some tend to break the rules.
– Because they think that it doesn't matter with a quick look at the mobile phone, to miss a red light or to cycle around after dark, even if you have forgotten the bike lights, says managing director Jakob Boving Arendt in a press release .
The survey also points to the fact that cyclists have far too high an opinion of their own abilities in traffic. Among 18-40-year-old cyclists, 84 per cent of the 1,251 cyclists surveyed believed that others would perceive them as a cyclist who always or most often obeys the traffic rules.
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But at the same time, 49 percent of the cyclists answered that on a typical cycle trip in rush hour traffic they break the rules one or more times.
The Council for Safe Traffic believes that cyclists' tendency to bend the rules is part of the explanation for why between 4,000 and 5,000 serious cyclist accidents are registered in Danish emergency rooms each year.
A new campaign called "Are you absolutely sure?" must now remind cyclists that they also have a responsibility to comply with the Traffic Act.
According to the Council for Safe Traffic's own figures, 51 cyclists died in Denmark due to head injuries in the period 2019-2023. However, a bicycle helmet is not a legal requirement, unless you ride on an electric lobe wheel. The exception in the law was introduced on 1 January 2022.
Much apropos of electric lobe wheels, this kind of thing is being banned in several places. Most recently, Spain's capital, Madrid, has thrown the lobe wheels completely out of town.
