New Spanish law to "protect" cyclists proposes drivers must slow 20km/h below speed limit before overtaking bike riders

I'm dutch, but live near belgium.
We often ride in belgium, drivers are much more concidderate to cyclist there.
Learning how to drive in belgium is non-existent, they can get a learner permit and get instructions from parents .?? Drive your car through belgium and find out how bad the driving is.. this puzzels me i think it has do do with collective attitude towords other humans, not driver training or rules..

It's been a long time since I travelled in either. I should go back and collect some fresh data. All I can say now is that Belgian infra a decade or so back was a ... a bit rustic compared to NL. In fact there was much less of it - especially in the South.

(On the other hand I enjoyed the countryside in the Ardennes more than the lands further north. Perhaps experience north also different as I speak no Dutch at all? ...the beer and frites were good everywhere though).

chrisonabike wrote:

Mix of good and not so there.  Overtaking stuff all sounds sensible (if people remember...), not sure on the compulsory PPE.

Have they done an analysis at population level to gauge whether this won't result in lower population health overall (e.g. by dissuading cycling)? 

Found this on a web site. :

Quote:

Following this strong opposition, the section of the law requiring helmets   in city centres as well as outside, was removed. Instead, from the 9th May 2014, it became obligatory only for cyclists of 16 years old or less to wear a helmet at all times. The rest of the existing law stays the same.  Adults older than 16 must wear a helmet outside of city centres but are exempt during periods of excessive heat, on steep hills or if they are professional cyclists.

Seems sensible to me. Cycling out of town is likely to be fast and if a cyclist crashes then the helmet may be of use and save strain on emergency services. The exemptions show some understanding of cycling unlike many rules in this country.

The Basque region was the most pleasant cycling I've ever done. The drivers were brilliant. Once you become accustomed to thinking drivers will overtake safely you can relax and enjoy the ride. Every time I hear a car behind in this country I'm preparing myself for the worst.

Bungle_52 wrote:

Seems sensible to me. Cycling out of town is likely to be fast and if a cyclist crashes then the helmet may be of use and save strain on emergency services. The exemptions show some understanding of cycling unlike many rules in this country.

I guess it depends on who's cycling / how they cycle?

I believe in NL (which offers a cycling environment very different from most of Spain) at least one safety organisation sees it almost the other way round.  Despite the general Dutch popular attitude of "don't feel we need helmets" they point out that a) the main helmet standard (which - yes - manufacturers could exceed) is essentially "offers protection if you fall off your bike at standstill" and b) at a population level there are an awful lot of people just falling off their bikes at low / no speed.  So c) when cycling is so normalised that much younger and older people are doing so adding helmets for low-speed urban riding (what the majority of rides are) would be the most beneficial.

Of course most of those in favour of this view don't support mandating the use of such PPE, just strongly encouraging it.  Presumably either because the former would fail or it might actually work to discourage cycling and thus overall have a negative rather than positive health effect (on population).

Perhaps if the drivers in Spain are all as careful as people say the main danger in the countryside is fast riders wiping out, so pushing them towards helmet wearing makes sense?  OTOH more sporty cyclists (at least in UK and apparently in NL) all seem to wear helmets anyway (part of the tribal uniform) - so maybe legislating this is not really necessary?

don simon fbpe wrote:

But they still have the wanky helmet laws, no one is perfect.

Does that mean 'wear a helmet when you're, er, …'? 

It might. Who really knows?