Blijf uit de dode hoek

“Stay out of the blind spot”

Where have I heard that before?

Fixed that for you.
But these posters were repeated on a dozen lamp posts here:

It is, surely, irrelevant? Unlike London’s “superhighways”, there can’t be many Dutch roads left that could create this kind of situation, especially not in Amsterdam, where I spotted the avenue of posters. The kind of roads that carry big trucks generally give bicycles their own dedicated space; and the city streets where bicycles and traffic mix generally do not allow such big trucks. And in the few situations where bicycles and trucks could mix like this, the truck driver would not overtake the cyclist while preparing to make a turn (sorry, what am I talking about, these situations are always the dead cyclists’ fault for positioning themselves on the inside of a truck, never the surviving truck drivers’ fault for passing a cyclist while turning).

It’d be interesting to know how big a problem this really is in the Netherlands — and why the Dutch government (for I believe it was they) thought it important to put up posters about it.

2 thoughts on “Blijf uit de dode hoek”

  1. From a SWOV factsheet on right hook incidents with cyclists. “The average number of deaths from 2004-2007 was 15 and there were on average 22 people that needed to be taken into hospital”. The campaign started early 2009 for this reason: ‘although truck drivers should give cyclists priority these incidents are usually very severe, but are also relatively easy to avoid’. Some responsibility also on the victims is not always a bad thing. This becomes clear from the figures after the campaign started: 2009: 10 deaths, 2010: 4 deaths. But the equipment of trucks (mirrors, cameras etc.) and the behaviour of drivers is also a constant concern.

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