Municipalities like Puchheim want to be – or become – bike-friendly.
There is obviously still a long way to go until then.
Puchheim – Numbers of accidents are in any case worrying.
A distance measurement as part of an adult education center event is quite sobering.
Are you safer as a cyclist in a supposedly bicycle-friendly community?
Apparently not, as a lecture with extensive figures in the Puchheim adult education center (VHS) showed.
The former city councilor and current VHS chairman Reinhold Koch had evaluated the accident statistics and had come to a worrying result: The three officially bicycle-friendly municipalities in the district, apart from Puchheim also Bruck and Gröbenzell, are far ahead in terms of absolute numbers or the proportion of injured cyclists.
Gröbenzell scores the worst
With the data from 2021, Fürstenfeldbruck leads the total number of personal injuries (56) ahead of Germering (54) and Puchheim (40).
If you put the number of people involved in an accident by bike in relation to the length of the respective road and path network, Gröbenzell is the front runner, ahead of Puchheim and Eichenau.
The Garden Community has the highest number of injured cyclists per kilometer of road.
And particularly worrying from Puchheim's point of view: 40.8 percent of all road users injured two years ago were cyclists.
In numbers, that means: 40 out of 98. This value was only surpassed by Schöngeising and Oberschweinbach.
In view of the relatively small number of victims in the two rural communities (nine and six), however, these are rather random statistical results.
It must be emphasized that the causes of the accident were not touched upon in the presentation, nor was the question of who was to blame.
Distance measured by ultrasound
However, Koch had brought the results of a practical self-experiment with him: measuring distances with an ultrasound-supported open bike sensor.
Just under three hours on a late July afternoon on the camp road were enough for 36 measurements.
Result: Only six drivers kept the prescribed minimum distance of 1.5 meters to Koch and his bike.
Three passed within a meter of each other.
The regulation is not only considered to be alien to many drivers.
On Adenauerstrasse, for example, you might have to sneak behind a leisurely cyclist for minutes because there is not enough space to overtake.
(
By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular
FFB newsletter.)
Koch himself also considers it unlikely that contact will actually occur if the minimum distance is not reached.
However, many cyclists would be frightened and perhaps start to sway.
The VHS boss thinks the experiment from Dachau, where a police officer is out and about with such a sensor on the handlebars, is worth imitating.
Speed limit appears to increase safety
When comparing the Puchheim numbers from the past few years, it is noticeable that it seems to have become safer for cyclists on Lochhauser Strasse - perhaps also because of the speed limits.
The number of accidents on the way to school in the direction of grammar school and junior high school has also decreased.
On the other hand, Puchheim-Ort has caught up in the statistics, the commercial area at Ikarus Park remains a little-known focus.
"We know the weak points," said Koch, "so let's do something about it."
Cycling concept still in its infancy
In his opinion, however, the city's cycle traffic concept has not gotten beyond the beginnings.
Even from the list of priorities not everything has been implemented.
There are a few cycle lanes, but they don't hurt motorists, or "cheap versions" of bike protection lanes like on Nordendstraße.
But these separate tracks for cyclists are controversial among those affected.
The debate about Allinger Strasse proved that.
And the subsequent discussion in the citizens' meeting also showed: Because, so the concern, only a supposed security is being feigned.
(op)
You can find more current news from the district of Fürstenfeldbruck at Merkur.de/Fürstenfeldbruck.
