As of: February 3, 2024, 7:33 a.m
By: Josef Ametsbichler
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Car wreck hits bike path: A field of rubble appeared at the end of January 2024 after a serious accident on the B 304 near Baldham.
© Stefan Roßmann
Guardrails on trees and roadside ditches, but not to protect cycle paths: Which is why which protective devices are built on open roads.
District
- It can get queasy when you cycle from Ebersberg to Markt Schwaben through the forest while traffic whistles past a few meters next to the cycle path.
There is hardly any other route in the district where overtaking is so risky and there are always serious accidents in which the metal just flies in all directions.
Guardrails between the road and the cycle path are rare, even in new buildings
In the event of an accident, you are left defenseless against out-of-control vehicles on the bike path next to it.
There are hardly any separating guardrails.
This also applies to the busy paths along the B 304 as well as to new cycle paths, such as the connection from Markt Schwaben towards Finsing.
An EZ
reader from Ebersberg wrote to the editorial team about the newly repaired forest route without protection for the cycle path
: “When I drove along this road for the first time after the renovation, I was horrified.” The guardrails are for pedestrians and cyclists not planned, according to his criticism.
Some distance yes, protective barrier no: cycle path from Markt Schwaben to Finsing, opened in September 2023. © Johannes Dziemballa
The Rosenheim State Building Authority, responsible for federal, state and district roads in the Ebersberg district, responds in detail to a related query from the Ebersberger Zeitung.
The bottom line: Protecting pedestrian and cycle paths is a matter of consideration, and of course there are guidelines for this.
Whether a guardrail, or “vehicle restraint system” in official German, is built depends on the local speed limit, the “likelihood of agreement” and the average traffic volume.
But it also plays a role whether the corresponding footpath and cycle path is used intensively.
State building authority explains legal situation and considerations
The authority cites case law, which assumes that if there are more than 50 cyclists per peak hour, i.e. at the busiest time for cycling, this is a “highly frequented” route.
“This means that a decision (...) can only be made after certain values (...) have been carefully considered and in individual cases.” The recently redesigned routes through the forest and north of Markt Schwaben, for example, have corresponding ones On-site visits and coordination with the specialist authorities were given.
Obviously with the result that there is no need for additional protection for pedestrians or cyclists.
In the city center, a car crashes onto the cycle path on the B 304 in Vaterstetten at the end of December 2023. © Thomas Gaulke
The guardrails installed in sections, for example at the Hubertus Chapel in the middle of the forest, are not intended to protect the building or trees.
“This is primarily about protecting road users from serious injuries if they leave the road,” explains the spokeswoman for the road construction authority.
This applies to “non-deformable obstacles, particularly deep ditches, bodies of water, etc.” If “forgiving side space” is missing.
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And it is precisely this “forgiving side space” that, regardless of the cost issue, is a factor that could speak against the installation of protective barriers on the side of the road.
The grass verge and the (hopefully unused at the moment) cycle path are therefore considered to be an emergency alternative space in order to be able to avoid a head-on collision in overtaking traffic, instead of being forced to remain on the road by the guardrail.
Vulgo: Better to get into the ditch than into oncoming traffic.
The State Building Authority argues that “vehicle restraint systems should not pose any further danger to road users.”
The Hubertus Chapel in the Ebersberg Forest is secured.
The cycle path opposite is not separated from the state road by guardrails.
sro © stefan rossmann
Cases of affected cyclists and pedestrians are rare, but they do exist
In its recent research, the EZ Archive has not uncovered any cases in the Ebersberg district in which a pedestrian or cyclist was “cleared” by an uncontrollable accident car.
However, there have been several examples in the last few months alone where fortunately no one was on the footpath or cycle path, otherwise things would have turned out badly.
There are isolated reports of such accidents elsewhere in Germany online.
(By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular Ebersberg newsletter.)
Caravan rammed and thrown onto the cycle path: accident near Steinhöring in July 2023. © josef Ametsbichler
Police statistics: Accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists rarely occur on open roads
The police figures support this trend: Most of the time, things end up being mild.
In 2022 and 2023 there were 141 accidents between motor vehicles and cyclists, as well as 62 involving motor vehicles and pedestrians.
Of these 203 collisions, 19 took place on footpaths or cycle paths outside of town, according to the Upper Bavaria North Police Headquarters in Ingolstadt, which is responsible for the district.
There were 78 seriously injured pedestrians and cyclists in a total of 436 accidents.
Luckily no one died.
“Around half of the causes of accidents are caused by people on foot and by people driving,” said a police spokesman when asked by the
Ebersberger Zeitung
.
Cyclists are also always partly responsible for collisions.
Injury-critical accidents involving the weakest road users therefore occur in intersections and crossing areas and only rarely on the open road.
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