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Comment by elliekelly | Hacker News Reader

I recently needed to commute to the airport in Amsterdam during rush hour and, in trying to figure out how bad traffic would be, stumbled upon this[1] YouTube video.

It's incredible how many people are able to commute at once using the bike lanes.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXWKQCavjck

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Now imagine how the non-bike lanes would look like if every one of those people on a bike was in a car instead!

I know it’s fast forwarded but it’s hard to ignore the cyclists/riders sneaking into the car lane to get to the head of the pack. That said the great majority observe traffic safety rules.

Why does it matter? By increasing the frontage of the waiting cyclists stopped at the light they are actually helping more total cyclists to clear the intersection in the same amount of time.

It generally is good practice for the fastest cyclists to get up to the front of a waiting pack so that they can pull ahead and not get stuck behind people once it's clear to go.

In many instances a cyclist riding in the "car lane" is not illegal. It's not in Texas, in fact, it's legally required in some instances. I'm a cyclist, and recently I had a driver road rage at me because I was using the left turn lane, which is required by law when turning left!

I don't know specifically about Amsterdam, for what it's worth.

Also, a cyclist riding in the road is not necessarily unsafe either. Many bike lanes are poorly designed and contribute to safety problems.

You’re right it depends on local laws and some make these compromises because of a lack of dedicated lanes, among other reasons too perhaps.

I do know I’ve biked in places where there were dedicated bike/scooter lane and despite there being rules about signals and left turns (which had prominent signs for them), often times people ignored the signs. On occasion, you’d see the stark result of ignoring the signage.

the amount of times i've been yelled at to "get out of the middle of the road" when trying to turn left...

It’s reassuring to me when drivers honk at me on my bike because I know they see me.

We don't seem to get that in the UK anymore, thirty years ago it was different but there are so many cyclists on the roads now people seem have got used to them.

I'm pretty sure Amsterdam doesn't allow running a red light across traffic, as the line jumpers were doing.

I didn't watch the video, and was just responding to the idea that going into the "car lane" is bad.

Many of them seem to be going past to turn right, which would be a valid use of the right turning lane.

Also, I'd contest the behaviour being characterised as 'sneaking' - in most places, bicycles are still considered road vehicles, and allowed to use regular lanes.

You might be right. It could be allowed behavior. What throws it off for me is that most people stay in the bike lane. Only a small minority try to get to the head of the pack via circumvention (which, like you point out, could be permissible).

That's because there is a level difference, which can be hard to navigate when you are going down on an oblique angle. Most people don't bother, the lights cycle fast enough. But when you're in a hurry you'll skip the queue (and plenty of people will skip the light too, but that's another matter and not allowed).

The level difference is there to discourage cars from going on the bike path. Of course it also has the opposite effect.

I think part of the reason is that it's just a small minority that intends to turn right. For them, waiting is somewhat useless, as they're not crossing any other traffic. Once the traffic light turns green, not many of those waiting turn right; most of them cross the road.

The bike lanes are optional unless marked as bike lanes only with the appropriate sign, so bikes are allowed on the road in that spot. In many places you'll see the first four or five meters before the traffic light used to expand the bike path right in front of the cars to get more bikes through the traffic light. That depends on cycling the lights appropriately and requires a separate set of lights for the bikes.

When a car driver speeds over the speed limit, rolls past a stop sign, makes an unsafe turn, doesn't use their signals, and so on, nobody really bats an eye.

When a bicyclist judges that they can safely cross a road, suddenly everyone cares.

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