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In Germany there is a clear law of the street: that of the strongest. Trucks come first, then fast-paced luxury wagons, followed by mid-range cars, older junk boxes, motorcycles, and mopeds. Only then do the bicycles follow, and then those who are finally deprived of their rights on the street: pedestrians, people with strollers or walkers, and the elderly on sticks.
In recent years, the tried and tested hierarchical order has experienced turbulence. Now there are as many people in Berlin by bicycle as there are by car. Because there are more and more bicycles, but hardly any bicycle lanes, more and more bicycles are crammed into the same space; since the crown crisis, the trend has increased again. The few emerging bike lanes with alibi can’t make up for that.
An infrastructure of fear
People on bicycles are as diverse as Berlin. Some are in a hurry, some have young children with them, and some are in a bad mood. Many feel they are right because they also protect the weather for drivers.
Most bike lanes only have one lane, if there is one. Those who are especially anxious or in a hurry avoid the sidewalk. Therefore, Berlin Police Chief Barbara Slowik has come up with an old suggestion: the labeling requirement for bicycles.
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But there are reasons to act badly on the bike. Whoever locks up people must expect outbreaks. This also applies to narrow bike lanes. You just have to keep reading on social networks, hashtag #motorizedGewalt: For many, cycling is an experience of violence. You are simply afraid of being in a car accident.
Then some of them switch to the sidewalk and the space for the next weakest gets narrow: pedestrians slaloming on the sidewalk between e-scooters, illegal parking and bicycles.
Bicycle traffic like a bogeyman for the failure of the police
The task of the chief of police would be to override this hierarchical order: clear the bike lanes and sanction illegal parking. But now riders who are stuck in the pecking order must be penalized.
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But what should pushed walker drivers say then? Do you require tagging for young pedestrians? And if license plates prevent accidents, why do cars cause so many?
The proposal distracts from a serious problem. The police, whose job it is to prevent violence and protect vulnerable groups, have for years completely failed when it comes to protecting bicycle and pedestrian traffic.
She calls her excuse for “priority checks”. Among many cyclists, therefore, it is considered a two-tier police force that does not clear parked bike lanes, but instead parks in them. Meanwhile, the cyclists have even been filming and publishing this misconduct, often without receiving a statement from the police.
Accident figures contradict the proposal
A sober look at the Berlin police accident statistics provides a meaningful ranking: there were 147,306 road accidents in 2019, 75 percent of which were cars and 10 percent trucks. Bicycles were involved in only 3.9 percent of the accidents.
One of the arguments in favor of mandatory bicycle labeling is that Slowik argues that 52 percent of bicycle accidents are caused by the cyclists themselves. But there were only 7,854 cycling accidents in total.
And there are 448 “one-time accidents” in which no second person was involved. This is also reflected in the number of injuries. The number of serious injuries in accidents between bicycles and pedestrians was 43 in 2019, and between cars and pedestrians was 385. [Alle Unfälle mit Verletzten in Berlin auf einer Karte finden Sie in unserer grafischen Auswertung der Unfallzahlen 2019].
In view of these numbers, the urgency of bicycle license plates is unclear. And this would also have to be implemented. Slowik authorities cannot remove parking violators or high-speed sport utility vehicles from Kantstrasse or Sonnenallee.
Are the same police supposed to control more than a million bicycles? And what misconduct can you best pursue as a result? Speeding is not the problem of bicycle traffic in the capital. Nor have you heard of deaths in illegal bicycle races.
But the registration authorities in Berlin are currently having trouble obtaining vehicle registrations in a timely manner. Then it would also have to allow bicycles. So it is reassuring that Slowik’s proposal is highly unlikely to materialize.
