Contents page 1 — A plate for each bike? Page 2 — no, thank you. Bicycle license plate, serve only to aggravate the street war On a page

I like to ride my bike, and I like to ride fast. Very quickly. Even through red lights. Contrary to the one-way street, because it is much shorter. Or, in short, on the walk to the truck to get past. I love the sweat, the wind and the freedom.

But I would be willing to be a part of this freedom. I want to do all I am, all cyclists need to screw a number plate to the fender. If a mark is compulsory, the price to be on the streets, no longer as an obstacle, but as a real traffic participant has to be perceived, I pay it gladly.

merciful

With the number plate no longer tolerated, I would be anonymous, and I would probably keep me even more often to the traffic rules, even if no patrol car in sight. Clearly, each Radlerin considers himself super carefully – but the reality is different. The shows every day on the streets of Berlin, where school children exiting the Bus, not to be killed, if you jump in time from the bike path. (Yes, cyclists have to wait at bus stops actually!)

© Jens Gyarmaty Frida Thurm

editor in the Department of politics, the economy and society, TIME ONLINE

to the author of the page

the core of The problem, however, is that even a bike path runs so close to a bus stop along: cyclists are treated like a marginalised group, which is tolerated in addition to the right of traffic, the cars, the only merciful. They are the ones who ensure that the traffic works in cities. You would require all the public TRANSPORT or the own car, would be nothing more. Self-drivers should, therefore, be glad about every cyclist you (overtaking with sufficient distance, thank you).

What to change a number plate on it? I imagine a Deal: We, the cyclists, would give up one of the few privileges we have, namely our anonymity. Any Offense, even the supposed, could be with the Radbesitzerin. It would be a commitment, as well as motorists to be held responsible. In return, we would get the same rights, in all cities and municipalities. Cyclists would no longer be deported on bumpy bike trails or without a protective strip between the cars alone, but had in traffic planning, the same priority as motorists.

the wheels have the same priority as the cars

I mean: Tempo 30 in inner cities. Higher penalties for illegal Parking, because it is for cyclists to be dangerous, if you have to Dodge out of their cycle lanes on the car track. At all cycle lanes that are so wide that fast riders can overtake the slow, without in car traffic to Dodge. This includes bike Parking not just at train stations, but sufficient number of everywhere in the cities. Intersections that are designed in such a way that cars, especially Trucks, can’t turn right without seeing the cyclist.

And all of this in the foreseeable future. Berlin has since the summer of a mobility law, which contains much of the and even more, but there is a lack in many Places, the timing. The transport Senator complains that the implementation will be delayed due to lengthy ballots. In other cities, such laws are still in the distant future, let alone their implementation.

so is it time to give it some momentum. Especially since there are estimates that more than 70 million bicycles in Germany, significantly more than the roughly 47 million registered passenger Cars. It is so long overdue to make the public space more according to the needs of cyclists. Because so far, the Tests are simply not radical enough. The development shows in the accident statistics: The number of traffic fatalities overall has been falling for years, but the number of cyclists killed has been stagnating inside and cyclists practically. In 2007, there were 258, ten years later, 254. Just this week, a cyclist died in Berlin because of a turning Truck driver ignoring him. In NRW alone, by a turning truck until the middle of August, nine cyclists lost their lives.

For a more relaxed with each other

I’m not the First with this proposal. Various CDU national politician, called the mark, in Hamburg, for example, where it has in the past year, according to the police, more than 130 cases of hit-and-run of cyclists. A nice side effect of the deal would be that it would be less aggressive cyclists. However, not only because you would expect the software to a faster display, but because of the aggressive Defending of territory is no longer necessary to survive on the road.

cyclist it would also be necessary, with car drivers or their frustration at the poor Pedestrians have to be drained. Also I’ve already beaten angry on rear Windows of cars, the abdrängten me on the cycle lanes. Of course it would be nice, instead of “What are you, you whore!” to hear: “Excuse me, that I had almost ran them over. If you can Pat myself on the disc, am I going too far to the right.” But because the Latter, occurred in contrast to the Former, of course, never, I would like to have the room on the street that I need for my safety.

I am now also willing to make concessions. In a country where each egg has its own number, they may need each Bicycle to be a in order to finally be recognized. If only the number plate gives the driving wheels, the authority is entitled to them.