Mopeds out of bikeways: less accidents

The Finnish traffic law says mopeds are allowed on bikeways (MUP's) if there is a sign saying so. Often the sign is there.

For a few years there was loud complaints and public discussion in the local newspaper about youngsters riding noisy mopeds too fast on the bikeways and too close to other users of the paths  giving them a scare. Part of the problem was that moped users rarely seemed to slow down, they liked to ride full throttle everywhere, including underpasses and tight corners with limited visibility. (Car drivers go faster it the road is wide. Maybe the same is true for mopedists: our bikeways are too wide?)

The other part was that the speed differential with other users of the MUPs was too big. A moped has a max. 50 cm³  (or 4 kW if electric) engine and has a maximum speed of 45 km/h. It is rather easy to do some changes to make the moped go faster (60? 80?). And who would be likely to tune up their moped to go faster? Maybe the reckless youngsters. Mopeds going over 45 km/h among pedestrians... not good!

In August 2010, most of those signs were removed in Oulu and mopeds had to ride on the streets (default speed limit in urban areas is 50km/h, could also be 40km/h or 30km/h) and on roads with speed limits of 60km/h or less. If the speed limit was higher and there was no other route, they were allowed on bikeways next to the road. It's the speed differential thing again, only mopeds are the slow vehicle this time.

There was another cry in August 2010: the mopedists would be slaughtered by the cars. Some parents were afraid their kids would get hurt if they had to use the streets. Others said the reckless mopedists don't know traffic rules and shouldn't be allowed on the roads.

A research comparing injuries before and after the change shows safety improved 70%, says the local newspaper. I haven't seen the article in print, but the short web clip says in the year before the change (Aug 2009-Jul 2010) there was 53 injuries involving mopeds. A year later the figure was only 16!

Unfortunately the short version of the article on the web page doesn't give exact figures for pedestrian, cyclists and mopedist injuries in moped related crashes. So I can't tell you how many less grannies were mowed down by the mopedists. Neither can I tell you if there has been a decline in trips taken or kilometers travelled by moped. Fuel prices have gone up, but the mopeds are not exactly gas guzzlers.

One might make an educated guess that there might be less mopeds in the winter than the previous year. The moped riders had to move from well gritted and snowplowed bikeways to icy, rutted streets and roads, which are not gritted or plowed well enough for two-wheeled vehicles. On the other hand, riding a moped in the winter is very cold. You're just sitting there and you're not getting heat by using your muscles like when biking. And what I recall, there weren't that many moped users in the winter anyway.

Anybody who has been reading Hembrow's blog knows he has written how in the NL the different modes (or speeds) of traffic are often kept separate to reduce conflict and damages done by a collision. Their bike paths for bikes only are world famous.

Unfortunately, in Finland many politicians and traffic planners think streets are for cars and they use 'light traffic roads' (also known as MUP, multi-use paths )for everything else. Looking from the windshield perspective it seems dangerous to have unarmored mopeds on the streets, they might get hurt! Not to mention they are slowing down the traffic! This is why allowing mopeds on MUPs has been widespread even if it puts fast moving mopeds among dogwalkers and kids and grannies.

On the other hand mixing pedestrians and cyclists does work, sort of, if the MUP is wide enough and there isn't too many of them. If the traffic is heavy, the modes should be split, to reduce conflict and smooth the bicycle traffic flow, just like they do in the Netherlands! :-)

Now that Oulu has shown the example and has statistics to show it works and is safe, some other cities are doing the same. It certainly has calmed down our bikeways when the noisy contraptions are gone!

May Day Ride

It's 1st of May again. Besides students getting drunk, parades, annual May Day motorcycle ride and the concert there was the market. I was getting bored and it was a sunny day outside so went so see what they had for sale. I uploaded some videos: on the way , parked at market and leaving , Crowd at Concert and Red Nose.

Crossing the river I saw the ice is breaking apart. I hope any of the students who decided to go swimming (read: was thrown in by his friends) didn't catch a cold.

 A nice day for a riverside picnic. It was +2C and windy, but at least the sun was shining warmly. It wasn't cloudy, it just looks like that on the photo.

Bikes parked all around the market square, and also on the pedestrian streets I visited later. There was no sign of the construction of the car park yet. IIRC they'll start to dig the tunnel here at the market square somewhere.

 Unfortunately the selection at the market was the usual: cheap jewelry and other trinkets, candy, some food, even t-shirts. The only thing that caught my eye this time was these baskets made of thin strips of wood (don't know the word in english) and some tin pots. The baskets looked very nice.

And then I went to listen the concert at the pedestrian street but I didn't take any photos. Even the video clip caught just the end of one song.

Meteorological spring

According to the meteorological institute the local "meteorological spring" started on 11th April, when the average daily temperatures climbed above zero degrees Celsius. The summer will start on late May.

Even though the snow has been melting fast and I've even seen some motorcyclists on the streets, if a cold spell comes it can get below freezing even during the day and the snow stays on the ground for a moment. Like it did last week.

The sea outside Oulu seems to  be still frozen. I tried to go to the old docks to get a closer look, but there was too much snow to ride through. Here used to be a sawmill and tar barrel storage area, but it burned down and now the lot is empty. Good area for walking the dogs. I'd have thought this wide open area would be clear of snow pretty fast, but the snow was still knee deep.

No sign of anything green on the bushes around the lot either.

Until yesterday I thought all streets and bikeways would be ice free already, but I was wrong. 10 cm of ice! I rode between the ruts, it was easier than trying to balance in them. I have been thinking about switching to a summer tyre. Maybe it's time as it seems the ice is gone. 

Oh, I bought a studded tyre on the 'end of winter season' sale a month ago. Even though it was almost too late as the bikeways were clearing fast I did get to ride on ice with them. Having one on the front wheel helps a lot and I don't think one on the rear wheel is necessary with my riding style. The rear wheel tends to follow the front wheel. In fact it was a bit funny to have the front wheel go straight over icy ruts and bumps and the rear wheel would slip left and right. :-)

One more iceberg photo. This one was so high you can barely see the cyclist behind it! Inspired by all the documentaries and movies about Titanic shown these last weeks.

I noticed one funny thing about the documentaries. There was two of them one after the other on a certain tv channel. Each claimed to tell the truth about the sinking, but they disagreed. One claimed the steel and rivets used were of good quality. The other found substandard iron rivets had been used near the bow because the machine used to punch the steel rivets was too clumsy and couldn't work there. The steel rivets couldn't be installed manually, so they had to used iron rivets. Did the first show even know iron rivets had been used? Well, it's fun to watch them and nitpick!

A shiny bikeway. This time it's not ice, just wet asphalt. Notice it has been cleaned, and all mud and gritting sand has been swept to the sides. They made the snow dirty. :-/ The wall you see is a noise barrier between the bikeway and the street.

This one shows the brown grass and a too narrow (maybe 2 meters) paving on the footpath to a bus stop. The snow plow machine has been so wide only one wheel was on the asphalt, the other was on the shoulder. Heavy machines will disfigure the shoulder (how do you say it in english?) and crack the edge of asphalt requiring repairs in a few years.

Another example of things found under the snow. The snow plow has been plowing more on the grass than on the bikeway. There isn't any snow plow sticks to mark the edges, so when everything is under the snow and ice even 3 meter wide bikeways can get lost.

Silly Cyclist prompts action

The latest Silly Cyclist video, episode 38 had one cyclist that reminded me to do some maintenance on my bike. What I'm referring to is the #1, the cyclist without brakes. Another cyclist jumps the red light, "forcing" him to ride through pedestrians crossing the street as he can't stop his bike.

In the winter the friction between the tyre and the surface below it, usually ice, is pretty low, so I wasn't worried that my brakes were not very effective. Even if the brake pads or the rim wasn't covered in ice and snow, there wasn't much more braking power to be had. The tyre would  just lock and slide on the ice and wouldn't really stop me much earlier. Sort of ABS for bicycles. :-)

Now the bikeways are clean, and a lot of fair weather cyclists and pedestrians will be around, so maybe it'd make sense to tune the brakes.

A sure sign of spring

Although the snow has been melting, and I've seen some catkins, I haven't seen any new growth green (grass grown on plates for easter decorations do not count) to mark the beginning of the spring yet.

But today, despite the sleet and rain and a cloudy day, I saw them.

My video "contest" makes people lose sleep. Sorry.

I uploaded a few videos again and baited viewers with a question in one. Two sloshy videos from the bikeways, two videos from a cobblestone ride showing riding on the streets with not so good drivers and a video riddle. 

I'm just riding when I see something that I had forgotten about for several months. There has been a few good guesses, but no correct answers yet. Want to lose sleep while trying to guess it? ;-)

Good news: the parking garage is paid for!

Today the local newspaper told us the good news: the €70 million underground parking garage will be built without any money from the city, if we're willing to wait a few years. The whole thing will be built by an energy company, who will use it for a few years and then hand it over to the city.


The energy company is building a nuclear plant some 60km away and wants to use the underground garage to temporarily store the nuclear waste, until they can build their own facility somewhere. As searching for a good location, planning and building it will take a long time, it makes sense to use this shovel ready project as a temporary storage. After all, everybody's garage is full if junk stored there temporarily, so why not the underground garage too. And as the nuclear waste still produces a little bit of heat, it can be used to heat the buildings above.

The only problem is that the containers are quite big and bulky, and there would be big HGV's driving to the center of the city. The containers might be so wide they would not fit in the car lane. So on some narrow streets the whole street would have to be closed for other traffic and all parked cars removed. Trying to turn in to the garage will be a problem of it's own.


If this wasn't the first day of the fourth month, this would've been horrible news. The article did fool me for a moment, but they didn't get me come downtown to see the nuclear HGV testing the streets! :-D