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Piggyback median out of favour with cyclists


Tags: Excerpts from the Windmill

EPE – The idea was to separate bicycle lanes from regular road traffic with a slightly raised round-back barrier, dubbed piggybacks (varkensruggen) by the public. Placed parallel along the bike lanes, the median-type of divider hardly interferes with cars, trucks or farm equipment should they run across it but it now appears that bicyclists who touch it with their wheels frequently tumble off their bikes, getting scraped, bruised or even requiring hospitalization. Cyclists in the eastern Dutch village of Epe view the piggyback medians as too dangerous to keep and are petitioning authorities to remove them from the main road.