Each year, about sixty blind spot accidents occur in Flanders in which a turning driver collides with a crossing pedestrian or cyclist. Also yesterday, a 13-year-old cyclist ended up under a truck in Ghent. The boy was seriously injured. “These accidents can be avoided”, according to co-chairwoman of Groen Nadia Naji and Flemish member of parliament Stijn Bex. They advocate combined traffic lights and conflict-free intersections.
CFBR
Mar 4 2023
Latest update:
13:45
Source:
VTM News
“First of all, intersections must be made conflict-free as much as possible, so that a turning driver simply does not cross cyclists or pedestrians, that is the safest choice,” said co-chair Naji and MP Bex. “There are traffic lights that can help: combined traffic lights.”
Today cyclists and pedestrians each have their own traffic lights at intersections with separate cycle paths, with three and two color systems respectively. That is confusing because the traffic light for pedestrians is on the other side of the crossing, the one for cyclists is at the start. The green time for both road users is therefore also different. Cyclists get green for longer because pedestrians on a zebra crossing are allowed to continue their way, even if the light changes to red.
“This is life-threatening and causes blind spot accidents,” says Naji. “Because a turning driver only sees the pedestrian light on red and assumes that he can turn safely. But arriving cyclists can still have green. Resulting in blind spot accidents. Combined traffic lights avoid this confusion and make an intersection safer for cyclists and pedestrians.”
Combined traffic light
A combined traffic light, like the pedestrian light, is on the opposite side of the crossing and has two symbols on the lights, a pedestrian and a cyclist. In Brussels, the traffic lights have been in place since 2013 and the pilot projects showed that this made intersections safer.
Groen calls on the Flemish Minister of Mobility, Peeters, to make intersections completely conflict-free and, as a quick quick win, to immediately invest in the new traffic lights on Flemish regional roads and to support local authorities in doing so on local roads. “Road safety must be a priority, especially for cyclists and pedestrians. 60 accidents per year, because of the blind spot, could be avoided with this,” concludes Bex.
The system is also an average of 1,500 cheaper per intersection, because savings can be made on the number of bollards to be installed.
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How safe is cycling in your municipality? View the VeloVeilig Report here
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