The question of who owns the bike path is quite easy to answer

pedestrians

As a result of the article about the Schelpenpad where former minister Sander Dekker had his cycling accident, I would like to point out that the question of who owns the bicycle path is quite easy to answer. As can be seen from the photo, there is also a footpath next to the bicycle path. The law (Regulation Traffic Rules and Traffic Signs, RVV 1990, Article 4) is clear about this: if there is a footpath, the pedestrian must walk there and nowhere else.

Pedestrians therefore have nothing to do on the bicycle path of the Schelpenpad. It is not true that pedestrians flout this rule because the footpath is too narrow or otherwise does not suit them. It’s just not allowed, it’s that simple.

Incidentally, my experience is that cyclists, I assume because of their vulnerability, usually show themselves to be extremely alert road users, in contrast to walkers who often seem to be only concerned with themselves and can just cross paths and roads or make other ill-considered maneuvers without looking back. to make.

And no, I am not a cyclist myself, but I am a cyclist. A cyclist who is much more bothered by walkers than cyclists.
Steven VeldkampThe Hague

walk left

While we’re on the subject of annoyances on the bike path, I also want to share my years of annoyance. And those are the walkers who walk on the left on the cycle path. Years ago they probably learned at the Boy Scouts that in the evening when it is dark, it is better to turn left on the main road so that you can see the cars coming and you can stand on the verge in time.

They have forgotten that last point, so they come pontifically, often even with two next to each other, towards me, an elderly cyclist. I then have to turn left, to the other half of the cycle path. And if things go bad, there’s just a cyclist driving on the right who is going to curse me.
Anneke KleinTo put away

old barrel

Amateur cyclists on their racing bikes rarely take part in a real competition. Apparently they are concerned with the heart rate, the fatigue, the sweat. The same can be achieved at a much lower speed and shorter distance on an old barrel.
Hubert VerkerkAmsterdam

Fury

I think the anger towards cyclists is caused by their belief that traffic rules don’t apply to them. This is especially the case in groups. Refusing to step aside, giving way, yelling, etc.

I am an avid cyclist myself, but I fully understand the frustrations towards cyclists. Doesn’t mean we have to keep our hands off each other.
Bart StreefkerkLage Mierde

Nitrogen

We regularly go cycling in the Netherlands. You sometimes pass through beautifully ‘upholstered’ landscapes. Yet it is not easy to enjoy it because most of the life has disappeared from it. Where meadow birds formed a normal background, silence now dominates. The name nitrogen is very well chosen…
Gert van der HartBreda

Nitpick

Keep it up friends. The unity between left-wing parties is not going to get any better. Old and young, green and socialist, there is a lot of talk about irreconcilable differences in vision. Unbridgeable? We have to solve two major problems in the coming years: the climate problem and the growing income differentials. We are turning our earth into a hot, unlivable sphere where a small class of privileged people can survive a little longer and more comfortably. We’ll solve all those other hot issues.

Climate and growing differences between rich and poor; which parties have that in mind? Progressive parties such as GroenLinks and the PvdA. What could be more logical than merging and taking the initiative back? Putting a stop to the decline of the left. Working on the highest priority issues.

I hear and read from the party about carefulness, target groups and again observe how people attack each other from their own lines. Folks, we are involved in politics. Quit now with nitpicks!
Jan BoumanZeist

Colour

When you mix green and red, you get an unstable brown/black color. I hope that this will not also apply to the content of the merged parties.
Ilona DekkerNieuwegein

Don’t be naive

Dirk Kuiken gets an entire opinion page to link the much-needed investments in our defense to climate change. I have to admit, the peace activists are moving with the times. That’s all. Kuiken does not address the greatest security threat after World War II, the war of aggressor Russia in Ukraine.

The Netherlands, and many Western countries, have done exactly what Kuiken wants in the past 30 years: cut back on defense and downsize the ‘polluting apparatus’. Meanwhile, in the context of international stability, doing business with all kinds of autocrats, for the sake of peace and for money.

The result of this can be seen: Putin considered the West weak, divided and dependent, which meant he could start a dirty and devastating war in Ukraine. We see his contribution to climate change there: destroyed cities that one day have to be rebuilt, with a lot of CO2 emissions.

So let’s not be naive, but rather be strong, resilient and independent. In this way we will not know any destroyed cities and we will do the climate a favor.
Tony van MechelenThe Hague

Courage

I also think that things should be different and I can underline Dirk Kuiken’s ideas. However, it takes courage to go down this road.

Climate decay is many times more destructive than war. It has been a silent killer for about 30 years and the defense is either not there or too weak. It can even lead to multiple wars.

Costa Rica can be a good example for the Netherlands. The Costa Ricans seized their chance for peace right after the Second World War. Since then they have abolished the army.
Yvonne HouxLochem

roses

Recently I bought a bunch of roses and saw that they came from Kenya. I read on the internet that a lot of roses are grown there.

Last week I received a letter from an aid organization containing an alarming message about a food crisis and (imminent) famine in Kenya, among others.

Land, water and work for roses here, instead of food there. There will probably be economic arguments for this, but I can’t think of any moral arguments.
Joop Verschuurbaak

Katinka

Should ‘De Katinka’ ever be founded, whether as a glossy, culture prize or university, I would be happy to stand in line for it. Katinka Polderman makes with Polder models in de Volkskrant the world transparent, orderly and more bearable. What many aspire to, she already does every week.
Marc LezwijnZoetermeer

German hospitals

Is the rejection of Minister Ernst Kuipers to have 300 German hospitals help to eliminate backlogs in Dutch hospitals in the suburbs, is it arrogance or pure ignorance? What did he say? ‘It might be doable for people along the border, but not from a city like The Hague.’

The Hague is apparently the measure of all things. While from Enschede to The Hague is 204km and from Enschede to Münster, with a very large Academic Hospital, 67km. Even from The Hague to Münster is doable.

You don’t have to wait six weeks for nuclear medicine in Germany (where time is almost always of vital importance) and the petrol is a lot cheaper there. But then something else: has it not occurred to Minister Kuipers that we in the EU established long ago that European, territorial cooperation is indispensable in various areas?

We have been collaborating in all kinds of policy areas for years, such as urban and economic cooperation. But wouldn’t that be necessary in healthcare?
Herman KassenbergGroningen

Minimum wage

Amsterdam has so much to offer, museums, clubs, theaters, restaurants, movie houses, the list is endless. You need money to enjoy it. In East Groningen there is nothing to do except an earthquake every now and then. A vegetable garden, feeding the chickens, sewing your own clothes, that was it. We hardly need money. That is why from the province of Groningen, from subsided houses full of cracks, support for the proposal of letter writer Niels van Dijk from Amsterdam: a lower minimum wage in East Groningen, a higher minimum wage in Amsterdam. Nothing new for us, as a province of Amsterdam we have been financing the hedonism of that city since 1959.
Jan Rob DijkstraWinsum

Maastricht Aachen Airport

The provincial council of Limburg has decided to keep the ailing and polluting Maastricht Aachen Airport (MAA) open. Member of Parliament Raimond Franssen of Lokaal-Limburg states that this had to be done ‘because we don’t have a high-speed line’.

This really shows a local-provincial view. Both Aachen (22km from Heerlen) and Liège (33km from Maastricht) have an hsl station, and Liège also has an airport.

The national government could also have given Limburg ‘change’ by setting up intercity trains to both these cities. Cutting off the large railway bend between Sittard and Weert, so that the trains no longer have to travel via Roermond, brings Eindhoven and Schiphol airport 15 minutes closer. Non-air travelers also benefit from this. I think that Maastricht Aachen Airport will eventually be closed anyway, so start with those rail improvements.
Marcel Gerrits JansGroningen