I must be getting old. After laughing at the first few topples I wondered why the chap filming didn’t get his ass down there with some sand or salt and remove the slippery spot or call the city and have them hurry out to solve it. Then I laughed some more.I’ve been putting my foot down a great deal in the slip-sliding snow this week. The tempo has gone down on the bike lanes, especially today after 15 cm of snow last night, but everyone is taking it easy. When you’ve been cycling virtually every day of your life, like most Danes and Dutch, you’re used to challenges like this.Sad how so many fearmongerers use accident statistics to whip up a whirlwind. They only present the number of emergency ward visits but hardly ever report that the vast majority of injuries are minor and most of the people either cycled away from the hospital or were back on their bicycles the next day after spraining a wrist or ankle or bumping their tailbone or head.
Even here in Denmark these Number of Admissions stats are readily used by many adherants to a societal Culture of Fear development. They often state in indignant tones that the number of cycling injuries that GO UNREPORTED are massive. As though those subversive people who are injured and don’t report it are somehow conspiring against them and the system.
A day later you’ll hear how the emergency wards are often overrun by people who don’t actually need any treatment and how these people are costing society outrageous amounts of money. Stay away from the hospital unless you’re REALLY hurt! Unless you’re a cyclist, of course. By staying away you are working against the Goal of Portraying Cycling as Extremely Dangerous [and subsequently affecting car sales].A propos nothing, the emergency ward at the hospital across the street from here has bike racks for about 40 bikes.
Vaguely related: Cycling nurses help thwart hospitalisation.
