I hate when cyclists don't yield to people going in or out of a tram or a bus. They mostly ring at you when you cross the bike lane from bus stop to the bus. Cars would stop in the same situation as this is sanctified. It happens from all the places next to Hauptbahnhof and it infuriates me, because there are far more passengers than cyclists. I know that is because cyclists want to maintain inertia, but it's just rude.
Hmm...would you simply walk across the busy street in front of the Haubptbahnhof and expect the cars to stop for you?
Or would you take the overpass, or wait at the traffic light?
Definitely someone is being rude in the scenario, I don't think it is the cyclists. (And no, you are not allowed to cross a street just because a bus stopped).
The bike lanes are often on the sidewalk, right where bus passengers exit. A stopped Tram legally requires the traffic in the lane to its right to stop.
similarly i have almost crashed a couple of times because of pedestrians carelessly walking onto the bike lane (when getting out of their car for example). One time a guy walking next to the bike lane suddenly threw his arm up into my face as i passed (he was going in my direction, so couldn't see me, but was gesticulating widely with this friends).
So it goes both ways...
While yes, of course people need training to be safe, if you hit someone with a bike you have to extremely unlucky to cause a life threatening injury. If you hit them with a car, you only have to be doing 30 mph for it to be 50:50 lethal.
I’ve only seen a relative handful of cyclists in the last few months in Berlin, but my experience in Cambridge has been that on the road, cyclists and drivers are about equal skill; but on cycle paths, you find the idiots who cycle 2-abreast at night with no lights or high-viz on a section with no path lighing, who somehow think it’s appropriate to complain that I did have lights (if I hadn’t had lights, we would’ve collided at about 30 mph, and I was the only one with a helmet).
You can avoid the majority of the unsafe situations if you have the right infrastructure. Meaning: a simple line on the street or some line on the pedestrian path is really poor safety wise.
A bike line should be on its own. Not close to parked cars, not a part of the pedestrian path. Further, it should be super visible (always painted red in the Netherlands). So many countries there's either no separation or it's just some sign.
Similar for crossings. There's loads of video's explaining the Dutch system. Whenever I go abroad I find most bicycle initiatives unsafe and poorly thought out.
Plus all of this can usually be done without actually needing additional space.
Cyclists are trained ... in the art of dodging hapless pedestrians who aren't aware what the red bricks and white lines (and funny little symbol of triangles and circles!) on the ground are supposed to signify.
At least for me, I got good enough at dodging pedestrians to just do it all the time. It's easier for everyone. I'm out of your way in a quarter of a second, and you're out of mine. Situational awareness is of course key here.
Only accident I got in during my two years in Germany was when a car pulled into the bike path to turn left right in front of me and sat there mugging me while I plowed into their front fender sideways.
I live in Berlin and too many times cyclists almost run me over and didn't even acknowledged the fact, just flipped the bird at me.
I have never been in a dangerous situation with cars, just with cyclists.