Latvian bicyclists’ brilliant demonstration of how bikes reduce traffic jams
In Latvia, as part of International Car Free Day, some cyclists went to a lot of trouble to tangibly demonstrate one huge difference between bikes and cars: the amount of space they take up on the road.
These photos, which the European cycling group Let's Bike It posted to the social network Vk.com, show a group of bikers in Riga that strapped rickety car-sized constructions to their bikes to show how much space they'd take up if they were actually driving one.
The implication here is pretty obvious: if those cyclists actually were in cars, they’d dramatically increase traffic congestion. On the other hand, getting people out of cars and onto bikes is one way of cutting it.
The photos also call to mind a particularly well-known demonstration of the road space people in cars take up, in comparison to both bikes and buses.
In 1991, the German city of Münster commissioned a poster showing the amount of street space taken up by 72 people sharing a bus, riding bikes, or driving alone in cars. It's since been recreated several different times — most recently, in Canberra, Australia, by the Cycling Promotion Fund:
