Driving in Europe way different

I recently returned from a 10-day visit to France/Belgium and was not surprised to see that the continuing saga of Ottawa drivers and cyclists was still making news. I spent three days walking all over Paris where the interplay on city streets between automobiles, bicycles, motorcycles, scooters and pedestrians is legendary, yet I came through unscathed.

I even had the good fortune to sit at one of my favourite cafés to oversee the rush-hour traffic as Parisian drivers negotiated an intersection of five streets. There was the occasional blast of a horn and the odd hand gesture, but even with all of the vehicle and pedestrian traffic I did not see any of the carnage that would most likely happen if the same intersection were in Ottawa.

The same applied to western Belgium, where I drove a rental car for several days. While exploring Mons, I even walked across several pedestrian footbridges where, get this, cyclists had to dismount in order to cross.

What is the key to this unheard of symbiotic relationship between motorized traffic and pedestrians?

Speed, for one thing. Nearly everyone drives a standard transmission, the roads are narrower, there are numerous speed-reducing measures employed on the roads and there are speed cameras everywhere.

But perhaps the most important aspect I noticed was the respect shown between the drivers of cars, the cyclists and pedestrians; something you don’t see in Ottawa.

Ed Storey, Nepean