So, after a decade and a half of transportation riding in a metropolitan US city, I can definitively say: no. Big brain dump, incoming.
There a lot of elements of Dutch style bikes that are great. He's completely right: enclosed chains, skirt guards, racks, generator lights, swept handlebars, internal-geared hubs.) If you're interested in regular transportation by bicycle, you absolutely should try to find as many of those things as possible (or, more likely, try to find a bike with a frame that will accommodate as many of those as possible.) But do not buy a Dutch-style bike if you live in the US.
Most of the things you want can be found in the (thankfully) ever-growing "transportation bike" category though you'll have to look a bit harder. There are several brands that make nice transpo bikes, but I think some of the most consistently good transportation bikes are made by Breezer. The big boys like Specialized and Trek do generally try to force you into a "hybrid" bike if you want something for "transportation." About the biggest change they make is (hopefully) making sure there are enough mounting holes on the frame for mounting both a rack and fenders, and doing so with a fair amount of flexibility (ie multiple options for doing so.) Many bikes sold as "touring" bikes can make for good transportation bikes.
The reason you don't see good all-inclusive transportation bikes in US bike shops is because most shoppers in the US look at bicycles as toys, not transportation or utility items. And they are extremely "price conscious", which is a polite way of saying "people in the US are cheap as fuck when it comes to bicycles", so the pricetag on the bike has to be as low as humanly possible. This leads to a lot of other problems, like for example most bike shops in my city struggling to pay workers fair wages and benefits. People don't blink at paying $100+/hour for service at their car dealership, but they expect to pay more like $5/hour at the local bike shop and are incensed if charged more. The exception are shops that do a lot of business with fitness/sport/competitive riders, but a lot of "regular" folks walk into such a shop and almost immediately turn around and leave, unless they happen to spy the display rack of hybrid bicycles.
My roommate thought I was insane spending $1,200 on a transportation bicycle. Ditto for when I then spent another $300 or so installing generator-hub powered lights (I went for fairly high end stuff; you can do it cheaper); I asked him how many bike lights he'd lost, broken, or destroyed or had stolen and he thought for a moment, how much he'd spent on batteries, and how many times he'd found himself biking in the dark because the batteries went dead due to not being charged or replaced recently...and said "okay, fair enough." He rode home with me one night on the bike path and was so stunned by how bright and well-lit the path in front of us was, he actually swore. Those bike lights have functioned flawlessly for a decade and a half. Similarly, he was incensed that I spent $60 per tire on better tires for said bike. Those tires lasted me a decade of daily urban use in the Northeast US. They also had reflective sidewalls, which significantly increased the bike's visibility at night.
The author of the video repeats a lot of common myths about bicycles. Upright seating position is "more comfortable"...but only for a fairly limited amount of time (there's a reason bikes designed to be ridden for HOURS at a time are not upright; namely, you have less weight on your ass), has nothing to do with power efficiency (in fact many erg bikes used in performance studies and performance tests are...drumroll...upright), and "aero" does not matter at typical urban cycling speeds (ie about 10-15mph.) Don't buy a dutch bike if you ever want to ride it more than about half an hour. Your ass will be very unhappy with you.
My daily 'transpo' bike is a road bike style frame with road bike handlebars; they're much narrower, and narrow handlebars can be a significant advantage in urban environments, though it's kind of a tradeoff, because swept-back bars won't get hooked on something...but if your handlebars get hit, you're eating shit regardless. I'm baffled by the author's snobbish comments about "costume changes" - I rode "plain clothes" on my road bike every goddamn day, just fine, thank you. Because I bought a bike that was sized appropriately for my body, I don't get "hit in the nuts" by the top-tube despite having somewhat short legs, and I'm able to easily mount and dismount.
The reason drop-tube bikes are often called "women's bikes" is because women are on average shorter, but yes, the US population also looks at them and thinks they're "girly." It is difficult to go below a certain horizontal top-tube height relative to the wheel size. Terry Bicycles famously made a lot of 650c road bikes for women (700c is the standard road bike wheel size)
"Steel" is not stronger than "aluminum"; there are numerous alloys and tubing thicknesses for both metals and both steel and aluminum bikes can range from "don't look at it wrong" to "will outlive you." Aluminum is generally more durable, especially anywhere it regularly rains. Steel frames can be protected with anti-rust treatments like Framesaver (which is likely just cosmolene or other standard automotive anti-rust spray) but that adds to the cost.
Anyway. Back to the point at hand.
The major problem with 'Dutch bikes' is that they are massively heavy (Also, coaster brakes. The author loves coaster bikes. Those are fine in country where the legal system, infrastructure, and other road users are all much more accommodating of you. All of which is a significant problem in the US.)
First off, if you live anywhere that isn't as flat as the Netherlands, that weight is going to mean going up hills is murderous, especially since most Dutch bikes are lacking in gearing. Seriously, the Netherlands is so flat, they used to transport a significant amount of goods on huge trikes with a single gear. Like, look at the size of these things: https://www.notechmagazine.com/2010/06/tandem-cargo-tricycle... (granted, some of them were bread bikes, and I know from a cargo-bike-delivery-rider friend that the bread run was always her absolute favorite. "It's so LIGHT!")
The next problem with being so heavy is that you can't easily bring the bike in at night unless you have a garage (unlikely in most metropolitan areas) or ground-floor apartment. Why do you need to bring bikes in? Because of systemic problems that lead to massive rates of theft.
US Police do not take bike theft seriously, despite the fact that just like with theft of a car, theft of one's bike could lead to one being unable to afford getting to work or school, just as in theft of a car. Many homeowners and renters insurance policies exclude bicycles, too. Laws around bike theft are generally a joke in most of the US, treated as basic property theft unlike motor vehicles where theft of a motor vehicle, or even the slightest vandalism, is a felony level offense.
Few US urban communities have sufficient public bike parking, especially of the secure sort; a lot of it is badly designed (there is an obsession with making it "pretty", for example), badly located, and badly installed. Many residential buildings have bike parking in them now, but reports of theft from them are extremely commonplace.
With the advent of municipal rental systems (aka bike "shares") many cities have altogether stopped deploying infrastructure for private bike ownership and even removed it in some places. In my neighborhood in Boston, the city silently removed a number of bike posts in the main 'square' where bike parking was in very high demand, right as they put in a new Hubway bike "share" station. I later found out that business owners complained that the bike share docking station was going to take up SO MUCH parking (about one and a half car spaces.) As a "peace offering", the city removed several on sidewalk parking posts on the side of a one-way street where vehicles were not even allowed to park.
We do not have the social safety nets that a country like the Netherlands does; bike theft is rampant in most metropolitan areas because it's a fast, low-risk way to make money, especially if you're homeless. There are a multitude of ways to steal almost any bike, but one particular way that is quite popular costs about $10-15, is almost completely silent, and will destroy even some fairly seriously built U-Locks.
Basically, you cannot leave a bike outside, even on your property, because eventually it will be stolen. And no, having a "crappy" bike "nobody would want to steal" works, because...guess what people want to buy when they move to a new city and are looking for a used bike online?
If you made it to the end, thanks for sticking around. Please support legislative protection for PEOPLE on bicycles, and actively support bicycling infrastructure, because there is a VERY loud minority that hyper-aggressively fights this stuff. It's incredibly cheap for its benefits and we will not save the planet putting everyone in an electric car, especially in urbanized areas.
PS: before you comment in reply, see https://cyclingfallacies.com/en/, especially if you are preparing to regale me with what you saw a person on a bicycle do the other day, something about "paying their fair share of the road tax", something about "earning the right to the road by following the rules", or any of the usual tripe.
One point that resonates is the dual-headed theft/storage problem. I own a road bike that I would not lock up at my local train station (in a safe suburb just north of NYC). So, wanting to bike to the station means I need/want a cheaper bike that I can afford to lose or repair if it's vandalized.
I'd love to see some sort of locker system. Smart-phone or FOB lock/unlock. Storage space wide and tall enough for an average commuter bike. But I'm sure that system would suck up extra space in the station parking lot and subsequently be DOA for the vast majority of folks who just want to drive their SUVs to the station.
Thanks for the big effort post! I'm on the Dutch (well, Belgian) side of things. It was interesting getting your perspective.
Regarding policing, I doubt that better legislation is going to improve things. I remember my brothers being so fed up of stolen bikes that they parked them at the police station and they kept being stolen. Infrastructure makes the biggest difference.
A note on the butt pains thing. The vast vast majority of bike trips are < 30mins. And people that do have a longer commute tend to go for more expensive bikes, e.g. with suspension. There are still those that go full sport bike and outfit, but you tend to see more pedelec ebikes than those on the bike highways these days.
Personally I did away with the car altogether and went with an electric cargo bike (the kind with a hopper in front). It cost as much as a small car, but it is comfortable, even on the super common cobblestones here. Suspension and a good seat go a long way in avoiding butt pains.
So this huge rant is essentially “Don’t buy a Dutch bike because they are heavy and don’t have gears” both of which are not true. Most Dutch bikes have gears, and most Dutch bikes are light weight.
Source: I’m Dutch, bought many bikes in the Netherlands, had to ride my bike 15 miles daily to get to school and back (which is the normal thing to do), and my ass has never complained.
You are also conflating a type of machine (Dutch bike) with many random US issues, such as legal protection and theft. On the theft part, LMFAO - bike theft is insanely prevalent in NL, I suspect more bikes get stolen instead of sold annually, and you are randomly throwing in issues such as lighting and “look how much money I spent on my bike”. I’m happy for you that your identity is so tied up to your biking hobby, but your insight into Dutch bikes is deeply flawed.
I used to live in the Netherlands, now in a major US city. Always biked to everywhere.
Dutch bikes (price/use vs price/use) are absolutely heavier, noticeably so.
I spend about 1500 on my daily bike. The average Dutch Bike in the Netherlands is ~12-14kg. My bike here in the US right now is 9.6kg. My nicer bike is 7.8kg.
Like others have mentioned, _it matters_. My ride has significant uphill portions both ways (due to one way streets). It sucks on a heavy bike, and it sucks on a bike without fairly aggressive gearing. Carrying the bike up 8 flights of stairs is not fun, and throwing on an extra 3kg after a long ride is... ick. Not to mention the top tube design on some of them makes carrying a Dutch Bike more difficult.
It wasn't mentioned in other posts, but riding upright going uphill is rather unpleasant as well. Trying to overcome that discomfort with a lean on a "Dutch Bike" just compounds the discomfort.
To the other points - Streets in the Netherlands were flatter. Bike theft was MUCH less problematic. Climbing stairs to get to your home was less common.
None of these things are a knock on Dutch Bikes. It's a different tool for a different place.
Maybe if you're commuting in Kansas, Texas or Florida then a Dutch Bike makes sense. If you're in a major American coastal city then it's unequivocally the wrong choice.
The OP's point stands IMO: buy the right tool for the right job.
I agree with your assessment. A common miss conception I’ve seen visiting foreigners have about Dutch bikes are because they used bad rental bikes while visiting. Most of the rental bikes are quite bad; lack of gears, awkward dimensions and incredibly heavy.
I am Dutch, also owned (and still own) multiple bikes.
Theft is a big problem in The Netherlands, and some police districts are overburdened. If it happens, report the frame number as stolen to police.
All of my bikes except the ones for my young kids have gears. Even the cargo bike...
The third bike I owned (at around age 12) was a MTB made of aluminium frame. It was noticeably lighter. It was quite a bit more expensive, too. Oh, and it got stolen somewhere in my 20s. I had to buy a new bicycle while on a tighter budget, so no aluminum.
However the point that US is not made for biking I have heard before. Almost nobody here uses helmets. Smartphone usage on bicycle gets you a 100 EUR fine, its a recent law and it is a serious problem. But at least car driver is by default to blame if accident occurs. That and dedicated lanes helps with security. And since all kids go to school via bicycle this helps keeping them in shape, plus there is community interest in secure, safe roads.
The importance of weight depends on the geography. I cycle 3 miles to the office each way but there are a couple of steep hills on the route, and I would dread it if my bike weighed much more than 10kg. Some of the bikes shown in the video look like they could weigh twice as much.
> You are also conflating a type of machine (Dutch bike) with many random US issues, such as legal protection and theft.
No, I explained how an coaster brake is a very poor idea in a country with a radically different attitude toward cyclists and a heavy bike you can't bring inside easily will get stolen almost immediately.
> you are randomly throwing in issues such as lighting
I didn't "randomly" throw that in. It was part of my discussion about how Americans are hyper-price conscious and do not value bicycles, so features the rest of the world considers standard on a bicycle can't be found on most bikes sold in shops because they have to be as cheap as humanly possible.
Not my problem you speed-read my comment and then arrogantly felt entitled to critique it
> I’m happy for you that your identity is so tied up to your biking hobby
...Who hurt you? TIL riding for transportation is a "biking hobby" and because after almost two decades of transportation riding in a country incredibly hostile to such things, my "identity" is "tied" to it. Christ, it's like I'm talking to a republican who lives in Idaho. "nice biking hobby"
Who hurt you? Go ignore your country's century of brutal colonialism and slavery profiteering or something.
> The reason you don't see good all-inclusive transportation bikes in US bike shops is because most shoppers in the US look at bicycles as toys, not transportation or utility items. And they are extremely "price conscious", which is a polite way of saying "people in the US are cheap as fuck when it comes to bicycles", so the pricetag on the bike has to be as low as humanly possible.
Old bikes here in NL cost nothing. I just dispose of 10 donor bikes and have 8 or so semi functional ones for sale. Ill sell you one without brakes stuck in the 3rd gear for 5 euro.
If you leave your 1000 euro bike chained to someones fence for more than a month it will be removed by the city and sold for something like 50 euro. (if someone else doesn't take it)
> they expect to pay more like $5/hour at the local bike shop and are incensed if charged more.
I don't know of any atm but we use to have old guys around cities who would fix peoples bikes also for next to nothing.
> Upright seating position is "more comfortable"...but only for a fairly limited amount of time
Well, I'm used to it, everyone here is used to it. Its comfortable for much longer than people can keep the pedals moving.
1% of the trips on bikes in NL is over 15 km (9.3 mph)
> typical urban cycling speeds (ie about 10-15mph.)
I think there are 3 groups. (this is not research data) The slow group rarely goes faster than 4 mph, they don't really enjoy it and with lack of circulation they cant regulate their body temperature. The fast group does around 22 mph on various upright bikes new ones and old clunkers or using electrical assist. And the 3rd are people on expensive bikes and aerodynamic recumbents who do around 29-31 mph.
It ofc increasingly depends on traffic and the amount of corners if you get to that speed.
What is far more significant to the result over short distances is how fast you can get the vehicle onto the road after leaving the house. i.e. If you car is parked on the driveway next to your front door and traffic allows you to get onto the main road without issues it takes a lot less time than walking 2 blocks to a car park.
woman on average cycle 1.73 mile per day over 0.8 trips, men 1.86 mile over 0.8 trips. 12 to 18 year olds do 3.86 miles in 1.6 trips. Over 75 people do 1.18 mile per day in 0.4 trips.
70% of all trips is under 2.3 miles. On my old rusty bike I should be able to do that distance in 6 min. People on fancy bikes in 4.5 and slow people 35 min but if you account for time lost, there are corners to take, traffic lights, cars etc, it takes time to get back up to speed. You have to get the fancy bike out of the garage and elaborately chain it to a fence.
It is indeed as you note the road that makes all of the difference. I would plan 15 min per 1.2 mile in the city and outside 15 min for every 6 mile.
> Don't buy a dutch bike if you ever want to ride it more than about half an hour. Your ass will be very unhappy with you.
If you are still sitting you are doing it wrong :)
> if you live anywhere that isn't as flat as the Netherlands, that weight is going to mean going up hills is murderous, especially since most Dutch bikes are lacking in gearing
We have wind to make up for it.
> Seriously, the Netherlands is so flat, they used to transport a significant amount of goods on huge trikes with a single gear.
Those are just very slow, if you had that gearing on a normal bike you would tip over. I spend days cycling from A to B and back with 100-300 kg loads. It takes way more time than effort. Most was 5 guys around 90 kg and a crate of beer. At that point it was indeed a bit to much but entirely worth the laugh.
> The next problem with being so heavy is that you can't easily bring the bike in at night unless you have a garage (unlikely in most metropolitan areas) or ground-floor apartment. Why do you need to bring bikes in? Because of systemic problems that lead to massive rates of theft.
True but for me it's like, oh they took my 30 euro bike? How brave that someone would dare to do that. If it means I'm late for something people will just have to put up with that. I'm not about to be blamed for something I have no control over.
Security cameras are slowly solving the problem.
>And no, having a "crappy" bike "nobody would want to steal" works, because...guess what people want to buy when they move to a new city and are looking for a used bike online?
Ah, the problem is its own solution.</sarcasm>
> the city removed several on sidewalk parking posts
We have the opposite, the cities cant seem to figure out how to create parking spaces for cars even where it is extremely obvious. They much rather build houses in existing parking space and kill off the stores around it. Most spots allow you to park for 1 hour afterwhich you get a 100 euro fine. Its hell for small shops.
> If you made it to the end, thanks for sticking around. Please support legislative protection for PEOPLE on bicycles, and actively support bicycling infrastructure, because there is a VERY loud minority that hyper-aggressively fights this stuff. It's incredibly cheap for its benefits and we will not save the planet putting everyone in an electric car, especially in urbanized areas.
It was a fun read, thanks.
> PS: before you comment in reply, see cyclingfallacies
If you insist...
It seems to lack a chapter something like: "You don't need physical activity" There it should be explained how corona is just one out of hundreds of terrible things that can happen if you are [shall we say] 100% out of shape. If we can do forced experimental medication we can certainly do forced scientific exercise. You have no further questions!
There a lot of elements of Dutch style bikes that are great. He's completely right: enclosed chains, skirt guards, racks, generator lights, swept handlebars, internal-geared hubs.) If you're interested in regular transportation by bicycle, you absolutely should try to find as many of those things as possible (or, more likely, try to find a bike with a frame that will accommodate as many of those as possible.) But do not buy a Dutch-style bike if you live in the US.
Most of the things you want can be found in the (thankfully) ever-growing "transportation bike" category though you'll have to look a bit harder. There are several brands that make nice transpo bikes, but I think some of the most consistently good transportation bikes are made by Breezer. The big boys like Specialized and Trek do generally try to force you into a "hybrid" bike if you want something for "transportation." About the biggest change they make is (hopefully) making sure there are enough mounting holes on the frame for mounting both a rack and fenders, and doing so with a fair amount of flexibility (ie multiple options for doing so.) Many bikes sold as "touring" bikes can make for good transportation bikes.
The reason you don't see good all-inclusive transportation bikes in US bike shops is because most shoppers in the US look at bicycles as toys, not transportation or utility items. And they are extremely "price conscious", which is a polite way of saying "people in the US are cheap as fuck when it comes to bicycles", so the pricetag on the bike has to be as low as humanly possible. This leads to a lot of other problems, like for example most bike shops in my city struggling to pay workers fair wages and benefits. People don't blink at paying $100+/hour for service at their car dealership, but they expect to pay more like $5/hour at the local bike shop and are incensed if charged more. The exception are shops that do a lot of business with fitness/sport/competitive riders, but a lot of "regular" folks walk into such a shop and almost immediately turn around and leave, unless they happen to spy the display rack of hybrid bicycles.
My roommate thought I was insane spending $1,200 on a transportation bicycle. Ditto for when I then spent another $300 or so installing generator-hub powered lights (I went for fairly high end stuff; you can do it cheaper); I asked him how many bike lights he'd lost, broken, or destroyed or had stolen and he thought for a moment, how much he'd spent on batteries, and how many times he'd found himself biking in the dark because the batteries went dead due to not being charged or replaced recently...and said "okay, fair enough." He rode home with me one night on the bike path and was so stunned by how bright and well-lit the path in front of us was, he actually swore. Those bike lights have functioned flawlessly for a decade and a half. Similarly, he was incensed that I spent $60 per tire on better tires for said bike. Those tires lasted me a decade of daily urban use in the Northeast US. They also had reflective sidewalls, which significantly increased the bike's visibility at night.
The author of the video repeats a lot of common myths about bicycles. Upright seating position is "more comfortable"...but only for a fairly limited amount of time (there's a reason bikes designed to be ridden for HOURS at a time are not upright; namely, you have less weight on your ass), has nothing to do with power efficiency (in fact many erg bikes used in performance studies and performance tests are...drumroll...upright), and "aero" does not matter at typical urban cycling speeds (ie about 10-15mph.) Don't buy a dutch bike if you ever want to ride it more than about half an hour. Your ass will be very unhappy with you.
My daily 'transpo' bike is a road bike style frame with road bike handlebars; they're much narrower, and narrow handlebars can be a significant advantage in urban environments, though it's kind of a tradeoff, because swept-back bars won't get hooked on something...but if your handlebars get hit, you're eating shit regardless. I'm baffled by the author's snobbish comments about "costume changes" - I rode "plain clothes" on my road bike every goddamn day, just fine, thank you. Because I bought a bike that was sized appropriately for my body, I don't get "hit in the nuts" by the top-tube despite having somewhat short legs, and I'm able to easily mount and dismount.
The reason drop-tube bikes are often called "women's bikes" is because women are on average shorter, but yes, the US population also looks at them and thinks they're "girly." It is difficult to go below a certain horizontal top-tube height relative to the wheel size. Terry Bicycles famously made a lot of 650c road bikes for women (700c is the standard road bike wheel size)
"Steel" is not stronger than "aluminum"; there are numerous alloys and tubing thicknesses for both metals and both steel and aluminum bikes can range from "don't look at it wrong" to "will outlive you." Aluminum is generally more durable, especially anywhere it regularly rains. Steel frames can be protected with anti-rust treatments like Framesaver (which is likely just cosmolene or other standard automotive anti-rust spray) but that adds to the cost.
Anyway. Back to the point at hand.
The major problem with 'Dutch bikes' is that they are massively heavy (Also, coaster brakes. The author loves coaster bikes. Those are fine in country where the legal system, infrastructure, and other road users are all much more accommodating of you. All of which is a significant problem in the US.)
First off, if you live anywhere that isn't as flat as the Netherlands, that weight is going to mean going up hills is murderous, especially since most Dutch bikes are lacking in gearing. Seriously, the Netherlands is so flat, they used to transport a significant amount of goods on huge trikes with a single gear. Like, look at the size of these things: https://www.notechmagazine.com/2010/06/tandem-cargo-tricycle... (granted, some of them were bread bikes, and I know from a cargo-bike-delivery-rider friend that the bread run was always her absolute favorite. "It's so LIGHT!")
The next problem with being so heavy is that you can't easily bring the bike in at night unless you have a garage (unlikely in most metropolitan areas) or ground-floor apartment. Why do you need to bring bikes in? Because of systemic problems that lead to massive rates of theft.
US Police do not take bike theft seriously, despite the fact that just like with theft of a car, theft of one's bike could lead to one being unable to afford getting to work or school, just as in theft of a car. Many homeowners and renters insurance policies exclude bicycles, too. Laws around bike theft are generally a joke in most of the US, treated as basic property theft unlike motor vehicles where theft of a motor vehicle, or even the slightest vandalism, is a felony level offense.
Few US urban communities have sufficient public bike parking, especially of the secure sort; a lot of it is badly designed (there is an obsession with making it "pretty", for example), badly located, and badly installed. Many residential buildings have bike parking in them now, but reports of theft from them are extremely commonplace.
With the advent of municipal rental systems (aka bike "shares") many cities have altogether stopped deploying infrastructure for private bike ownership and even removed it in some places. In my neighborhood in Boston, the city silently removed a number of bike posts in the main 'square' where bike parking was in very high demand, right as they put in a new Hubway bike "share" station. I later found out that business owners complained that the bike share docking station was going to take up SO MUCH parking (about one and a half car spaces.) As a "peace offering", the city removed several on sidewalk parking posts on the side of a one-way street where vehicles were not even allowed to park.
We do not have the social safety nets that a country like the Netherlands does; bike theft is rampant in most metropolitan areas because it's a fast, low-risk way to make money, especially if you're homeless. There are a multitude of ways to steal almost any bike, but one particular way that is quite popular costs about $10-15, is almost completely silent, and will destroy even some fairly seriously built U-Locks.
Basically, you cannot leave a bike outside, even on your property, because eventually it will be stolen. And no, having a "crappy" bike "nobody would want to steal" works, because...guess what people want to buy when they move to a new city and are looking for a used bike online?
If you made it to the end, thanks for sticking around. Please support legislative protection for PEOPLE on bicycles, and actively support bicycling infrastructure, because there is a VERY loud minority that hyper-aggressively fights this stuff. It's incredibly cheap for its benefits and we will not save the planet putting everyone in an electric car, especially in urbanized areas.
PS: before you comment in reply, see https://cyclingfallacies.com/en/, especially if you are preparing to regale me with what you saw a person on a bicycle do the other day, something about "paying their fair share of the road tax", something about "earning the right to the road by following the rules", or any of the usual tripe.