Cyclists’ and drivers’ understanding of right-of-way rules for cyclists in Norway

Structured interviews with about 600 road users were carried out to investigate whether their beliefs ragarding right-of-way rules for cyclists were correct, and whether cyclists and drivers held different beliefs. The road users were shown a series of sketches of traffic situations involving a bicycle and a car, and were asked to tell whether the car or the cycle should yield. The results showed that a high proportion of the road users did not know that bicylists should yield when crossing an ordinary road from a bicycle path, or that drivers have to yield to bicycles from the right even when the cyclist enters the intersection from the pavement. Another potentially risky situation with low consensus appeared to be when a car turning right crosses a cyclist's path. For roundabouts the road users' beliefs were reasonably correct.