Bigger cars including electric can cause multiple harms, yet resistance to rise of US-style vehicles has had mixed support
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n a brisk winter’s evening in Europe’s automotive heartland, a cyclist who had pushed for safer streets went out on his bike for a final time. Andreas Mandalka had documented dangerous driving and shoddy cycling infrastructure for years, measuring the margins at which cars zipped past him and posting videos of blatant violations. While quick to remind readers that only a small proportion of drivers behaved badly, the 44-year-old blogger in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, had grown frustrated with authorities for failing to act. He felt they viewed him as a nuisance.
As he cycled down a straight stretch of renovated road that runs parallel to a forest path he had flagged for poor quality, lights bright on his bike and helmet firm on his head, he was fatally struck from behind by a car.
“I went to bed that evening, took a quick look at my phone and saw a police report of an accident in our area,” said Siegfried Schüle, a friend of Mandalka’s from a cycling organisation in Pforzheim. “I immediately had a very strange feeling. I reposted this tweet from the police, with typos and everything, and just wrote: ‘Andreas, how are you?’ That was my last message to him.”
