ABSTRACT
In 1961, H.M.J. van de Wall was driving his car across Hoogovens site. As safety editor of company magazine Together (Samen), he regularly reflected on work-floor and traffic safety. Approaching an on-site intersection with a maximum speed limit of 30 km/hour, he slowed down for a cyclist who had to give him right of way. The cyclist did not stop, causing a situation that the editor said illustrated the appalling lack of cycling workers’ traffic knowledge. He honked his horn, and as the cyclist just skimmed past his bumper, shouted: “Were you sleeping, brother?” The man got off his bicycle and stepped closer. Fear struck Van de Wall. He would not have been surprised if the cyclist had grabbed a hammer from his back pocket. The cyclist, however, calmy replied, “I am wide awake. Why?” Van de Wall explained the situation. But instead of thanking him for this insight, “asking what I thought of a cigar or whether I rather preferred shag tobacco,” the cyclist wrongly claimed that, coming from the right, he (always) had right-of -way. 1
