Someone please tell me some good news

[Shut Up Legs]

I could do with some good news, right now , because I'm feeling pretty depressed.

Since a Melbourne cyclist got hit by a carelessly opened car door on Monday, and the incident then got major media attention, there's been a daily onslaught of anti-cyclist comments in the media, including such gems as:

• "this particular cyclist, just like others, deliberately put herself in harm's way to get an insurance payout" - seriously, most people are a bit saner than that. How many people would deliberately risk their health or even their lives, just to manufacture an incident to get some money?
• "cyclists don't pay rego, and have no right to be on the roads" - my income taxes pay for the roads, so I feel just as entitled to use them as anyone else. Furthermore, everyone has a right to use our roads, including the young who don't yet pay taxes, or the older who have paid their contribution to society.
• "cyclists blatantly and frequently break road rules" - wrong again. A minority of cyclists do this, and this behaviour is definitely not restricted to cyclists, because pedestrians and motorists also exhibit the same behaviour. On every one of my bike commutes to and from work, I see motorists breaking just about every road rule we have, but for some reason, that barely rates a mention in our media. I also see cyclists and pedestrians breaking road rules daily, but what worries me is when motorists do it, because when a 1-tonne plus vehicle hits you, you're almost guaranteed a trip to the hospital or morgue.

Some of the behaviour I see from motorists that puts people in danger is:

• upon seeing a traffic light change from green to amber, they accelerate, instead of attempting to stop if it's safe to stop in time, as the road laws prescribe.
• when a traffic light changes to red, many motorists continue through an intersection for several seconds, sometimes to the point of forcing traffic on the crossing road to wait even though they face a green light.
• close overtakes, and overtaking even when it's clearly not yet safe to do so. I had this as a pedestrian yesterday: I was walking along a section of local road with no footpaths, so was just walking on the road next to the curb. A motorist approached from behind me, and another motorist was approaching from the other direction. So did the 1st motorist wait until it was safe to overtake me? Hell, no! He just overtook anyway, with stuff-all clearance, because he couldn't be bothered waiting the extra second or two.
• refusing to change lanes when overtaking. I get this a lot in my pre-dawn rides to work. I ride along a highway with 3 lanes in either direction, so I ride along the middle of the left lane to increase my visibility, and of course I have ample front and rear lighting. Despite this, many motorists insist on overtaking me with very little clearance, and without fully leaving the left lane, even though there's next to no traffic at this time on this road (between 5 and 5:30am). I don't know if it's stupidity or malice, but the end result is the same: one misjudgement by either of us, and the result would be messy.

While all this negative media attention occurs, our state and federal governments are planning to build more and bigger roads, completely missing the point that this will just encourage more traffic congestion in the long run, and the billions of dollars would be better spent on public transport, which has a much larger carrying capacity per vehicle, and generates less pollution. A bit like adding adding notches to your belt to accommodate an expanding waistline, really.

Right now, I'm wishing I could afford to move to the UK or Europe, and stay there, because I no longer feel welcome in my own country, and the prejudice and hypocrisy here stinks really badly .

So please tell me some good news, because I can only take so much bad news, and it's mentally wearing me out.

 

[Keith Oates]

It is of no comfort or help to you, Victor, but all of the (valid) points that you have raised also apply to the UK unfortunately. I'm sure there are also many good reasons to live in Melbourne so concentrate on those and it may brighten you up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[classic33]

You could always try the latest in Australian Hi-Viz! If they fail to see you in this you're in trouble!

Note rear safeguard feature.​

 

[Justiffa]

Sorry i dont hv anything to cheer u up with but just hang in there and take comfort from the 'fellowship of cyclists' from all across the globe

 

[classic33]

 

[classic33]

Any news on this, Set to become law in Queensland on the 7th April.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

Any news on this, Set to become law in Queensland on the 7th April.
View attachment 40648

Yes, there's a bit, here's 2 links posted on the BNA forums:
https://www.qld.gov.au/transport/news/features/bicycle-rules/index.html
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2014/03/20/17/51/drivers-fined-for-getting-too-close-to-cyclists

 

[Poacher]

Strewth,@victor, the majority of the comments on that second link would depress Pollyanna! Some are even worse than the highlighted ones in your OP.
You have my sympathy - I thought the UK was bad! Really sorry, but I can't offer anything to cheer you up, short of the possibility of emigrating to a civilised country: it looks like the only cure for Australia will be the oil running out.

 

[stowie]

Australia puzzles me. The rabid anti-cycling sentiment seems extra-ordinary - even the Daily Mail in the UK wouldn't publish the insane crap that seemed to be an editorial in the Australian :

The problem of city cyclists reached their apogee in Melbourne this week when a cyclist was “doored” on busy Collins Street, after a passenger opened a taxi door and a rider crashed into it. Neither the taxi nor its passenger could be deemed at fault because a narrow “bike lane” inhibited the taxi from stopping next to the kerb. The passenger was lucky to avoid serious injury.

When the sentiment is that someone opening a car door cannot be deemed at fault if they don't look then I think you are truly fighting an uphill battle (especially when the passenger exited the cab in stationary traffic).

Australia does seem decades away from Northern Europe and absolutely car obsessed. Surprises me in a country which seems, on the face of it, to view sports and general outdoor activity favorably. I remember seeing a video taken by a reporter of a mother cycling with a child in the trailer and the reporter screaming at her that about her putting the child's safety at risk. Absolutely disgusting behaviour but the report was all about whether the mother should be cycling, not whether the conditions should be made better, or whether some moron of a reporter should really be screaming at vulnerable female road-users whilst filming them from a moving car.

Then again, I have seen some videos of cycling conditions in New Zealand which makes Australia look positively cycle friendly...

 

[simon the viking]

Strewth,@victor, the majority of the comments on that second link would depress Pollyanna!

I don't know about the O.P but your comment above made me smile..... I'd forgotten that film Hayley Mills running around with what would now be diagnosed as some form hyperactivity, I will remember that comment and steal it should a situation ever arise where I may need it....

 

[Shut Up Legs]

Australia puzzles me. The rabid anti-cycling sentiment seems extra-ordinary - even the Daily Mail in the UK wouldn't publish the insane crap that seemed to be an editorial in the Australian :

The problem of city cyclists reached their apogee in Melbourne this week when a cyclist was “doored” on busy Collins Street, after a passenger opened a taxi door and a rider crashed into it. Neither the taxi nor its passenger could be deemed at fault because a narrow “bike lane” inhibited the taxi from stopping next to the kerb. The passenger was lucky to avoid serious injury.

When the sentiment is that someone opening a car door cannot be deemed at fault if they don't look then I think you are truly fighting an uphill battle (especially when the passenger exited the cab in stationary traffic).

Australia does seem decades away from Northern Europe and absolutely car obsessed. Surprises me in a country which seems, on the face of it, to view sports and general outdoor activity favorably. I remember seeing a video taken by a reporter of a mother cycling with a child in the trailer and the reporter screaming at her that about her putting the child's safety at risk. Absolutely disgusting behaviour but the report was all about whether the mother should be cycling, not whether the conditions should be made better, or whether some moron of a reporter should really be screaming at vulnerable female road-users whilst filming them from a moving car.

Then again, I have seen some videos of cycling conditions in New Zealand which makes Australia look positively cycle friendly...

Unfortunately, this "sporting" nation has an increasingly high percentage of overweight people, and no doubt this obsession with cars has a lot to do with it. Most of the time, I can shrug off the attitude of those with a prejudice against cyclists, but the last week or so it's been getting me down, particularly given the hostile and unsympathetic responses to a cyclist getting a door smacked onto her sternum.

Thanks for the supportive responses, people: I really appreciate it!

 

[classic33]

Strewth,@victor, the majority of the comments on that second link would depress Pollyanna! Some are even worse than the highlighted ones in your OP.
You have my sympathy - I thought the UK was bad! Really sorry, but I can't offer anything to cheer you up, short of the possibility of emigrating to a civilised country: it looks like the only cure for Australia will be the oil running out.

Check the Australian Cyclist Party site.

 

[classic33]

How's it going so far @victor

​

 

[sidevalve]

It's VERY cold _ it's trying to rain [again] - whichever way I go I seem to facing a freezing cold head wind. What's the weather like over there ? Just get out and ride life is too short to worry about other peoples biased opinions.

 

[Ern1e]

Hi @victor I have just stumbled across this so my question to you now is are you still depressed ? and as to moving here jeez mate half of us here would willingly exchange places with you !!! things are none to different here ,on the putting themselves in harms way we did have an ethnic minority person who studied the traffic light sequences in one town then drove around stopping just in time so as not to jump a red light but causing the person behind to rear end him !! instant whip lash claim,unfortunatly for him he got hit by drivers who used the same insurance company 4 times in the same week (oh dear) needless to say he is no longer doing that one !!! So my friend stay where you are would be my advice to you and keep going out on your bike and always remember "DON'T LET THE B******S GRIND YOU DOWN "