WHILST realizing some cyclists are absolute morons (hi, cycle couriers!) I was gobsmacked at the outpouring of hatred on talkback and in online forums last week after the large number of cycling fatalities and serious crashes.
Five cyclists were killed in about as many days. Jane Bishop, an English nurse who went under a truck on Auckland’s Tamaki Drive while taking evasive action from a suddenly-opened car door, drew this from one commenter on a national news website:
“Simple, get them off the roads! It’s obvious, if you take on trucks and cars dressed in lycra wearing a plastic hat you are going to get hurt.”
Another said: “Cyclists need to learn to obey the road rules, remember that the road does not belong to them…”
Talkback radio was worse.
I wonder how the sentiment would have been had it been say, Dan Carter who was killed on Tamaki Drive? Would have half the country been wringing its collective hands, and the other half wanting the driver to be strung up?
As a recreational cyclist, I regularly get the heat from drivers who are either not paying attention or believe because I’m on a bike, they don’t have to give way. And that’s just the start. I’ve been hit with bags of empty KFC (while on a cycle lane), had bottles thrown out of a car that just passed me, shattering everywhere and eventually giving me a nice long walk home. Those are the morons.
The real problem lies with the law-abiding citizens. How many readers check their wing mirrors before opening their car doors? How many realize that a large car or truck travelling at 100km/h close to a cyclist creates a slipstream, which can be exacerbated by the road conditions – like a patch of loose gravel?
I’ve been keen for a long time to ride to our beach house, about 50km away on a busy road with no cycle lanes. Driving the road and watching the performance of others using it when it comes to passing cyclists makes me think I’d be better staying at home and just hitting myself on the legs with a sledgehammer.
I may be getting old and soft, but I tend to take my rides first thing in the morning now – when there’s bugger-all traffic (as a result you also have the luxury of riding out slightly and avoiding all the broken glass on the side of the road).
I will acknowledge there are some dorks out there who think it’s OK for them to ride three abreast around Oriental Bay. It may be legal to ride two abreast, but just like drivers, cyclists surely must take responsibility for adjusting their behaviour to their surroundings.
The biggest issue comes in the basic physics. Car + bike = no contest. So while cyclists have to be constantly aware of their surroundings, there does need to be more work at initial driver education about the effects of driving on cyclists, because most people just don’t understand things like the effect a car passing too closely can have.
I applaud those who take their lives in their hands every day in Wellington to bike to work. I think we all need to show a little respect for each other on the road.
Before you driving readers scoff too much, try riding to work yourself one day. Even better, try riding around the bays, or to Brooklyn or Karori. You will not only get an appreciation for your lungs, but you’ll see that it’s not as easy as blaming everything on the cyclists.