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Cyclists vs motorists
An interesting article on the issues between cyclists and motorists in New Zealand
A cyclist filmed delaying a driver on a west Auckland road is so alarmed at the reaction that he’s issued a plea for Kiwis to come to their senses and end the cultural war....
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/31-10-2018/motorists-v-cyclists-why-the...
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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Re-deployed on Twitter duty?
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18 comments
Even if that had been a group with 2 riders, on that short stretch of road she filmed, there would not have been a "safe" place to pass... at no point in the clip (filmed handheld on a mobile, and I HOPE by someone other than the driver) was there a clear space to pass anyway, so they didn't cause any holdup over having cycled in a single file on the left edge... If anything they simply did as all safety groups advised and ensured that anyone passing HAS to allow a safe distance, by not allowing them to squeeze in the same lane.
I have written a formal complaint to the press (NZ media) council about the article. The driver is complaining about perfectly legal actions of a group of citizens, with inflammatory remarks. The article isn't an 'opinion' piece and so is supposed to have balance and an attempt to get the point of view of the 'other side. '
"They think they own the road".... well they do, just as much as any other citizen of New Zealand.
The lady was held up for less than a kilometre... That means about 20 seconds behind where she might have otherwise been.
I think part of the problem in NZ is (and this is not an attempt to justify dangerous driving) that speeding is rigorously enforced with zero tolerance. 1km/h over and it's a $30 fine and 10 demerit points (you need 100 over a 2 year period to get a ban)
So what are you trying to justify? Rigorous enforcement sounds like heaven to someone trying to use UK roads, whether walking, cycling or driving.
Speed in itself is not dangerous, it is excessive speed for the circumstances that is the problem.
The other thing with strict limits is it encourages people to spend too much time looking at the speedo and not on the surrounds.
That is not nearly true. I live in New Zealand. On some public holidays there is zero tolerance cameras, but that is the rarity. You don't get points on your license from speed camera fines. As a general rule you don't get fined unless you're more than 10 kph over the limit. I lived in the UK for 12 years. I think the enforcement is pretty similar in both countries.
I'm not really sure how the enforcement of the speed limit can be 'part of the problem' in this case?
True petrolheads race on the circuit, not on the roads, and would be at pains to disassociate themselves from your average mouth-breathing anti-cycling "rush"-hour driver just as much as most of the road.cc membership disassociate themselves from the stars of "random person on a bike commits a crime" stories reported here and in other sections of the press.
You can't take the tribal out of humanity - it's baked in. "Homo sapiens gonna homo sapien", as people younger than me would say. All you can do is ensure that one tribe doesn't hold an unfair balance of power over another. Unfortunately, the "I have to drive everywhere, cyclists are sub-human" tribe is rather powerful - we have our politicians and courts to thank for this state of affairs.
He does at least touch on the inequality of the equation: 30 secs of delay (if that) vs intimidating, maiming or killing behaviour.
But the reference to 'arrogance' - can we rebalance this, please.
Dear drivers,
taking up the space of 4 bikes while you sit on your fat arse and belch life-shortening shit into the air is more arrogant than any behaviour you will encounter from someone on a bike, and that includes teenage lads who can't see past their dangly bits, wheelieing down the middle of a stretch of road.
Cyclists don't 'think they own the road;. They're on bikes - they are acutely aware of the dangers that the road holds for them. It's lazy, polluting arseholes who drive when they could cycle or walk who exhibit 'own the road' behaviour. Much of what you perceive as 'arrogance' (taking primary, say) is borne out of self-preservation or slightly different (or - shit - occasionally better) behaviour on the road than you.
If you see a man dressed as Larry Blackmon and are intimidated by his muscular thighs and buttocks waving around on a bike, and see such behaviour as arrogant, I'm sure that says more about you than
mehim, and his 'arrogance'.It also fails to show that most adult cyclists are drivers as well.
It does, but presumably the tribalism from the drivers' side is not from the section that overlaps, but from the section that generally thinks cyclists are weird and should get off the road. That tribe is a tribe of arses.
For various reasons, I've hardly been on the bike this year. I've driven more and walked loads.I can't bring myself to join the 'motorist' tribe, because, as petrolheady as I can occasionally get, I think the advantages are already stacked in motorists' favour, and I think it is the most destructive mode of transport. It NEEDS to be actively discouraged.
On the other hand, I don't need much of an excuse to get ranty about being a ped/cyclist.
I drive, and I cycle.
When driving I've been "harassed" by other drivers, and cyclists.
When cycling I've been "harassed" by drivers, runners, and other cyclists.
When walking, I've been "harassed" byrunners, and cyclists, even when pushing a baby buggy (with baby inside)
Frankly, I'm fed up of all of them - so at least I have a balanced view, I suppose
The worst close pass of my ride yesterday was an MPV with three bikes on the back on a really rather lovely Thule hitch mount. Blind bend on a crest on crap road surface leading into a 1/4 mile straight. Bloody half term tourists I'd imagine (two kids bikes on the back) - if you knew the road why would you bother overtaking there?
Remember: it's always cyclists that are "taking up all the road" and never ever the single person driving around in a car built for 4 or 5...
Chatting with someone I know last night, they were saying that one of their neighbours drives from their house to work, every day, in all weathers.
Their commute is, according to Google Maps, about 0.4 miles - less than half a mile - to an infant/junior school (some sort of teaching assistant, apparently).
How do you possibly overcome that sort of mentality?
Latest outrage...kids in our street were being ferried door to door in cars last night...to go trick or treating!
A suggestion for next year's costumes:
Lad-Cones.jpg
I was riding through a housing estate last night, bit of a rat run of course, pavements crowded with children trick or treating, the speed and impatience of some of the motorists was quite shocking. Those haloween costumes very rarely feature Hi Viz and sweeted up children can be quite exciteable.
By removing it as an option.
A quick Google of Government road use statistics suggests that most car journeys are under 5 miles, and 6% of ALL car journeys are under 1 mile. There will be some who have no other viable option, but when you consider that cycling share is flat, and that the stats said walking share had decreased by 9%, that's still a lot of people who aren't going to be reasoned into doing The Right Thing and need to be pushed into it somehow.
Perhaps making shorter journeys prohibitively or disproportionately expensive, or restricting parking facilities; if the future vision of us all using driverless pool cars comes about, the lazy bastards can subsidise the use of the cars for more worthy journeys.