Holy s**t

Euan said:

A balanced article from ACA.

I think I'm going to go in to shock....

no better way to present it than getting the reporter on the back of a
bike ..

Euan said:

A balanced article from ACA.

I think I'm going to go in to shock....
--
Cheers | ~~ __@
Euan | ~~ _-\<,
Melbourne, Australia | ~ (*)/ (*)

Except for Jenny Ward.... 😄

"spook" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
| Euan wrote:
| > A balanced article from ACA.
| >
| > I think I'm going to go in to shock....
|
| no better way to present it than getting the reporter on the back of a
| bike ..

Not sure that his final comment along the lines of "you've got to be crazy
to do this" helped...

Book said:

"spook" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
| Euan wrote:
| > A balanced article from ACA.
| >
| > I think I'm going to go in to shock....
|
| no better way to present it than getting the reporter on the back of a
| bike ..

Not sure that his final comment along the lines of "you've got to be crazy
to do this" helped...

damn, did anybody zap it to a hard drive or other portable media ??

MikeyOz said:

damn, did anybody zap it to a hard drive or other portable media ??

Er, how's VHS? Pretty portable..

cfsmtb said:

Er, how's VHS? Pretty portable..

nah thats ok, just thought on the off chance, I will keep track of the ninemsn site, see if they throw it up there sometime in the near future.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

>> "MikeyOz" == MikeyOz <[email hidden]> writes:

MikeyOz Book said:

Quoted message said:

"spook" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
| Euan wrote:
| > A balanced article from ACA.
| >
| > I think I'm going to go in to shock....
|
| no better way to present it than getting the reporter on the
back of a | bike ..

Not sure that his final comment along the lines of "you've got to
be crazy to do this" helped...

MikeyOz> damn, did anybody zap it to a hard drive or other portable
MikeyOz> media ??

Videod it, total klutz when it comes to putting vid online though.
Hints welcome or I can bring it to PubBug if someone there's got the means.
--
Cheers | ~~ __@
Euan | ~~ _-\<,
Melbourne, Australia | ~ (*)/ (*)

Book said:

"spook" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
| Euan wrote:
| > A balanced article from ACA.
| >
| > I think I'm going to go in to shock....
|
| no better way to present it than getting the reporter on the back of a
| bike ..

Not sure that his final comment along the lines of "you've got to be crazy
to do this" helped...

Exactly. That pretty much says, cyclists are crazy idiots and it's in
everyone's interest that cycling shouldn't happen.

I expect he probably chose a narrow busy road to ride on too.

Why didn't they show footage of drivers running red lights and doing
other stupid things (which I see every single day in Melbourne).

Whatever that story was, I think it was far from balanced.

The problem with this whole road sharing situation is that common
courtesy is no longer common.

My 2c.

--
Nick

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

>> "NoZX6R" == NoZX6R <[email hidden]> writes:

NoZX6R> Why didn't they show footage of drivers running red lights
NoZX6R> and doing other stupid things (which I see every single day
NoZX6R> in Melbourne).

You mean like the several shots of lorries overtaking over double white
lines on blind bends? At least one shot of a person opening a door
right in to the path of a cyclist? Plenty other examples of driver
misconduct in the piece as well.

It showed motorists acting like idiots and cyclists acting like idiots.
That's fair, that's balanced.
--
Cheers | ~~ __@
Euan | ~~ _-\<,
Melbourne, Australia | ~ (*)/ (*)

quote='NoZX6R'Book said:

"spook" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
| Euan wrote:
| > A balanced article from ACA.
| >
| > I think I'm going to go in to shock....
|
| no better way to present it than getting the reporter on the back of a
| bike ..

Not sure that his final comment along the lines of "you've got to be crazy
to do this" helped...

Exactly. That pretty much says, cyclists are crazy idiots and it's in
everyone's interest that cycling shouldn't happen.

I expect he probably chose a narrow busy road to ride on too.

Why didn't they show footage of drivers running red lights and doing
other stupid things (which I see every single day in Melbourne).

Whatever that story was, I think it was far from balanced.

The problem with this whole road sharing situation is that common
courtesy is no longer common.

My 2c.

--
Nick[/QUOTE]hmmmm common courtesy.....

I did an experiment the other night...bloody dangerous as it turned out....but hear me out...

I often do a recovery ride to Port Melbourne from Black Rock starting out around 5-30pm , straight into PMelb along Beach Road and St Kilda Esplanade.....that usually is uneventfull as its against peak hour massed traffic until I do the turn around under WestGate & Bolte Bridges, back up Pickles St to the Beach Esplanade to mix it with the Peakies. Now normally I am one to claim a lane, for visibliity and security, I find rarely am I harrassed by any vehicles large or small, they either wait along behind or pass around in the next lane... OK so far so good.....

this time as soon as I got to the St Kilda Yacht club intersection of Fitzroy St, the Road narrows, the left lane merges quickly after the lights two into one and it's mix it time....so this time my riding buddy and I decided to see just how harrassing and opportunistic the outbound drivers could be, so we purposefully kept as far to the left and vitually in the gutter as was possible....immediately we had created this wider gap it was filled by a constant stream of fast moving, non slowing, peakies rushing wherever, but rushing, hell bent to get past us, and as close as possible.... getting past Cafe Racer the left lane is a parking lane so we had some respite until we got past the Glennhuntley Rd Lights just near the Old Cogs cafe site......now it got interesting, merging into two defined lanes again, we decided to try it again and see if the reponse was the same...sure enough, whoosh, any gap we left was filled and they kept coming....now no driver ever said "thanks", none slowed, none steered over away from us and when the traffic stopped none steered to the right to let us pass on the inside.... one had the temerity to blast on his horn...it wasn't a thank you toot, (I know what that sounds like)...this was a "bloody cyclist's get OFF the road altogether Blast.....so this continued until we got to the second set of lights on New Street, on the Golden Mile, a pre-ordained point at which we decided we would ride two abreast and take the lane ...and see what happened.....

Guess what...it was as if we had stepped onto an empty road and there was no traffic....they waited, patiently, slowed when passing, no-one blasted, those behind did'nt wheel suck to hurry us and traffic turning left actually waited behind us to make the turn AFTER we passed the turn, not try to cut us off... so we rode like this back to Black Rock with the same continued result...proving what we already knew, but had to try out again just to reinforce things and pass this on to those who may think they have to ride in the gutter.....DON'T....

CLAIM YOUR LANE...MAKE YOURSELF VISIBLE.....GUTTERS ARE DANGEROUS
DRIVERS WILL PUSH PAST YOU IF YOU LEAVE ROOM, AND, CLOSER THAN YOU WOULD WANT OR EXPECT, SOME WON'T SLOW...

THE MOST DANGEROUS RIDING IS:-

RIDING SINGLE FILE IN A OR NEAR A GUTTER....

* here endeth the lesson*

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

>> "rooman" == rooman <[email hidden]> writes:

rooman> CLAIM YOUR LANE...MAKE YOURSELF VISIBLE.....GUTTERS ARE
rooman> DANGEROUS DRIVERS WILL PUSH PAST YOU IF YOU LEAVE ROOM, AND,
rooman> CLOSER THAN YOU WOULD WANT OR EXPECT, SOME WON'T SLOW...

rooman> THE MOST DANGEROUS RIDING IS:-

rooman> RIDING SINGLE FILE IN A OR NEAR A GUTTER....

Correctomundo!

Today I was arguing this very point with a very opinionated non-cycling
colleague. His contention is that claiming the lane frustrates
motorists and encourages motorists to take more risks.

This despite the fact that everyone else in the room (six of us) are
either current or ex-cyclists all of whom told him he was WRONG!

What makes it even more irritating is he's a motorcyclist. Now I'm not
bagging motorcyclists but it is a fact that motorcyclists are the most
over represented KSI statistic on the roads. And he has the cheek to
say cycling's dangerous!

Pfffft. No telling some people.
--
Cheers | ~~ __@
Euan | ~~ _-\<,
Melbourne, Australia | ~ (*)/ (*)

rooman said:

hmmmm common courtesy.....

CLAIM YOUR LANE...MAKE YOURSELF VISIBLE.....GUTTERS ARE DANGEROUS
DRIVERS WILL PUSH PAST YOU IF YOU LEAVE ROOM, AND, CLOSER THAN YOU WOULD WANT OR EXPECT, SOME WON'T SLOW...

THE MOST DANGEROUS RIDING IS:-

RIDING SINGLE FILE IN A OR NEAR A GUTTER....

* here endeth the lesson*

Well said
Amen!!!!!

Totally agree about claiming your lane when riding. Another benefit is that when some stupid cager decides she/he wants to be where you are and just moves accross, there is still a bit of road left to either brake and slip behind ther offending git. The other option which I used yesterday whilst riding home along Cleveland street, is to pound on the side window and make your presence known.

I am not exactly inconspicuous, Flouro lime jacket, orange fade tandem riding in the middle of the lane.

The No.1 cause of death is heart disease. Obesity and the accompaning ailments are already causing massive blowouts in health budgets. Will the government do anything to change drivers attitudes and encourage people onto bikes.
Nahhhhhh, not in Sydney.

Cheers

Geoff

"cfsmtb" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Euan said:

A balanced article from ACA.

I think I'm going to go in to shock....
--
Cheers | ~~ __@
Euan | ~~ _-\<,
Melbourne, Australia | ~ (*)/ (*)

Except for Jenny Ward.... 😄

For the love of.... That is probably the only time I have seriously wanted
to punch a woman!

Cheers
Peter

geoffs said:

I am not exactly inconspicuous, Flouro lime jacket, orange fade tandem
riding in the middle of the lane.

I hope you don't ride *right* in the middle of the lane, that's where
all the oil is. Ride in the wheel tracks. (This was drilled into me
when I 'learnt' to ride a motorbike)

--
BrettS

Euan said:

Correctomundo!

"me too"

Quoted message said:

Today I was arguing this very point with a very opinionated non-cycling
colleague. His contention is that claiming the lane frustrates
motorists and encourages motorists to take more risks.

This despite the fact that everyone else in the room (six of us) are
either current or ex-cyclists all of whom told him he was WRONG!

What makes it even more irritating is he's a motorcyclist. Now I'm not
bagging motorcyclists but it is a fact that motorcyclists are the most
over represented KSI statistic on the roads. And he has the cheek to
say cycling's dangerous!

My only non-human powered vehicle is a Honda VFR800 (I don't own a car,
haven't owned one for .. oh .. at least 5 years ...). Motorcycling and
pushbiking are poles apart, and in general, motorcyclists worst enemies
are themselves, in terms of safety. There's a *lot* of reckless,
careless and foolish motorcyclists. Most of them don't live all that
long though, and those of us that have survived the first few years
usually have the defensive riding smarts required to stay alive 🙂

The advantage that motorbikes have is that they
travel at or above the speed of the surrounding traffic, and the only
time
that lane placement is at issue (in my experience) is when one is
trying to
avoid speeding fines, and traveling in the left wheel track. We were
taught, just like pushbikes as rooman says, to occupy the lane such
that an overtaking manoever is a formal task of lane changing. On a
motorbike,
you do that in the right hand track on a two lane road. you tend, on a
motorbike, to be the one doing the overtaking though .. so it's not so
common to get squeezed by drivers (but, it *does* occasionally happen)

Quoted message said:

Pfffft. No telling some people.

Just because they're on two wheels doesn't mean that the strategies
used for survival are identical, or the mindset.

Euan said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

>>>"NoZX6R" == NoZX6R <[email hidden]> writes:

NoZX6R> Why didn't they show footage of drivers running red lights
NoZX6R> and doing other stupid things (which I see every single day
NoZX6R> in Melbourne).

You mean like the several shots of lorries overtaking over double white
lines on blind bends? At least one shot of a person opening a door
right in to the path of a cyclist? Plenty other examples of driver
misconduct in the piece as well.

It showed motorists acting like idiots and cyclists acting like idiots.
That's fair, that's balanced.

I didn't think that footage gave an accurate impression. I knew it was
dangerous but I didn't think it would be obvious to a non-cyclist. eg.
the white Falcon that overtook over double lines - it didn't 'look'
close to the riders, even though we (cyclists) knew it was.

I would've liked to have seen some snaps of, say, cars going through red
lights, or pedestrians walking out into the road (which has happened to
me in the past, costing me a broken rib).

Also, the guy who almost got mowed down by a bunch at a ped crossing -
he stepped out before the lights had even changed so if he had been hit
it would have been at least partially his fault.

I'm not saying the report was overtly anti cycling, but it didn't paint
cycling as a viable alternatiuve transport. It portrayed it as a
dangerous fringe activity - IMHO.

--
Nick

rooman said:

hmmmm common courtesy.....

I did an experiment the other night...bloody dangerous as it turned out....but hear me out...

<Snips out ROOMAN's best-ever-post>

THE MOST DANGEROUS RIDING IS:-

RIDING SINGLE FILE IN A OR NEAR A GUTTER....

* here endeth the lesson*

good one.

GOATing?

F"Friday on my mind"Dutch

Euan said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

>>> "rooman" == rooman <[email hidden]> writes:

rooman> CLAIM YOUR LANE...MAKE YOURSELF VISIBLE.....GUTTERS ARE
rooman> DANGEROUS DRIVERS WILL PUSH PAST YOU IF YOU LEAVE ROOM, AND,
rooman> CLOSER THAN YOU WOULD WANT OR EXPECT, SOME WON'T SLOW...

rooman> THE MOST DANGEROUS RIDING IS:-

rooman> RIDING SINGLE FILE IN A OR NEAR A GUTTER....

Correctomundo!

Today I was arguing this very point with a very opinionated non-cycling
colleague. His contention is that claiming the lane frustrates
motorists and encourages motorists to take more risks.

This despite the fact that everyone else in the room (six of us) are
either current or ex-cyclists all of whom told him he was WRONG!

What makes it even more irritating is he's a motorcyclist. Now I'm not
bagging motorcyclists but it is a fact that motorcyclists are the most
over represented KSI statistic on the roads. And he has the cheek to
say cycling's dangerous!

Pfffft. No telling some people.
--
Cheers | ~~ __@
Euan | ~~ _-\<,
Melbourne, Australia | ~ (*)/ (*)

Euan calls himself a "commuter type" but he's way too smart for that,
he's a commuter. He's alive after how many years of commuting?

Tam