Mt Eliza accident this morning

[Theo Bekkers]

SomeGuy wrote:
> OK so I'm going to bite...

> Theo Bekkers Wrote:

>> If these three people had been in cars, would they have been called
>> irresponsible idiots.

> Right, so a cyclist hits debris in the bike lane because (as I'm sure
> we've all noticed) no-one seems to bother ever sweeping them, and yet
> it's the cyclist being the irresponsible idiot? If Simon had been
> riding anywhere else or with anyone else, I doubt he would have
> attracted this kind of attention. But no, he's in the 'notorious' (if
> you believe The Age) hell ride, so it must be his fault.

1) Don't ride in the gutter.
2) As Euan pointed out, don't ride up someone's ****. If three people run
into each other when they're going in the same direction, at least two are
to blame.

Theo

 

[TimC]

On 2007-08-07, Zebee Johnstone (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
> "Wheelsucking" is not tailgating, and should anyone get in trouble
> that way it is a dreadful accident and no one's fault, but should
> someone clip and then get hit by a motorised vehicle then it's
> entirely the vehicle driver's fault. On the other hand, car drivers
> getting close to another vehicle, especially a bicycle, is a sign of
> utter incompetence or else murderous intent.

Well, actually, Zebee...

There are plenty of good reasons to wheelsuck, _if you are competant_,
and very little risk. Even in the rare cases where there are
collisions, they don't tend to result in much hurt, let alone
hospitalisation or death happening.

However, there are extremely few benefits that a car can gain by
tailgating another car, for a much higher risk, and this is even more
extreme for a car "wheelsucking" a bike.

So what's your point, in other words?

--
TimC
"A distributed system is one in which I cannot get something done
because a machine I've never heard of is down." -- Leslie Lamport

 

[MikeyOz]

1) Don't ride in the gutter.

No. ride right out in the middle of the lane so as to competely block an entire lane of traffic, car drivers love that, where I ride, there is more than enough room for a cyclist to ride to the left of the lane safely and still leave enough room for most "average" motorised vehicles to get past safely in the same lane. I would adjust that depending on the traffic flow and width of lanes appropriately.

2) As Euan pointed out, don't ride up someone's ****. If three people run
into each other when they're going in the same direction, at least two are
to blame.

Don't ride up someone's **** if you are not prepared to take the consequences of your actions, either getting hurt or someone else getting hurt and possibly facing retribution for hurting someone else. And if you are riding and know someone is behind and you don't want them there, tell them to back off.

 

[Theo Bekkers]

MikeyOz wrote:
> Theo Bekkers Wrote:

>> 2) As Euan pointed out, don't ride up someone's ****. If three people
>> run into each other when they're going in the same direction, at least
>> two are to blame.

> Don't ride up someone's **** if you are not prepared to take the
> consequences of your actions, either getting hurt or someone else
> getting hurt and possibly facing retribution for hurting someone else.
> And if you are riding and know someone is behind and you don't want
> them there, tell them to back off.

I think we're on the same page.

Theo

 

[Window Licker]

"Theo Bekkers" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> MikeyOz wrote:
>> cfsmtb Wrote:
>>> Well that makes five cycling-themed articles in todays Age.
>>> Unfortunately including this one:
>>>
>>> http://tinyurl.com/yw9hpz
>>
>> yep thats the one I was referring to, at least they are all ok.
>
> If these three people had been in cars, would they have been called
> irresponsible idiots.
>
> Theo
> Having no sympathy for any of them.
>


Dang.

 

[Jono L]

SomeGuy wrote:
> OK so I'm going to bite...

> Theo Bekkers Wrote:

>> If these three people had been in cars, would they have been called
>> irresponsible idiots.

> Right, so a cyclist hits debris in the bike lane because (as I'm sure
> we've all noticed) no-one seems to bother ever sweeping them, and yet
> it's the cyclist being the irresponsible idiot? If Simon had been
> riding anywhere else or with anyone else, I doubt he would have
> attracted this kind of attention. But no, he's in the 'notorious' (if
> you believe The Age) hell ride, so it must be his fault.

1) Don't ride in the gutter.
2) As Euan pointed out, don't ride up someone's ****. If three people run
into each other when they're going in the same direction, at least two are
to blame.

Theo

Dude, you've got to get a life and stop berating some guy whose mate had stack,

 

[SomeGuy]

If I go in to the back of someone then it's a pretty fair bet that it'll be my fault, no one elses.

Except that Simon, who was the first to go down, was the most badly hurt. You could say that he accepted the risks by riding in a bunch but that fact is that it wasn't being in a bunch which caused the accident. Sure his injuries were made worst by the riders behind him running him over, but he would have hit the road just as hard without them.