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Quoted message said:DalienX said:Quoted message said:On my way to work I constantly see cyclists darting across pedestrian
crossings at 20 - 40km/h. If a motorbike or car crossed at a
pedestrian crossing at the same speed and there was an accident, it
is pretty self explanatory who would be at fault, so why do most
cyclists think it's safe to do it?
I do not understand how those who ride "vehicles" that are the most
fragile on the road, typically have the least respect for road safety.
sigh... with the threat of getting flamed by replying to cross posting from
or to aus.cars yet again I cannot help myself. Since these look like quite
sensible posts as opposed to what usually develops (like the "maybe you
should have shot him" type comment.
I am a cyclist (and a driver for that matter). I have to say I dont see
MOST cyclists breaking the rules but the ones that do stand out obviously as
they infuriate us. If you were to follow our newsgroup you would actually
see that a lot of us are frustrated by cyclists that break the road rules.
They give us a bad name, they increase peoples rage against us. Typically
its the person that is not breaking the rules that may face the wrath of a
motorist that is fed up with cyclists breaking the rules. The honest ones
cop the wrap for everyone.
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:
imo i dont think cyclists should be on the road at all, they dont pay
rego, they dont pay insurance, they disobey all road laws whenever it
is conveniant, but expect us to give way to them at all times, they
hold up traffic, usualy have no lights, always have no indicators.
I would be quite happy to obtain a licence and pay registration on my
bicycle. I dont think it would make a scrap of difference to attitudes
though. Might decrease the incidence of lawlesness which might have flow on
effect to drivers attitutes but I think their are a couple of other reasons
why motorists get angry at cyclists.
As a motorist
1. They have to think about how to pass them. It can be stressful to
negotiate narrow busy roads and then having to negotiate around a cyclist as
well causes people to stress. I would say a large proportion of motorists
don't know how to judge where their car begins and ends.
2. We have the expectation not to slow down. We get annoyed at traffic jams
wanting more roads, we get annoyed at too many traffic lights (unless we are
on an intersection that would have buckleys of getting out of). We get
annoyed at those tractors that are road registered as they can only do 40.
These days in our busy lives every second counts so if you have to lose 10
seconds for each cyclist you pass then you may end up adding a minute each
day to your journey.
Here lies a question. Do those 40km'h equipment drivers annoy you when you
cannot pass them? Does the fact that they are registered and licenced make
you not care about them? If they do annoy you then adding licencing and
registration to a cyclist is not really going to make any difference.
Registration**
Registration is based on unladen weight in my state so if say your motor car
weighed 1000kg and cost $300 then thats about 30c a kg (Simple I know its
probably a complicated sliding scale so if you want to get exact then look
it up). My bike is about 10kg so I guess I would be up for $3. Even if it
was $50. That would not bother me and most other cyclists if we did believe
that it would make an attitude difference but I fear it would not due to the
above reasons.
Insurance**
I do believe this is a problem. However a lot of cyclists do obtain
insurance although not compulsory. I am a member of Bicycle NSW which
covers me for 3rd party personal and property damage arising from an
accident that is my fault.
Lighting and indicators.
Once again this is the law. Cyclists who break laws are annoying to the
ones that dont. I have very adequate lighting as its dangerous not to.
Similar it is extremely dangerous not to indicate. I do not know why some
dont do it. I would not say MOST dont have lighting at night. Well at
least not Sydney and surrounds. Cannot vouch for other cities.
Quoted message said:Do they pay other taxes?
A lot of road funding comes from Federal revenue which is funded by the
normal tax payer. We could not ban motorists who do not contribute enough
from driving on certain federally funded roads.
Quoted message said:
Quoted message said:Just the other day i was stuck behind a cyclist riding up the middle of
the road like he owned it, i gave him a toot to let him know i was
there, hoping he would move over to the shoulder where he should be, so
he turned around a gave me the finger, needless to say i was tempted
into some act of road rage
That is unfortunate if it was safe for him to sit in the hard shoulder.
However a lot of the time if the cyclists sits left on a narrow road without
a hard shoulder then people will squeeze past. A lot of people are bad
drivers and do not know the boundaries of the vehicle. That is why they sit
in the middle of the road.
Quoted message said:Maybe you should have shot him?
Maybe he doesnt want to spend 15+ years in prison just so he can make it to
his destination 1 minute faster. Road rage is a very dangerous practice.
People have killed cyclists using the car to do it. The people that so far
wrote to this thread were courteous. You put this in here and cross post.
A moronic troll.
Pete
