Road Rage in Sydney

kanangara said:

smh.com.au1140284094573.htmlOpen ↗

Don't forget to have your say

http://blogs.smh.com.au/newsblog/archives/your_say/003652.html

Better yet just read the comments already posted. It's all been said before.

Nutshell version.

Rego pays for roads, cyclists have no right to be there.

Cyclists have their own paths, they can use them.

No sympathy for cyclists, they're arrogant, ride two to three abreast holding up traffic.

Not all one sided of course, the cyclists are giving as good as they get although some are saying that there's no way they'd ride on the roads in Sydney. I can't comment on that as I've not ridden there.

kanangara said:

smh.com.au1140284094573.htmlOpen ↗

Don't forget to have your say

blogs.smh.com.au003652.htmlOpen ↗

Parbs

that 'your_say' is going nuts. must be a Sydney thing 🙄

flyingdutch said:

that 'your_say' is going nuts. must be a Sydney thing 🙄

perversely, I started to read them.. wish I hadn't, as I am fairly p!ssed off now at the ignorance. I particularly like the early comments, suggesting the cyclists "had it coming" and "deserved" it. They must have been wearing mini skirts, flashing their cleavage and been having a bit of fun flirting!
😠 😠 😠

flyingdutch said:

that 'your_say' is going nuts. must be a Sydney thing 🙄

Idle thought, any of this be useful as a demonstration of the fundamental ignorance that some people have?

warrwych said:

perversely, I started to read them.. wish I hadn't, as I am fairly p!ssed off now at the ignorance. I particularly like the early comments, suggesting the cyclists "had it coming" and "deserved" it. They must have been wearing mini skirts, flashing their cleavage and been having a bit of fun flirting!
😠 😠 😠

gawd... the lack of any comprehension of basic road rules or common sense is astounding - but then i guess that's expected for a newspaper feedback blog... or is that just sydney? :p

Makes me very grateful (and somewhat in awe of the fact) that my commute is 99% of the time incident and angst free (and that's on the road too!)

eddiec said:

gawd... the lack of any comprehension of basic road rules or common sense is astounding - but then i guess that's expected for a newspaper feedback blog... or is that just sydney? :p

Just posted this out to a couple of other cycling links - if you can be bothered, read the blog later this arvo & watch the inbalance be redressed. The ignorance out there never ceases to fcuking amaze me. 🙄

EuanB said:

flyingdutch said:

that 'your_say' is going nuts. must be a Sydney thing 🙄

Idle thought, any of this be useful as a demonstration of the
fundamental ignorance that some people have?

Yes, just about every post, including a lot of [censored] kissing
self-proclaimed bicyclists.

SWMBO put me onto it, but it was closed by 10am.
I'm now going to ask her to read all the useless comments.

P.S. I wonder if Costa's parrot had a spew on it. that should be funny
give his usual ignorance on everything.

*******This forum is now closed. Here's what you said:*******

Shesssh, that was fast!

Another tact: Send your letters to: [email hidden]
Fax: +61 (0)2 9282 3492
Snailmail: GPO Box 3771, Sydney 2001

http://smh.com.au/letters/

NSW Ministers:
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Members/ministers

Letter Writing Guide:
http://bicyclejustice.blogspot.com/2005_06_28_bicyclejustice_archive.html#111995175427440617

Terry Collins said:

P.S. I wonder if Costa's parrot had a spew on it. that should be funny
give his usual ignorance on everything.

These three by 'NIk' could be Costa or one of his advisors, ie: starts off reasonable and becomes progressively more unhinged. Michael Costa , the man with the reverse midas touch .. and a Prado

*********

BIKES ARE FOR GETTING MILK DOWN THE CORNER SHOP >>>>>>STAY OFF THE ROADS AND YOU WONT BE HURT !
* Posted by: Nik at February 22, 2006 09:54 AM

<canned laughter>

I do not condone anyone trying to run people down no matter what has happened .....Assault is never the answer.......HOWEVER I have been driving for 13 years now with 4 years driving as a courier and the most ureasonable lawbreaking and generaly hostile driver/riders on the road are BIKE RIDERS and in particular BIKE COURIERS!!!

BIKE COURIERS You need to remember that you are hard to see ,, hanging on to the back of cars and trucks is not a good idea not to mention all the other dangerous things I have seen BIKERS do.

IF you break the law others will too and some of those other will have big cars!!!
* Posted by: NIk at February 22, 2006 09:53 AM

<canned laughter>

Sydney drivers are a threat to themselves and everyone around them, not just cyclists. This city has shocking roads with shocking drivers - ultimately the poor cyclists will come off second best if councils do nothing to improve road conditions. Be careful, all those cyclists out there!!!
* Posted by: Nik at February 22, 2006 09:19 AM

<canned laughter>

*********

EuanB wrote -

Quoted message said:

Not all one sided of course, the cyclists are giving as good as they
get although some are saying that there's no way they'd ride on the
roads in Sydney. I can't comment on that as I've not ridden there.

To put this in context, the road where this occurred is similar to Beach Rd
in Melb (2 traffic lanes each side, lots of cyclists -mainly roadies in
experienced bunchs- and lots of road traffic esp during peak hours).

If the actions of the motorist are proven to have been as reported, then he
deserves a rogering by the court; interesting to hear what the outcome will
be.

To the more general issue of motorists attitudes, there needs to be a much
more widespread recognition that cyclists are part of the roadscape (this
seemed to be so on Beach Rd when I was there a few weeks ago).

One of the prime sources of that unhappy attitude are the shock jocks on
commercial radio here who have the capacity to whip up hystrical and
unthinking attitudes against cyclists that probably manifest ultimately in
the actions of motorists like the one complained of, who probably still
thinks he was justified in doing what he did. The blog comments seem to
indicate a more general perception that is more troublesome than one very
poor driver.

Needs a calm collective voice from cyclists and mutual respect between road
users - that may take some time.

best, Andrew

On Wed, 22 Feb 2006 09:02:47 +1100, kanangara wrote:

"and an off-duty police officer were believed to have been among the group
from the St George Cycling Club."

Oops :-)

One of my sweetest moments was when an idiot passed my group dangerously
in the hills, which is fairly common. What's not common, though, is that
there was a cop right behind him, who stopped him for a chat further up
the road.

--
Home page: http://members.westnet.com.au/mvw

EuanB said:

Not all one sided of course, the cyclists are giving as good as they
get although some are saying that there's no way they'd ride on the
roads in Sydney. I can't comment on that as I've not ridden there.

It does sound like the absolute worst place in Australian to ride,
though.

--
Home page: http://members.westnet.com.au/mvw

cfsmtb said:

Terry Collins said:

P.S. I wonder if Costa's parrot had a spew on it. that should be funny
give his usual ignorance on everything.

These three by 'NIk' could be Costa or one of his advisors, ie: starts
off reasonable and becomes progressively more unhinged.

The parrot starts off completely unhinged on his rock jock spews.
I'm still chuckling over Colonel Rattsinger (sp? being the new pope {:-).

Quoted message said:

most ureasonable lawbreaking

I usually read this as "I don't know the road rules".
It has taken a few decades, but at least my family now know that
bicycles can ride two abreast with a third passing them. Now they take
great delite anf sayiong "so you don't know the road rules either" when
someone starts up a spew on bicycle riders.

Now if the NSW Police had any ethics, they would be chasing up the
posters of the various threats and have constable plod pay them a
warning visit. Only then will we start to have responsible motor vehicle
drivers in NSW.

Michael Warner wrote -

Quoted message said:

It does sound like the absolute worst place in Australian to ride,
though.

It is the cyclists' highway south out of the city and the alternatives are
worse in terms of danger and traffic disruption.

Parramatta Rd, peak hour, is I think the worst place in Australia that I
know of but I will hear argument for other contenders - they would have to
be serious nightmares though.

best, Andrew.

Andrew Price said:

Parramatta Rd, peak hour, is I think the worst place in Australia that I
know of but I will hear argument for other contenders - they would have to
be serious nightmares though.

I haven't driven much in Sydney, but I remember a taxi trip I took once.
We cut fairly close in front of a van, which expressed its displeasure by
giving us a solid thump in the rear. My driver responded with a finger
out of the window, but didn't stop or say much. It seemed like a routine
event.

That's Sydney to me :-)

--
Home page: http://members.westnet.com.au/mvw

quote='Michael Warner'On Wed said:

Not all one sided of course, the cyclists are giving as good as they
get although some are saying that there's no way they'd ride on the
roads in Sydney. I can't comment on that as I've not ridden there.

It does sound like the absolute worst place in Australian to ride,
though.[/QUOTE]

From what I saw on Four Corners it doesn't look like a great place to drive either.

EuanB said:

From what I saw on Four Corners it doesn't look like a great place to drive either.

It's a worse place to drive - that's why motorists are so [censored] all of the time.

I actually feel sorry for many of them... the traffic report on tele in the morning shows bumper-to-bumper from Campbelltown (50km away) at 0630 every day. The alternative for many is to catch a chockers train that has a good chance of no AC. I live about 15km from the city and driving would take about 40-50min at peak hour. The bike takes about 35min door-to-door.

Ritch

ritcho said:

EuanB said:

From what I saw on Four Corners it doesn't look like a great place to
drive either.

It's a worse place to drive - that's why motorists are so [censored]
all of the time.

Perth is bad. However, I know it's relative because I'm sure Sydney
siders would laugh at what we call peak hour. One of my motivations to
start cycling instead of driving wasn't so much the delays, but the road
rage.

In Perth, two lanes merging into one is seen as a fight to the death. I
had about 4 of these to do on the way to work, and the number of people
who end up refusing to merge, door to door centimetres from each other
is amazing. Eventually someone gives up, then the flashing lights,
blaring horn and jamming on brakes as retribution starts. What the fsck is
happening to us?? 🙁

--
..dt

On 2006-02-22, ritcho (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

EuanB said:

From what I saw on Four Corners it doesn't look like a great place to
drive either.

It's a worse place to drive - that's why motorists are so [censored]
all of the time.

I actually feel sorry for many of them... the traffic report on tele in
the morning shows bumper-to-bumper from Campbelltown (50km away) at 0630
every day. The alternative for many is to catch a chockers train that
has a good chance of no AC. I live about 15km from the city and driving
would take about 40-50min at peak hour. The bike takes about 35min
door-to-door.

A took a train in peak hour this morning (and did the no-no of
absolutely needing the bike -- sure I could have ridden all the way,
but I am not a morning person, and hence was late), and will have to
repeat tomorrow.

This morning, I got on a train that arrived at the correct time.
Except that it turned out to be the previous train. It kept getting
more and more chockers, every single station. It then proceeded to
stop at flinders instead of doing the usual round the loop thing (no
announcement or anything, of course not!), and there were a *lot* of
disgruntled passengers.

That's my first ever trip into the CBD on a train in peak hour. I
wonder if all the sheep do this all the time, or whether this truly
was abnormal? It would definitely be enough for me to hunt for a new
job with a more sane and/or flexible starting hour -- I keep having to
remind myself every 6 months or so why I go to such lengths to avoid
peak hour.

--
TimC
"These people [spam fighters] will go to the lowest depths,"
-- Tom Cowles, spammer and convicted thief.