Talking heads

“Cyclists should pay registration fees and be fined the same as cars if they break the road rules.”
 

ANDREW WOODHOUSE
Is bike a four-letter word for you too’ All pedestrians, buses, cars, trucks, scooters and motorbikes and cyclists must learn that we share limited spaces. This isn’t having my cake and eating it too ‘ I’m offering everyone a slice.
I want more bikes like everyone else, but I want responsible cyclists too. It’s the most sustainable form of transport after walking. After all, if police use bike patrols, it’s good enough for you and me. Why do gyms have all those bikes lined up with people peddling to nowhere’ Because it’s a great cardiovascular work out, especially as we head into the plum pudding and brandy sauce season.
But there’s a difference between bike use and bike abuse. When you step onto the road you live dangerously, so police enforce road rules and bring serious matters to court. Think gaol and think porridge if alcohol, negligence or death are involved.
One group is largely exempt from this level of enforcement: cyclists. Why’ Are they devoid of any danger’ Does this lycra-clad group commit no wrong’ No. Their behaviour can be obliging but is often reckless or downright dangerous, running red lights and treating those on pedestrian crossings as Tour de France-style human chicanes.
They use more road space than pedestrians and are given bike lanes at huge expense. Yet this group, cocooned from their social responsibilities, have no licences, no age limits, no bike safety training, no compulsory insurance, submit to no bike road-worthy test, no eye tests or road rule exam, and avoid paying registration fees.
Their only ‘licence’ is a licence to thrill but often without the required skills.
I don’t want bikes on footpaths as bikes move on a different axis and at different speeds to pedestrians. Collisions are common. And just because cars cause accidents does not lessen the potential danger of bike accidents.
Since cyclists do purchase insurance, I’m guessing they believe insurance is necessary.
These added costs should not be prohibitive or discourage more cyclists or be money-motivated revenue-raiser for government. They should be subsidised to encourage the same rules and responsibilities for everyone.
Andrew Woodhouse is an urban environmentalist living in Potts Point

MICHAEL GORMLY

I ride a bike in this road-raging city. Brave, I know. Angry shouts of ‘get off the road’ and ‘get off the footpath’ leave me wondering where I am supposed to ride because cycle lanes either don’t exist, end abruptly in a melée of stinking traffic or are placed thoughtfully next to parked-car doors which tend to open suddenly, skewering cyclists or throwing them under the nearest bus.

Such prangs cause 40.7% of cyclist injuries in Sydney CBD. It’s safer to claim the centre of the traffic lane, which is fine going downhill. But slogging it uphill in speeding traffic is asking for it. Even though cars hold up traffic far more than bikes (for proof, check your nearest set of traffic lights for five minutes), the slightest delay from a pushbike produces paroxysms from drivers.

So to survive, I ride defensively. On busy uphill runs I often hit the footpath and slow to walking pace if peds are blocking the way. At red lights I often wait patiently behind a queue of cars, inhaling their flatus, through one or two green light cycles. Eventually I legally weave my way to the head of the queue, sending gridlocked drivers into eye-popping rage.

Then I have a choice. Often the crossroad is clear and, along with flocks of peds running the ‘Don’t Walk’ signs, I run the red myself, getting clear of the raging column of juggernauts behind me. I am safer and they don’t get delayed, a win-win situation.

Then the letters columns ignite, outraged drivers lamenting the rule-breaking in lycra-clad clichés and demanding bike registration because we don’t pay road taxes and they can’t dob us in from a number plate.

Yet when I run the red I am the one at risk from a vehicle. When vehicles do it they are the danger, a huge reversal of risk. This year there have been 355 deaths on NSW roads but not one was caused by a bike. The rules were made for cars, not bikes.

Registration is a weight tax. As a bike is 100 times lighter than a car, the equivalent tax would be less than a dollar and collecting it would cost far more than the income. And motorists do not pay for the roads anyway, their taxes (including petrol tax) at least $8 billion pay less than direct road costs, a shortfall that is partly paid for by’ cyclists, most of whom own a car in any case.

Grow up, Sydney.
Michael Gormly publishes kingscrosstimes.blogspot.com