Closing the freeway, who's smart idea was that?
That was the comment my business partner made to me today, he lives in the hills and whilst not affected by the closure couldn't see the point of it. I'm inclined to agree with him. We strive week in and week out to co-exist on the roads with motorists, but when we (or Bike SA) want a special bike ride, they close off the road, Highway 1 no less, to the vast majority of the travelling public. How to win friends and influence people. How many motorists were inconvenienced yesterday, and what will their ongoing opinion of cyclists be, as a result?
I discussed the Amy's Gran Fondo ride with my g/f over the weekend as I might do that this year (call me a hypocrite) and her reaction was "What if you are an overseas tourist and that day you planned to drive the GOR and can't because it's closed for a bunch of wannabe Cadel's" (subtlety is not her strong suit).
If we want to be taken seriously as legitimate road users, maybe we just need to "suck it up" and ride with the cars.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Clive Palfrey on -
I was closed longer than advertised, it was due to reopen at 10 which is the same time I turned the radio on at work and the news was that the freeway hadn't reopened yet and may not do so for another hour.
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Permalink Reply by Colnagasm on -
Well done Martin. I assume that wasn't at the Organic Market Cafe - the clientelle there are generally 'enlightened' (I'm including myself in that group!).
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Permalink Reply by Bicycle Fish on -
Plenty of nauseating " two wrongs make a right.." posts here, as usual on AC. I cringe when I hear about these "green light" rides [ "green light" b/c the mass of riders has the road all to themselves, unlike a "real" cycling experience]. I ride to go somewhere, I am not interested in going somewhere [ special ] to ride.
[ btw ; time for a realistic discussion on 2 abreast riding, too ]
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Permalink Reply by Clive Palfrey on
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Plenty of nauseating " two wrongs make a right.."
Or is it just give and take.
Are you really just another person who considers only their own cycling to be real, we have so many on AC each with their own version of real and so little tolerance of the ideals of others.
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Permalink Reply by Tim B on -
The old road was still open, so not like it was completely blocked getting out of town.
I think having the majority of access roads out of the eastern suburbs closed would have made life for some of the locals in the hills more frustrating
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Permalink Reply by Trevor Collins on -
For 365 days of the year cyclists are banned from riding on the freeway and do you hear us complaining....NO. Now for a couple of hours in ONE morning we have been granted permission to ride this short route and already pathetic people are whinging about it.
The thing that will give us a bad image is the careless riders who ride two abreast and hold up countless amouts of cars, as I witnessed several times on the Sunday ride. I felt ashamed to be riding anywhere near those riders who had plenty of room to move aside in single line over the white line safely and let the cars past, even after being yelled at by other cyclists at the rear that cars wanted to pass.
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Permalink Reply by Mike W on -
I yelled "car back" a couple of times to a group of three who were riding 3 abreast but I really believe they had no idea what I was on about, no reaction whatsoever.
There was 3 or 4 cars banked up behind them (the first car stayed alongside of me for a few hundred metres) even a cyclist would have to go on the wrong side to get around them !I have put some comments about items like this in the online survey that they emailed out today.
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Permalink Reply by Darren on -
Ahhh... yeah... screamed "car back" at a guy riding by himself in the middle of the road 3 times before a car shoved its way around him. He just didn't respond at all! Many similar situations all along the ride...
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Permalink Reply by Alasdair McLellan on -
That's fair, I want to punch people who yell 'CAR BACK!' at the tops of their voices when I can clearly hear the fricking car.
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Permalink Reply by Ian Rawley on -
+1 Yes! I hate that too and all the other yelling that goes on in groups sometimes. 'Car back', 'car up', 'car flying through the freakin air'.
'STFU you gormless bloody tool' I say quietly under my breath. As for the poor road craft I find myself avoiding some of these rides for that very reason. Why is it so many twits are attracted to these rides?
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