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 heather on -
Good point. Drivers use the freeway for 364.9 days per year and object if anyone else uses it for 2 hours. We cyclists pay for the construction and maintenance of the road, yet drivers object if we get to use it for only 2 hours. See http://www.cyclingpromotion.com.au data sheet 'Bicycles belong on the road, registration free' in file Info_Sheet_5_Bicycles_belong_on_the_road.pdf
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Permalink Reply by Patrick O'Kane on -
Maybe the solution is to let cyclists use the freeway every day, riding two abreast in the left hand lane could be made legal, faster traffic can use the other lanes to overtake us. that way we get the best of both worlds, access to a road we help to fund, and motorists are not inconvenienced unnecessarily.
I can just imagine the downhill run now, awesome idea, might even suggest it for the S Expressway, the bike track surface is getting pretty dodgy.
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Permalink Reply by Patrick O'Kane on
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+1
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Permalink Reply by Dstone on -
There is enough motorbikes, scooters and zbox motor clad bikes on the bike paths already!
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Permalink Reply by heather on
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Many many more kilometres of roads than bicycle lanes; bicycle lanes ending suddenly, like at intersections when really needed; most bicycle lanes within reach of opening doors; cyclists more likely to get injured; and when cyclists injured authorities often do not take action against the negligent drivers. Isn't democracy wonderful!
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Permalink Reply by Frank on
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Democracy is an egalitarian form of government in which all the citizens of a nation together determine public policy, the laws and the actions of their state, requiring that all citizens (meeting certain qualifications) have an equal opportunity to express their opinion. In practise, "democracy" is the extent to which a given system approximates this ideal, and a given political system is referred to as "a democracy" if it allows a certain approximation to ideal democracy. Although no country has ever granted all its citizens (i.e. including minors) the vote, most countries today hold regular elections based on egalitarian principles, at least in theory.
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Permalink Reply by Patrick O'Kane on
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Bikes are not restricted to bike lanes Heather, those many thousands of kilometres of roads are there for our use too.
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Permalink Reply by Gary S on -
SAPOL wrote a letter to cycling groups about riders breaking road rules after numerous complaints. Here is Cycling SA's response that was posted on their website yesterday. The link to the road rules regarding riding two-abreast is reproduced verbatim from the SAPOL correspondence.
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Permalink Reply by Tim B on -
In section 2, what do they class as a "marked lane"? Is that anything defined as a lane, or a lane marked as a bicycle lane?
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