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 Matt Jones on -
Dont agree with the "inconvenice" argument , the freeway does get fully closed every now and again, either through roadworks or accidents, when that happens unplanned its an absolute nightmare. So a planned closure was probably the best way.
The only real "incident" I saw with traffic was the mind numbingly ignorant and impatient granny driving up the closed Glen Osmond road at the start. None of the drivers held up on the freeway seemed annoyed , certainly didn't seem to be abusing anyone.
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Permalink Reply by maya on -
She was crazy, just kept honking! Nearly ran me over.
The freeway was only closed for just over an hour, hardly seems like a hardship.
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Permalink Reply by Patrick O'Kane on -
Good point Matt, my business partner does get a bit rattled when cyclists have the nerve to ride 2 abreast through the hills, so he's not a great sounding board for cyclist/driver relations. Again I can see his point of view, he's driving a big Merc van, and two d**kheads out for a pootle through the hills (on a working day, as well, the bludgers) make him late for a job, because they can't or won't go single file for a couple of seconds..
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Permalink Reply by Matt Jones on
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Courtesy on the road (from all sides) seems to be a long forgotten thing.
I didn't do any of this ride on the open road section, but my experience at GS1 was that I was absolutely astounded at the behavior of the drivers on Tiers Rd, I lost count of the cars who couldn't wait and overtook on double white lines , even on blind LH corners, if another vehicle had come along I'd hate to think of the carnage.
Actually is the freeway had remained open (even one lane all the way) , it probably would have been just a slow for the drivers. It just turns to treacle as soon as something out of the ordinary occurs.
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Permalink Reply by Gillian on
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A few months ago while drivivg I followed 2 single file cyclists up the last 200m of Murray's Hill Rd and stayed well back while they negotiated the first roundabout on Coromandel Pde. By then they felt very safe so they thanked me by riding casually all the way to the Blackwood roundabout 2 abreast having a chat. It was a Saturday morning so I couldn't overtake at all. Nor could the 10+ cars behind me!
I'm afraid I have to side with Fran and your mate. Cyclists generally aren't doing themselves any favours, so add a major interstate Freeway closure to the equation and.........
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Permalink Reply by daniel f on -
riding 2 a breast is often one of the safest things to do, esp in the hills as it forces motorists to check their blind spot (low and behold) and not try to overtake cyclists dangerously. motorists generally aren't very good at checking blind spots or merging into a second lane or being patient (?!)
but I do agree that cyclists need to mix it with traffic so that motorists and cyclists become used to each other, look out for one another otherwise everyone becomes relaxed and then that's when bad things happen. one of the many reasons why its good that it's illegal to ride on footpaths.
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Permalink Reply by Alasdair McLellan on -
Totally.
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I had 2 options with the aforementioned bozos on Coromandel Pde. 1. Stay patiently behing them for 2 km and protect their dumb arses. 2. Duck down an alternative sidestreet (which I know being a local) and leave them at the mercy of the equally dumbarse driver gesticulating wildly behind me. I chose to protect their sorry arses as I'm that way inclined, rightly or wrongly. It would be fair to say that mutual respect was not in play. Coromandel Pde is a fine example of a straight road where single file cyclists and cars can live in harmony if BOTH sides respect each other.
There is a bike lane half way along that stretch of road but alas the 2 abreast bozos extended well out of the bike lane into the car lane.
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Permalink Reply by SCOTT on -
riding 2 a breast is often one of the safest things to do, esp in the hills .
Totally disagree especially for the poor person riding on the outside.Use common sense and ride single file .
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Permalink Reply by Alasdair McLellan on
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But we close roads for motor racing and motoring enthusiast events. What's the difference?
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Permalink Reply by Matt Brennan on -
for about a month! not just a few hours.
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