Now it’s all fine and good to focus on alcohol and speeding and seatbelts and mobile phone distractions and fines as important causes to focus upon in order to reduce road fatalities. SUPER. GREAT. NO REALLY, IT IS. Good job. Well done, we get the message. But that’s not the only problem now is it? No.
Because, there’s one group of road users in particular that are WAY more likely to die per kilometre traveled than any car or truck drivers or even motorcycle riders.
And that’s on-road cyclists.
The annual number of people killed while riding a bike in Australia has not reduced for more than 20 years. On average, 37 people are killed while riding a bike in Australia each year. In Australia in the year ending July 2023, there were a total of 46 road deaths involving cyclists. Between 1999 and 2016, 651 cyclists died as the result of their injuries. Just let that sink in. SIX HUNDRED AND FIFTY ONE. 651. Jesus bloody christ that’s a lot of people considering how little you actually see cyclists on the roads now isn’t it?
And the reason?
Time and fucking time again cars pass WAY too close and they also travel WAY too fast. every. Fucking. Day. Every fucking 2 minutes!!!
They don’t seem to understand that they should MODERATE their speed while overtaking cyclists. Both! The worst part is that the cars that pass too close are ALSO the ones that don’t slow down even 1km/hr, so it’s a double-whammy now isn’t it.
I think many don’t even realise that it’s a legal requirement to give 1 to 1.5 m of space and that yes they can cross to the other side of the road to do it. Some people seem to think that a white line or a double white line represents a virtual brick wall that they cannot cross if their lives depended on it, then leave us sweet fuck all room as they squeeze past even though there is probably 5 metres of space there on the other side of them.
BUT ALSO! Some of them that do give space then go and overtake on blind corners or right on the a crest of a hill, and then they put the oncoming cars in danger. And guess who they’re going to swerve back into when there is an oncoming car. Us! That’s who!
Now it is getting [slightly] better than it was 30 years ago, but even so, I’d estimate that a whopping probably 40% of car drivers are not overtaking cyclists properly. And perhaps 5-10% are just downright fucking dangerous.
Some people are just downright morons, maybe one in 200 to 500 people (or less). But judging by how drivers treat pedestrians, I really don’t think 20-40% of road users are *intentionally* trying to be arseholes. THEY JUST DON’T KNOW ANY BETTER!!
What does that tell you? That tells you that people have to be both educated and re-educated. It’s the only way forward. No not by us cyclists. They need to be educated/re-educated by government, advertising campaigns, at the time of learning to drive and by the police. Plus road signs. Because motorcyclists aren’t the only ones dying out there on our roads (I do also ride a motorcycle).
I’ve had sandwiches thrown in my face. I’ve had firecrackers thrown at me while I’m riding my bicycle along minding my own business, lit ones that is mind you.
It always seems to be P-platers with their mates thinking that they are being ‘clever’, I’ve had MANY MANY MANY P-plater fuckers literally SCREAM at the top of their lungs, intentionally trying to scare and intimidate us into crashing.
Now please. I’m doing all the right things wearing a helmet, day time running lights, bright clothing, cycling not during dawn/dusk time periods of low visibility and so on. But some of them even see all that, especially on long straight roads, especially when there are more than two young male occupants, they see us and then they intentionally start plotting and scheming about how they are best going to scare us or provoke us some into some kind of reaction. Nice. Thanks. That shit has to be stamped out.
Would you like to be physically SCREAMED at while you are just riding along by a car full of people going probably 120km/hr with only one foot of room to spare? I don’t think so.
Do/did you the survey and road safety feedback people know all this? Are you even aware? Probably not, right? Well they do. That is what some particularly young people do. It’s shockingly bad out there, shocking. Something has to change.
That sort of anti-social behavior should be illegal. It probably is I’d say, BUT NOTHING IS EVER DONE ABOUT IT!!!
NOTHING IS EVER DONE.
NOTHING IS EVER DONE!
NOTHING IS EVER DONE!!
Cyclists are literally being bullied on our roads. Bullied. Cops never and I repeat NEVER do a crackdown on cars overtaking cyclists too closely. I don’t think it has ever been done. If it has I’ve never seen it. Not once in over 30 years.
If you people want to earn some money, and do some revenue raising for the state, think $10 million dollars or more, then that is how to do it, because you’ll catch 10 or 15% of all cars I kid you not.
Twice now I’ve been sideswiped by cars, crashed, and broken my wrists both times.
Something is massively fucking wrong in this country if pedestrians are treated like gods and yet cyclists are treated like the devil.
As a pedestrian, you can be 5 metres away from a pedestrian crossing and pretty much all cars will stop for you. Almost without exception. 90% will be politely stop. You only have to LOOK at the crossing and people will stop. Wonderful!
But cyclists on the other hand, for some reason are HATED. We are being overtaken with in many cases less than a foot of room while the car/truck/bus is traveling at well over 100km/hr. Is that safe? No it’s not bloody safe at all!!!
Now, if I went and complained about every single shonky overtaking manoeuvre that had ever been done to me, I’d be in the police station every 5 fuckin’ minutes, that’s literally how bad it is.
Something has to change, and pronto! Nothing is going to change by me getting a rear camera and whinging to my local policemen every time something happens. This all requires a government initiative. From the top down. Not the bottom up.
So there needs to be a massive and I mean MASSIVE re-education campaign because this is just RIDICULOUS.
When I learned to drive a car in Spain, there was a lecture session on how to overtake cyclists properly and SAFELY. Not here though. I think there was a 2 hour session on how to overtake bikes properly. I kid you not. What can we learn from that here?
SO IT’S YOUR JOB TO RE-EDUCATE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN MODIFY THERE DRIVING BEHAVIOR ACCORDINGLY AND THUS SAVE LIVES. THAT IS NOT MY JOB. NOW IT’S YOUR TURN. YOU HAVE BEEN INFORMED, SO PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE RIGHT UP THE FUCKIN’ HIERARCHICAL SYSTEM AND KEEP RE-SENDING IT AND RE-SENDING IT UNTIL THERE IS SOME SORT OF ACTION. ATTEND YOUR BORING MEETINGS OR WHATEVER IT IS THAT YOU GOVERNMENT PEOPLE DO, AND THEN MAKE THE NECESSARY BLASTED CHANGES. ACTION IT. DO IT. THAT’S HOW TO SAVE HUNDREDS OF LIVES OVER THE NEXT DECADE. YOU’LL NEVER AND I REPEAT NEVER GET “TOWARDS ZERO” UNLESS THIS IS DONE.
You, the government, is meant to protect us the citizens. The road users. Not just vehicle occupants. Cyclists too!
