Did you see the Northbourne cyclist smash yesterday?

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

nhand42 said :

But in the absence of clever engineering, I reckon natural selection will eventually weed the suicidal cyclists off the road.

Ummm it’s actually quite simple to be perfectly responsible with no mistakes.

If you are not a troll I think your friends have now got an option for your epitaph……. whenever or however you depart……

Maybe just reacting to the Selection quip, something I am getting heartily sick of. The rest was quite reasonable, but poisoned by the finish.

Yes, cyclists are more vulnerable but so are pedestrians, which most drivers turn into in shared spaces like car parks, and crossing the road to/from their car.

Selection has worked so well for CRK hasn’t it ?

caf said :

rhino said :

Aeek said :

rhino said :

I guess this is why cars and bikes should be kept separate.

This is a great of example of how it wouldn’t help. That car would still be turning across across a cycle path in the centre strip, made worse by now having cyclists coming from both directions.

So don’t put a cycle path along the road?

What shall we do then? Raise it in the air on a giant system of cyclepath flyovers?

That’d be nice, but it sure would cost a bomb.

Well, they could spend a fortune doing that or cyclists could take an extra few minutes on their journey and ride along the bike paths running through the inner north suburbs instead of along Northbourne itself (I’m fairly sure there’s a cycle path passing under Northbourne right near Morphett St)… as someone else mentioned, collisions on the road occur; if it happens to be a collision between a car and bike, the cyclist has a pretty good chance of being seriously injured or killed.

I cycle to work every day and choose to add a few minutes to my commute time because I’d rather come home to my wife and kids at the end of the day than get to work 5 minutes earlier.

Plus the bike paths are smooth bitumen, whereas most roads in Canberra these days are that awful chip-seal, which is an absolute bastard to ride on.

nhand42 said :

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

Yep. How hard is it to just share the roads and everyone open there eyes?

That’s a silly comment. It’s easy to share the roads. But it’s also easy to make a mistake, or have a lapse in concentration, or simply be overwhelmed by lots of things going on at once.

In engineering we aim for “fail safe” designs. In other words even if the intention is that it never fails, when it inevitably does the failure doesn’t result in death or injury.

The current sharing of roads between cyclists and cars is the *opposite* of fail-safe. It requires every person to act perfectly responsible with no mistakes at all times, with very serious consequences for cyclists when the inevitable failure occurs. No amount of lycra and polystyrene hat-wear will save the poor cyclist from a 2-tonne car.

Notice that car-vs-car accidents are less serious simply because modern cars are designed for fail-safe operation (e.g. seat-belts, air-bags, crumple zones, safety glass, etc).

But in the absence of clever engineering, I reckon natural selection will eventually weed the suicidal cyclists off the road.

Ummm it’s actually quite simple to be perfectly responsible with no mistakes.

nhand42 said :

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

Yep. How hard is it to just share the roads and everyone open there eyes?

That’s a silly comment. It’s easy to share the roads. But it’s also easy to make a mistake, or have a lapse in concentration, or simply be overwhelmed by lots of things going on at once.

In engineering we aim for “fail safe” designs. In other words even if the intention is that it never fails, when it inevitably does the failure doesn’t result in death or injury.

The current sharing of roads between cyclists and cars is the *opposite* of fail-safe. It requires every person to act perfectly responsible with no mistakes at all times, with very serious consequences for cyclists when the inevitable failure occurs. No amount of lycra and polystyrene hat-wear will save the poor cyclist from a 2-tonne car.

Notice that car-vs-car accidents are less serious simply because modern cars are designed for fail-safe operation (e.g. seat-belts, air-bags, crumple zones, safety glass, etc).

But in the absence of clever engineering, I reckon natural selection will eventually weed the suicidal cyclists off the road.

I think the issue here is that the design of the slip road across Northbourne makes it pretty difficult to spot oncoming cyclists (which in peak hour is plenty). Im not sure there is much fault per se – getting cyclists off the road wont help this situation as they have to cross the road and the traffic cutting across Northbourne is wiping them out. Pedestrians are in a similar boat.

Until something gets done about it, it would be a good idea that everyone around that area took more care and attention. People are getting crunched everyday on this road.

caf said :

rhino said :

Aeek said :

rhino said :

I guess this is why cars and bikes should be kept separate.

This is a great of example of how it wouldn’t help. That car would still be turning across across a cycle path in the centre strip, made worse by now having cyclists coming from both directions.

So don’t put a cycle path along the road?

What shall we do then? Raise it in the air on a giant system of cyclepath flyovers?

That’d be nice, but it sure would cost a bomb.

That`s actually a great idea. I wouldn`t even care if my rates were tripled to help pay for it.

rhino said :

Aeek said :

rhino said :

I guess this is why cars and bikes should be kept separate.

This is a great of example of how it wouldn’t help. That car would still be turning across across a cycle path in the centre strip, made worse by now having cyclists coming from both directions.

So don’t put a cycle path along the road?

What shall we do then? Raise it in the air on a giant system of cyclepath flyovers?

That’d be nice, but it sure would cost a bomb.

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

Yep. How hard is it to just share the roads and everyone open there eyes?

That’s a silly comment. It’s easy to share the roads. But it’s also easy to make a mistake, or have a lapse in concentration, or simply be overwhelmed by lots of things going on at once.

In engineering we aim for “fail safe” designs. In other words even if the intention is that it never fails, when it inevitably does the failure doesn’t result in death or injury.

The current sharing of roads between cyclists and cars is the *opposite* of fail-safe. It requires every person to act perfectly responsible with no mistakes at all times, with very serious consequences for cyclists when the inevitable failure occurs. No amount of lycra and polystyrene hat-wear will save the poor cyclist from a 2-tonne car.

Notice that car-vs-car accidents are less serious simply because modern cars are designed for fail-safe operation (e.g. seat-belts, air-bags, crumple zones, safety glass, etc).

But in the absence of clever engineering, I reckon natural selection will eventually weed the suicidal cyclists off the road.

The design of the intersection encourages/allows drivers heading north to cross across the south lane at 60km/h without the need to slow down. There would be less hazard if the slip lane style intersection was made tighter and harder to take at speed.

mezza76 said :

Felix the Cat said :

Another cyclist knocked down this morning at this intersection according to the radio news

Saw it – or the aftermath at least as he was being carted away in the ambulance….?

I saw the accident from my drive way, lucky the Ambulance depot is right there so they were on the scene before I could run over to the guy.

There was also a rear-ender about an hour later in the same spot.

It’s a rubbish intersection in peak hour. I hope the cyclist is okay.

mezza76 said :

Felix the Cat said :

Another cyclist knocked down this morning at this intersection according to the radio news

Saw it – or the aftermath at least as he was being carted away in the ambulance. It’s the second car v cyclist accident on Northbourne this week I have seen. The other being opposite the Netball centre.

For the love of god (or associated deity) – can eveyone take it a little more easy?

Yep. How hard is it to just share the roads and everyone open there eyes?

I also saw the aftermath of the crash at the same intersection this morning.

The crumpled bike did not look good.

I hope everyone is ok.

Felix the Cat said :

Another cyclist knocked down this morning at this intersection according to the radio news

Saw it – or the aftermath at least as he was being carted away in the ambulance. It’s the second car v cyclist accident on Northbourne this week I have seen. The other being opposite the Netball centre.

For the love of god (or associated deity) – can eveyone take it a little more easy?

Another cyclist knocked down this morning at this intersection according to the radio news

Cyclists are being stupid. Right of way doesn’t mean much when ur a paraplegic, or dead.

If u can opt for riding on the road instead of the footpath, in the name of ‘safety’, them why couldn’t you ride that extra little bit to get on the bike path that’s on the western side? Sure, it’s not too straight, but it does go to civic.

When I ride on the road, I don’t try and win some bs argument – I watch out for the big, heavy, angry, metal things….

I wonder if the police are trying to ascertain whether the cyclist was in the cycle lane or whether they had been on the footpath before they tried to cross Morphett St. I have seen several near misses when the cyclist is in the on road lane although I have seen a couple also where the cyclist came off the footpath.

Good to hear that the cyclist only had minor injuries.

Yup that’s exactly what the police are doing.

Driver doesn’t speak English at all.

I wonder if the police are trying to ascertain whether the cyclist was in the cycle lane or whether they had been on the footpath before they tried to cross Morphet st.

Don’t matter. It’s give way to cyclist in both circumstances.

Lots of invisible cyclists out there. Black might be a trendy colour to wear but it does sweet FA for you when you’re sharing the road with items 15x your size.

Deckard said :

rhino said :

I guess this is why cars and bikes should be kept separate.

With all those car v car accidents you see around the place maybe it’s a good idea to keep all cars separate from each other as well…

Or just dodgey drivers and good ones.

rhino said :

I guess this is why cars and bikes should be kept separate.

With all those car v car accidents you see around the place maybe it’s a good idea to keep all cars separate from each other as well…

Aeek said :

rhino said :

I guess this is why cars and bikes should be kept separate.

This is a great of example of how it wouldn’t help. That car would still be turning across across a cycle path in the centre strip, made worse by now having cyclists coming from both directions.

So don’t put a cycle path along the road?

of course it could also be used an example to drivers to not assume that just because a car has passed that corner its clear to go as a bike may still be coming positioned behind something in the left lane.

or that you just don’t GAF and proceed to push your way through. Either of which happens regularly….

rhino said :

I guess this is why cars and bikes should be kept separate.

This is a great of example of how it wouldn’t help. That car would still be turning across across a cycle path in the centre strip, made worse by now having cyclists coming from both directions.

I guess this is why cars and bikes should be kept separate.

http://the-riotact.com/take-care-when-crossing-northbourne-onto-morphett-st/81395