80 percent of cyclists dangerous lawbreakers

2004 Australian road fatalities – Drivers – 772, Passengers – 361, Pedestrians – 223, Motorcyclists – 196, Bicyclists – 43
2004 ACT road fatalities – Drivers – 5, Passengers – 0, Pedestrians – 3, Motorcyclists – 2, Bicyclists – 0
Give me a bicycle anyday!

Ok, this is old news, but I’ll still bite and leave a final comment.

Firstly, this concept of ‘dangerous lawbreakers’ is quite odd. I’m not denying that plenty of cyclists do break laws – just as almost all motorists break at least one law on any one trip. Don’t believe me, well just sit as a passenger with just about anyone. But, I can’t remember the last time a bicycle plowed through a childcare centre, ran up the back of another car killing all occupants etc. That’s the difference, cars are very good at killing lots of other people. I’m not saying that what some cyclists do isn’t lawbreaking, just that the end result is usually very different and that’s why attention needs to be paid to cars and even more so to trucks.

Your comments about cyclists sometimes being pedestrians and sometimes vehicles is equally uninformed. Firstly, when cyclists do this, they are breaking no laws. Secondly, the nature of cycling and of our cycling system is such that on any one trip, you can be on a footpath, cycleway and cycle lane. This is the case with my daily commute from Duffy to Belconnen. Sometimes, cyclists will switch to the footpath to cross at a set of lights – for a motorist this is a little annoying, but hardly a ‘dangerous’ crime on the same scale as a trucky popping no-doze all night.

These comments are all from the site that promotes a bicycle bar crawl -hmmmm.

As I’ve said before, check out the price of crude ($61), then do a web search on peak oil. You will soon see why you might be the next person cycling to work and putting up with crap comments like some of the ones posted here.

saw another lawbreaker this morning.

id love to know what the cops actually do about this high priority crimewave.

JB; Note the stonking costs of living…

we are stitched up by one of the Governments (Federal or Local) so many times a day that we’re just used to the pain.

Given the stonking public subsidy of public transport I’m bloody curious who is actually paying all these costs then.

Drivers, you discredit yourselves by buying into this ridiculous rant about road taxes, which is repeated ad nauseum despite being plain wrong.

It’s been shown in many studies that drivers, who are admittedly a majority of taxpayers (just as a majority of cyclists are drivers), are in fact SUBSIDISED by the minority of taxpayers who don’t drive.

Registration fees and insurance taxes cover neither the cost of building and maintaining roads, nor the massive economic externalities caused by private vehicle use – for example, pollution, accidents, the reduction of incidental exercise, and the health consequences of each of these problems.

Driving and cycling on roads are both privileges, and rule-breakers should be punished. But don’t kid yourselves about which causes more harm.

Cyclists need to pay taxes (especially taxes that pay for our roads that those bludgers [ab]use) – the ATO should track them down and audit all of them.

I haven’t really bought into the cyclist debate before, but after what I witnessed the other day, I’m starting to think rather poorly of cyclists.

I was picking up my son at his childcare centre one evening. As I was about to enter the building I saw a father that had just picked up his kid. The kid was a toddler, probably under three. Dad had a bike. He proceeded to put the kid on the back of the bike in one of those kiddie seats that sits over the rear wheel and bolts on. The child did not appear to be restrained and did not have a helmet on. Dad then got on the bike and rode down the driveway and out into the street. It was getting dark and I don’t think he had lights either.

Hands up who thinks this is irresponsible behaviour?

People that ride their bikes through red lights choose to do it, and if they get hit then it’s their fault. That poor kiddie had no choice about being put in danger. All the guy had to do was have a minor stack and the kid is out on his head.

X

Typical ACT scenario – loudmouth minority group with the ‘what about us’ attitude, spineless politician’s who won’t speak up.

Lets face it we all ride bikes and I am sure all who ride bikes also drive, if bike riders want the same respect, they should be exposed to the same rules and costs, and there should be an emphasis to enforce them – no helmet should be a fine like no seatbelt $260, unroadworthy bike, don’t cross unbroken lines, yada yada yada

Outlier.