3 May 2007

CCC being a little disingenuous?

| johnboy
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A reader has sent in the above image of the Canberra Cycling Club photo page (full size and many more images are also available) from the weekend race which lead to the horrible accident on the Cotter Road.

The screenshot is particularly telling because, if you were to visit the above link now, you wouldn’t be able to find the pictures of the cyclists on the wrong side of the road any more.

This might be related to the Club’s media statement which made the following claim:

The Canberra Tour was conducted in accordance with road rules and approvals from the ACT Department of Territory and Municipal Services, and the immediate response was consistent with the incident plan for the event.

So how many riders were disqualified over the course of the event?

Seeing as we’re assured by cycle racing devotees the rules require this.

UPDATED: Without much pleasure (poking sticks at the Canberra Cycling Club isn’t a goal of mine) I’d be remiss if I didn’t pass along an observation. Another reader has noted that in a great many of the photos there appear to be support vehicles in the background on the wrong side of unbroken lines. This closeup illustrates the point:

Not exactly “conducted in accordance with road rules” then?

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i note in the sunday ct that mountain bike riders have been harassing peacefiul law abiding equestrians and their horses.

will this 2 wheeled menace ever be controlled.

Vic, again, car drivers always abide by the rules?? – see what Danman said.

“Don’t you ever dare to bleat to us taxpayers” – like as if cyclists aren’t also taxpayers – they are some sort of sub-humans who don’t also drive cars, earn money, pay frickin taxes.

Vic, you’d better hope you never have kids who ride bikes and get injured because I bet they won’t really deserve it….. And the drunken car driver who might hit them won’t be shunned by you because he was driving a car and so is above all reproach.

Vic Bitterman9:30 pm 05 May 07

Well, you cyclists have been well and truly *owned*.

You have been proven by comment and photographic evidence, to be reckless law breakers without a care in world for the road rules the rest of us abide.

You deserve every injury you receive.

Don’t you ever dare to bleat to us taxpayers about anything ever again.

agreed

But responsible organisers could disqualify the rule breakers and thereby create an incentive to obey the rules.

J Dawg, these people were racing on a road – how amazed would you be if some of them didn’t cross the double yellow lines – humans break rules if they can, especially in competitive situations. So, if you hold a bike race on a road, people will always cross the lines, simple as that. It has nothing to do with “Cyclists” and their mentalities. Marathon runners wouldn’t stick to their side of the road if they can get an advantage…

I am still waiting for the CCC to upload their media statement from 3/5/7. There is an announcement on their news page, but there is no link to anything.

Now who’s being disingenuous? 😉

Send it in.

The point is that regardless of the fact that there are tools who drive and there are tools who cycle, these cyclists are breaking the rules on the road of the cars.

Sure, the road can be used by anyone, but it doesn’t take a fool here to point out that on a narrow rural road with no shoulder, the car is king. Personally, I think that cyclists using a road like this should always give way, acknowledge, and make way for a car (where ever possible). After all, you don’t go into someone’s house and take a shit in the middle of their living room.

Woody Mann-Caruso5:06 pm 04 May 07

Now who’s being disingenuous? 😉

I’d just like to ad that if anyone has pictures of cars on the wrong side of the road while their peak body claims to be abiding by road rules we will be more than happy to publish them.

Thank you brother Danman!

Can I get an AMEN!

I think being a prick is universal.
All road users have the power – just some choose to use it.

In this instance its the tools in the photograph.

Thats not to say motorised road users are little angels either.

Pricks always pass me on Gunghalin drive at 6 in th emorning – going past me liek I am standing still – at least 140 in an 80 .

But yet the roads are clear. Whats the rush.
If your late – leave earlier.

pfft to tools. Two fingers up 😛

Not just bike riding tools.
Tools in general.

what arrant nonsense.

drivers break road laws all the time.

search this site and you will see many instances mentioned.

they dont use lights at night, dont wear seatbelts, drive through red lights, drive on the cycle lanes, drive while drunk, drive while tired, and blatantly exceed the speed limits while claiming that they are unimpeachably right in doing so because the law is an ass.

perennial lawbreakers. typical of arrogant couldnt care less selfish egotists that typify your average driver.

(cyclists don’t have the mortgage on being arseholes, bonfire)

Ok, I just went for a run and clarified some thoughts!
Cyclists have to self-regulate. They may have to follow the road rules like cars however there isn’t the perception that they will actually get pulled up for e.g. running a red light. So, its down to self-regulation to make cyclists do the right thing.

And, by the nature of the size of a bike, it is easy to get places faster than cars, e.g going down the side of queued up cars, up on gutters.

I believe it takes an extremely stable balanced human to apply self-regulation in these circumstances. These type of humans probably don’t occupy a large percentage of the population – therefore most cyclists will not be able to self-regulate and therefore will break the official rules of the road.

Ultimately, you can’t do anything about this, its nature, its the law, its the VIBE, yeah, that’s it, its the vibe.

VYBerlinaV8 now_with_added grunt12:36 pm 04 May 07

Yeah, but do cars approach a red light, do some creative swerving then power across on the nearby pedestrian crossing?

what arrant nonsense.

cyclists break road laws all the time.

search this site and you will see many instances mentioned.

they dont use lights at night, dont wear helmets, ride through red lights, ride on the footpath, ride on the road then swap to become a pedestrian to get across lights without walking their bike across.

perennial lawbreakers. typical of arrogant couldnt care less selfish egotists that typify your average cyclist.

“obey traffic lights” doesn’t get broken very often by cars? Which city are you driving in, VY, because almost every time I see a traffic light change around here cars go through on the yellow and red.

“Pity the same can’t be said of cyclists. What a selfish group of prats.”

Here we go again. There are responsible Cyclists, there are irresponsible Cyclists. There are responsible Car Drivers, there are irresponsible Car Drivers. Fact of life, people are going to get from one place to another in various ways and some are going to do it legally and some illegally.

I hope that lessons are learnt from this so that the roads are safer for EVERYONE – cyclists and driver alike. We need to acknowledge that one-off events should NOT taint our view of all cyclists/drivers.

I have been hit by a car at 70k/h whilst fully visible, in a cycle lane, doing the right thing. The car was in the wrong (as agreed by the AFP investigation). This has NOT stopped me riding on the roads because I know it was a one-off event by a bad motorist. I sincerely hope that this event does not incite motorists to get aggressive towards cyclists as it is only a small number of cyclists breaking the rules – just like the car that hit me. I am sure the cyclists who were hit by the projectiles don’t hate ALL car drivers – just the few that choose to be aggressive.

Many of these cyclists would spend many long hours in the saddle, and I would be prepared to guarantee that most (can’t promise all) would do the right things when training (lights, left hand side, helmets, obey traffic lights etc), and it’s only in the heat of an event, when they have no-where to go, that they break the rules. In my opinion, the race organisers have more to answer for than the cyclists themselves.

Finally, I find it utterly appalling that people are making jokes about road kill. I’d like to see you say that to the face of the family of the injured girl.

West_Kambah_4eva10:45 am 04 May 07

If you ride your bicycle on a car road expect to be hit if you are not totally subservient to the rightful users of the road, which means go all the way to the left, if there is not room to keep riding, you stop and get off your bike and walk with it. Idiots.

Snahons_scv6_berlina10:40 am 04 May 07

Clearly the solution is obvious:
If want to hold a cycling/tri(bi)athlon/other activty requiring road use then ensure 1 simple thing happens: Section off the whole road/piece of road for the participants. Do not permit shared use of the road with the public for the event.

Much as I advocate cycling, I’ll grudgingly admit that the road is built first and foremost for cars.

I don’t see a problem with cyclists taking up one lane of a minor road for two days a year – but the behaviour we can see here is not on. For all CCC’s talk of how the road rules are applied, I’m willing to bet there weren’t many disqualifications.

The crowds of lycra-clad morons off their chops on their own endorphins and convinced of their infallible rightness and primacy on the road makes any advocacy of cycling pretty damn difficult. Rather like the retard boy-racer crowd ruining the image of overpowered cars (no, I’m not trying to lump you in with that crowd, VY. You may be a very intelligent boy racer for all I know :p)

I’ll have to admit WMC, I’ve been a little disappointed this hasn’t been picked up more widely so far.

The Crimes have all the above information. They just don’t want to upset the pedalphiles.

Woody Mann-Caruso9:35 am 04 May 07

Only some cyclists are twats, in the same way that only some motorists are twats; it’s just very easy to notice evidence that confirms a bias one way or the other.

However, the behaviour of one doesn’t excuse the behavior of the other. No amount of door opening justifies the way this race was conducted (and this race doesn’t justify the generalised slander against cyclists as a whole).

So, having said all that, these cyclists are twats, and the CCC are twats for their pathetic cover-up. If I don’t read about this in the Canberra Times tomorrow, I’ll be very, very disappointed.

of course if some young kids in hotted up ricers had done something similar, you could expect naomi tonight and their ilk to be broadcasting these images far and wide.

VYBerlinaV8 now_with_added grunt9:19 am 04 May 07

The majority of car drivers obey the rules for a majority of the time. Major rules (stay in lane, obey traffic lights, etc) don’t get broken very often by cars.

Pity the same can’t be said of cyclists. What a selfish group of prats.

Makes an interesting change from the usual kind of roadkill.

(Less diplomatic, el?)

auntiesocial1:57 am 04 May 07

99% fat-free feast for bitumen roads.

Nobody wants to be seen to be blaming the victim.

el: sorry, I misread Bartron’s “stay on the left” as keep to the left edge. Totally impractical with that many riders. I totally agree, they should not have been crossing the centre line, let alone double lines.

Nemo: a 60kmh vehicle should be sharing with the family groups?

I have to say I’m a little surprised and disappointed that the mainstream media hasn’t done more with this.

And that’s a pretty low depth to fall from.

Christ, I just clicked the link for ‘more images’ and they’re even worse. It’s terribly apparent these were regular and deliberate incidents of riding, in packs, illegally on the wrong side of the road.

If cyclists insist on making it a lawless free fire zone one wonders why they should complain about getting mowed down by vehicles which barely register the impact.

“Stay left as practical”? – The first photo clearly shows a pair of unbroken white lines – they’re illegal to cross.

“Pedalling prats” is probably too diplomatic a term, Terubo.

“Its stay as left as practical”

Well, surely it’s actually “stay on the left-hand side of the painted centre line”?

“pulling in front of small rider groups after passing, then slamming on the brakes”

This would be similar to how a car driver travelling at the speed limit feels everytime they suddenly encounter a pack of cyclists riding side by side.

It should be law for riders to ride in single file – and if there is a bike path next to the road, it should be mandatory to use it.

Pedalling prats.

Simply, it’s cyclists as hypocrites.

Perfect example.

It gives a context for the support vehicles.
I’m not defending the riders crossing the centre line.

Its stay as left as practical, completely different.

Aeek, That makes disobeying the road rules and then claiming to operate “within the law” OK then?

Explain the cyclists behaviour, not that of a few idiot drivers (throwing stuff, veering and purposly slamming on brakes is not on, no matter what vehicle you travel in/on).

From the looks of them images it’s hardly one or two ‘bad apples’ doing the wrong thing….more like half the pack (and their support vehicles). You want respect on the road, show some respect for other road users and stay on the left….act as if you own the road an other road users will get the shits with you.

Yep, that’s a great defence.

I stand corrected.

if you want inexcusable behaviour

“— opening doors into the bunch while stopped in the other lane
— opening doors into a bunch while passing the bunch at speed
— pulling in front of small rider groups after passing, then slamming on the brakes
— pulling alongside a bunch and slowly veering left
— throwing fairly large objects (e.g., big McDonald’s bag full of rubbish, full can of soda) at cyclists”

excerpt from
Comment by advocate — 2 May, 2007 @ 12:25 pm
http://the-riotact.com/?p=4783

Ari, I can only assume they are out covering their tracks.

Where are all the rabid cyclists defending this behaviour?

Nice bit of work discovering that. This is why i enjoy coming to this website so much.

And think of the poor car driver, who through the poor management of this event is now in the position of being unintentionally involved in this horrendous accident.

CraigFromCurtin4:01 pm 03 May 07

Someone should make a complaint to the AFP investigation that these photos prove that the riders were not complying with the road rules, and that the organisers have now removed such photos, probably in an attempt to cover up the truth and, dare I say, pervert the course of justice? Well what do you call it when you hide evidence?

Heads should definitely roll.

Oh, the ironing, the ironing, the huge manatee!

Sorry RG, not quite taking your meaning?

Can you say ‘Lobby Group’

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