Fingers waved on the parkway

Awesome.

His reply to my comment on Youtube summed it up nicely:

—

@indigoid true it may, but same goes for the guy in the white car and where is his head check before lane changing. IF there was a stream of cars and no room for them to merge I would back off…but in this case he had plenty of room – he just instinctively went for the lane change without looking.

—

Nobs like this give the more careful riders among us a bad name.

Did he dieded?……I think I just wasted 4 minutes and 51 seconds of my life.

Road safety hysteria? Is life in Canberra that boring?

Better motorcycle videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpOxMDE0acE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxEkz9lSYFE

p1 said :

While I agree with all the comments stating that this rider is a tool giving us all a bad name, I can’t help but find a all the comments about him being inexperienced a little funny. Do you all think that experienced riders/drivers/pedestrians can’t disregard everything they know and act like tools some or all of the time?

Do you see a 50 year old male in a commodore, speeding and sitting in peoples blind spots, and assume they are inexperienced?

I’ve no idea why people are suggesting the rider is inexperienced. I figure, like the commodore driver in your example above, that he is simply a garden variety dickhead.

This video is no longer available because the uploader has closed their YouTube account.

lol.

the user has deleted their account. bugger.

Bah hahahahahaha, the video is no longer available 🙂

And the user has closed their youtube account…..

Apparently we have made him cranky enough to close his youtube account now.

I travel that road to work and far too many cars cruise in the right hand lane at or just above the speed limit (except for the camera point) and their sole reason appears to be to avoid having to change into the right lane if someone comes down the merge ramp. I was surprised to see that the cars were in the correct lane.

Most drivers don’t seem to understand that the right lane should be kept clear so that 1. people can safely use it to allow a merge from the left or to overtake a slower-than-the-speed-limit vehicle and 2. emergency vehicles can have a clear path. I’m sick of getting trapped in the left lane by a slow vehicle and never getting a chance to safely overtake because of the cars cruising in the right lane.

Often I find that these people are so wedded to cruising in the right lane that I can overtake them in the left one.

So I’m with the Toyota driver. Should have checked of course but may easily have done so and missed the bike. If the bike had been travelling at the correct speed, the car driver may well have already noted their proximity “there’s a bike somewhere but I can’t see it, I’ll have a better look”.

If you’ve got time, check out this knob jockey’s Youtube channel. He’s got another video, speedo fully visible, looks like he hits a dollar sixty, overtakes on solid lines etc. I hope the police can prosecute him based on the footage before he kills himself.

Yes, the Toyota could have been more careful, but for eleventy million reasons already stated this dickhead rider put himself in this position.

While I agree with all the comments stating that this rider is a tool giving us all a bad name, I can’t help but find a all the comments about him being inexperienced a little funny. Do you all think that experienced riders/drivers/pedestrians can’t disregard everything they know and act like tools some or all of the time?

Do you see a 50 year old male in a commodore, speeding and sitting in peoples blind spots, and assume they are inexperienced?

godot64 said :

As for the narks carrying on about excessive speed by the rider… yeah, sometimes people break the rules, both riders and drivers. Oo-er. Get over it – it’s not a reason to try to kill a motorcyclist with your car.

The point is that by breaking the rules you add a lot of risk to the situation. If the rider hadn’t been speeding in the first place, the Echo would have had heaps of room to change lanes.

I ride a motorbike and i would not have gone into that gap like they did….see the two oncoming cars, there was clearly no room and someone is very likely to come over.

Come to think of it, i would not have accelerated if i was in my car either!

I find it interesting that no one has commented on the fact the bike rider is recording a drive up the parkway in the first place….what an ass clown.

What a waste of time; there was no violence, swearing, jumps, burnouts or Transformers. Canberra roads are so boring.

The rider expresses his care of the road rules nicely here also.

http://wn.com/Fri_arvo_ride_home_via_Coppins_crossing

The quick run at the end of the video is worthy of note.

Pot, kettle.

Amazing this guy would post a video of himself breaking the law by exceeding the speed limit on numerous occasions and also overtaking cars on the left. Surely this video evidence would be enough for the boys in the blue to catch up with him. Riding a bike is dangerous at the best of times but when you ride like a fool it’s just a matter of time. Every single rider I know has had at least one serious accident despite being experienced and sensible riders. One has a leg that will never be the same and another is no longer with us today. I hope this rider gets some sense soon before he becomes another road statistic. My guess is he’s under 25 and thinks he’s invincible. A bike versus a car or tree will always lose.

bugmenot said :

Not sure about everybody else, but the audio and video were out of sync to me (by around 1 second). Makes we wonder if it was a little deliberate on the part of the rider.

If you watch the video and take note of *visually* when he hits the horn (left thumb movement to a button on the lower part of the hand grip, for those that don’t know), you’ll see that it’s not until he is right alongside the car that he hits the horn. There was plenty of indication and forewarning hat the driver was intending to merge. If you’ve got time to hit the horn, you had more than enough time to take other actions.

Given that he was being a douche for the rest of his trip, the rider is the cause of the accident in this case. He clearly gassed it up after crossing the speed camera sensors so that he could get back up to ludicrous speed.

It’s sad that it’s morons like this that give the rest of the riding population a bad name. There’s only one reason I can think that somebody would mount a camera to their helmet and go for a ride…

Well spotted Bugmenot. The video shows the motorcycle is travelling in the right wheel track of the right lane when it approaches the Corolla. This is a dangerous lane position to be overtaking in. You don’t need to make calculations to determine the rider does indeed return to ludicrous speed following the encounter with the Corolla.

If you forward the video to about 4:03, the rider ironically passes what looks to me to be a mobile speed camera van (driving) and as the bike passes, the driver of the van appears to be signalling the rider with his arm to slow down. The rider is clearly an inexperienced fool and can be best described as a temporary citizen. It shows bad attitude toward driving is not limited to one particular vehicle type and there are bad apples in every barrel.

Yep both idiots. Car driver is one of the reasons I don’t ride a bike anymore and the biker is an f#$%wit who gives all bike riders a bad name. You ride as if everybody else has the lowest common skill level and is out to kill you – whatever you think your skills are which they almost certainly aren’t fast enough. I leart that the hard way while riding safely, legally and then being hit by a driver speeding and doing something illegal.

s-s-a: I would have though about 140km but you’ve actually worked it out.

Not that it matters, but it’s a Toyota Echo, not a Corolla.

My opinion, they’re both in the wrong. The Echo for lane-changing when it wasn’t safe, and the bike rider for assuming that a car would not move into his lane. It seems reasonably clear to me that the bike rider was assuming that everyone would do the “right” thing – but of course, that’s a very dangerous assumption.

The rider in the house has made a further observation: The Corolla changed into the right lane because it was under pressure the van behind it, who apparently couldn’t slow down for a minute or two.

I’m not sure what the definition of tail-gating is, but if you do it, and an accident results, you’ll get a ticket for careless driving at the least.

Back of the envelope tosser calcs…

Parkway video: Bus stop after Sulwood Drive at 1:50 passing 66 sets of lane-marking dots by 2:34, distance 1.6km = average speed 130km/h

Coppins video: 2.6km from the top of the hill on the southern side at 1:55 to the approach to Uriarra Rd intersection at 3:16 = average speed 115km/h

well there’s about 4:47 of spectacularly boring footage…

idiots drive on roads, details at 6…

Counted the number of cars this idiot flies past – 24. Probably more, but, footage is edited. Can’t believe some people are discussing the Corolla. Can somebody please get this motorbike tosser off the roads?

If the motorcyclist reads this, and I’m sure he will, you can’t have it both ways matey. You speed past two dozen cars at excessive speed, but your only concern is a merging Corolla?

C’mon mate. Slow down and save your own life or that of someone else. You’re not invincible, although you seem to think you are. On last nights Crash Investigation episode, it showed the death of a motorcyclist whose head was crushed under a tanker. Just sayin’.

Not all motorbike riders are morons. Some of us actually ride well within the law, but it’s good to see a glimpse of what I see almost every day on the road. To change the subject to ‘he’s speeding, it’s his own fault’ is changing the point. What about all the motorbikes that get cut off daily, who are not even in a merge situations (some idiot car driver just decides he likes the right hand lane better)…

I guess to look at it another way, I bet if it was a 2 tonne land curser he wouldn’t have seen it either, but he would have changed his mind about moving across. I’m just glad it wasn’t my girlfriend he met in the V8 petrol land cruiser, he would be off the road for repairs (she stops for nothing).

lobster said :

Also, the guy should have edited the video to only show the few seconds before the incident to not make himself look like a tool.

Agreed.

Also, as a motorbike rider who rides that road most days, too and from work, I’ll forecast that the biker, who was obviously playing to the camera, won’t be riding much longer if he doesn’t sharpen his skills up considerably.

That road is notorious for poor driving, with 20% of drivers believing the outside lane is kept clear of traffic for them to drive in, at 10 kmph under the speed limit.

If you don’t ride you bike like EVERY other person on the road is a moron, then YOU are a moron.

Surely every car driver on the parkway needs to be aware of motorcyclists exercising their rght to do 150kph or more.

Not sure about everybody else, but the audio and video were out of sync to me (by around 1 second). Makes we wonder if it was a little deliberate on the part of the rider.

If you watch the video and take note of *visually* when he hits the horn (left thumb movement to a button on the lower part of the hand grip, for those that don’t know), you’ll see that it’s not until he is right alongside the car that he hits the horn. There was plenty of indication and forewarning hat the driver was intending to merge. If you’ve got time to hit the horn, you had more than enough time to take other actions.

Given that he was being a douche for the rest of his trip, the rider is the cause of the accident in this case. He clearly gassed it up after crossing the speed camera sensors so that he could get back up to ludicrous speed.

It’s sad that it’s morons like this that give the rest of the riding population a bad name. There’s only one reason I can think that somebody would mount a camera to their helmet and go for a ride…

Spideydog said :

Just because you have right of way, doesn’t mean a crash wont occur. Green light means “go when safe to do so”

Well said.
________________________________________________________

Am I the only one who can’t see the speedometer? Some have done a much deeper analysis of this than me. I don’t think well when I’m holding my breath. Because this happens on every single bike ride. Taking a camera is practically entrapment, haha.

I’m a name-and-shame type of pillion passenger. Someone tries to change lanes into me, I will point at them for as long as I can see them.

I agree that the indicator was an absolute bonus. Any rider worth their salt can avoid a car which has indicated. Any driver worth their salt knows that they won’t see everything, and that’s what indicating is for.

Just a note about head-checking: If I turn my head these days I can’t see well at all, so it’s a condition of my license that I have fish-eyes on both mirrors. I recommend them for everyone, if they ‘need’ them or not.

As a cruiser rider, I’ve got to agree with most of the comments. This rider was in the right lane far too much, was not riding defensively, and spent a lot of time in drivers’ blind spots.

He’s clearly not an experienced rider – hopefully he’ll get there one day. Mate, it’s all about situational awareness and you’ve got a lot to learn.

The “speeding” is not an issue, though, IMO.

Predictable behavior from the Corolla. But the rider perhaps hasn’t yet learnt that riding a bike (particularly a fast bike), means that everyone else on the road is actively trying to kill you. They aren’t being careless, they genuinely want you dead!

Or, at least, you should ride like everyone is trying to kill you. Anticipate murderous actions and don’t sit in blind spots.

As for the narks carrying on about excessive speed by the rider… yeah, sometimes people break the rules, both riders and drivers. Oo-er. Get over it – it’s not a reason to try to kill a motorcyclist with your car.

The rider started honking before he got close to the rear of the corolla. If he’d used that energy to apply brakes and release the throttle, much angst could have been saved.

Using the horn would only startle the Sunday driver, and possibly cause a more dangerous situation to unfold such as the afore-mentioned hitting the brakes half way through a lane change, which already causes enough accidents on that entry ramp as it is.

The Government isn’t going to start taking licenses away from incompetent drivers, so it’s our burden as competent drivers to do everyone else’s driving for them. That includes the folks who think that “no cars in front of me” means “there is no speed limit” all the way through to folks who think that “my bike can get to 200km/h in second gear” means “there is no speed limit.”

It is therefore the responsibility of every car driving Canberran to change lanes into the path of approaching land-speed-record-attempting motorbikes to encourage them to respect the road rules which are intended to keep them safe.

We should give him credit for slowing down at the speed camera, obviously no leaf between number plate and number plate cover.

The angle of the camera makes it look like he was speeding. . .

I can’t seem to get this vid to work. sad but I’ll base a +1 tool comment after seeing his second video.

Ohh, and the poor dear was so traumatised, that he had to gun it, and then start overtaking people on the inside. Because obviously, after you’ve been forced to pretend you don’t have brakes and power past someone who’s trying to change lanes into you, the best thing you can do to avoid facing a similar situation in the future is to start weaving through fast moving traffic…

Also, the guy should have edited the video to only show the few seconds before the incident to not make himself look like a tool.

It doesn’t matter what he did before hand.
The person in the corolla still should have seen him and even if they didn’t – they should have noticed the beeping and not kept on changing lanes.

Having said that – the motorbike rider was being a massive tool beforehand.

fabforty said :

…and his point is ?

This is exactly why we have speed limits. Because unpredictable stuff like this happens – often.

I note that the hero on the bike was travelling at excessive speed in the time leading up to this. He is lucky that traffic immediately prior to this forced him to slow down. If someone had pulled out in front of him 1 minute before when he was passing other vehicles as if they were standing still, he would have had no hope of avoiding his own demise.

His Youtube moment would have made sad viewing in the Coroner’s Court.

+1

If there’s one group of citizens who need to let the sanctity of the road rules take a back seat to commonsense, it’s motorcycle riders. It appears this rider hasn’t yet grasped that fact or doesn’t want to.

A motorcycle rider who asserts his rights to his space on the road over the propensity of cars to also want that space will find out that no matter what the legal definition of sharing is, might is still ri

Jethro said :

They’re both idiots.

Huge thumbs up!

Speeding much?

When they scrape this fella off the road I hope they use his helmet cam footage in the accident investigation.

KB1971 said :

Yep the driver could have used more care but the rider was on the horn long before he was along side the car & a basic road rule is that the driver in from has right of way. I actually half expected to see the van to move across.

What basic road rule is this you refer to? The only time a car in front has ‘right of way’ is at a form one lane where both lanes end and turn into a single lane. In this case it was a case of car on left wanting to merge to the right, in which case the vehicle already in that lane has absolute right of way. If that vehicle needs to slow or take evasive action then the lane changing vehicle didn’t give them the right of way. That is what has happened here.

Now having said that though, and has been mentioned in other posts that doesn’t take away the need for the rider to be cautious of their surroundings and what is happening on the road. Common sense would say when ever you see a line of traffic merging from the left with a line of traffic in the left lane that some of them may well try to get in the right hand lane.

Classic parkway situation. Cars entering via the Cotter Road, so the car in the left lane moves over so the entering cars can come on safely. I would hope more motorists (vehicle and motorcycle alike) are more awake to these situations. 3 into 2 doesn’t go.

The only reason the motorcycle slowed down was because it went through a speed camera. Aaprt from that he was well in excess of 130km/h as other have said. As a motorcyclist, he should be aware that he can disappear into a car’s blind spot, and he was in it for a while.

The driver probably didn’t head check, but she did (eventually) indicate. The motorcycle had plenty of time to slow down and stay behind, but his previous driving style indicates that he isn’t that type of rider.

Just another day on the parkway, unfortunately.

I agree with AussieRodeny though at post #1, every car was overtaken as if they were standing still. The bike rider was speeding and therfor loses any moral high ground.

Don’t they teach situational awareness in the stay upright courses?

If he continues to ride like that, he’s going to come across a lot of ‘idiot’ motorists. If he pays attention to traffic flow and gets rid of the black helmet, he might live a bit longer.

johnboy said :

it beats the hell out of changing lane with no warning at all.

the rider had plenty of time to slow down

True. But sometimes it is a better option to zip past. Once you are in front, the car can no longer hit you without trying really hard. I have had a car do that in front of me, get half in my lane, see me, then hit the brakes in surprise….

Ain’t there some riveting stuff on YouTube?

As a rider myself, I can honestly say that at those merge points I look our these types of situations. That was a classic example of where an defensive rider/driver would have seen vehicle’s getting ready to merge from the slip lane and you do either one of two things:

1. get past the white corolla early (cause you know that they are most likely going to want to change lanes to allow the merging vehicles out)

2. Slow down and anticipate the white corolla coming out without looking.

I would suggest option 2 as probably the better option.

Just because you have right of way, doesn’t mean a crash wont occur. Green light means “go when safe to do so”

If a collision did occurred there, in my opinion, the rider is just as much at fault (not legally) as the white corolla driver. 99.9% of collisions are totally preventable.

Typical of motorcyclists to think that only some of the road rules apply to them and still expect all other road users to see them. Judging by the footage and the number of cars the motorcylist is flying past he is doing at least 130kph in the 100 zone. It is fairly typical of moronic motorcyclists to think that only some of the road rules apply to them and still expect all other road users to see them when they ride unpredicably.

All the footage proves is that both the corolla and the motorcyclist are at fault. There was no reason for the corolla to change lanes, the merging traffic was well ahead to make a safe merge and the reason that it nearly changes lanes into the motorcyclist is that the rider adds 10kph after going past the speed camera. The driver probably did the right checks before but didn’t anticipate the additional speed of the rider adds.

They’re both idiots.

Whoever’s right or wrong, when it’s about protecting yourself the rider could have been more aware. On that section of the parkway it’s not uncommon for cars to move to the right lane when they see cars heading to merge from that entry ramp on the left. Given there were cars coming down that ramp that’s what I’d be thinking and looking out for, regardless of whether I’m in a car or on the bike.

Bit of a shame to see that the rider is just blatantly ignoring the speed limit every chance he gets though.

johnboy said :

it beats the hell out of changing lane with no warning at all.

the rider had plenty of time to slow down

+1. He rode right past when he could easily have waited, knowing the lane change was coming. Sure, the car didn’t look (or didn’t see him), but deliberately allowing yourself to be almost run off the road because you were going significantly quicker than surrounding traffic and didn’t want to back off doesn’t do the motorcyclist any favours.

…and his point is ?

This is exactly why we have speed limits. Because unpredictable stuff like this happens – often.

I note that the hero on the bike was travelling at excessive speed in the time leading up to this. He is lucky that traffic immediately prior to this forced him to slow down. If someone had pulled out in front of him 1 minute before when he was passing other vehicles as if they were standing still, he would have had no hope of avoiding his own demise.

His Youtube moment would have made sad viewing in the Coroner’s Court.

I’m in two camps on this, yep the driver didn’t do a head check to change lanes but the rider was also sitting in the blind spot for a long time down the hill towards the Cotter Road.

Yep the driver could have used more care but the rider was on the horn long before he was along side the car & a basic road rule is that the driver in from has right of way. I actually half expected to see the van to move across.

On of the reasons I don’t ride any more, taking on cars on Adelaide Ave on my pushy is safer than punting a roadie up the Parkway every day.

nothing unusual in that video, much the same technique as used by the Black VW bora sedan heading city bound past the airport at 1:30 today that tried to run over my girlfriend on her bike, when his behavior was questioned by a collection of hand signals both from her and myself the best we could get out of him was a shrug of the shoulders.

JB, what difference does the indication make in your view? flashing the indicators doesn’t magically give someone right of way last time i checked

Some people have no idea. Almost a perfect example of how not to change lanes, although he lost points for indicating.

I’m a little surprised that FullHalfGlass didn’t hit the brakes when he saw the car indicating though, sure, he had right of way, but cars not giving way to motorcyclists frequently lead to nasty consequences for the motorcyclist I’m lead to believe.

Yep, happens all the time & well caught.

But what speed is he doing if he’s going past cars like they’re standing still?