Police investigating after cyclist hit by a car on Yarra Glen

Blame needs to be attributed to the ACT Government for all on-road cyclist accidents in Canberra. It is encouraging inexperienced cyclists onto the road with its on-road bike paths. Inexperienced cyclists are under the illusion that they are safe on these paths – but they aren’t. I regularly see cyclists wobbling up the on-road paths… they are an accident waiting to happen.

When you mix entities that travel at dramatically different speeds then accidents will happen. Whether it be cars and bikes, or bikes and pedestrians. The ACT Government is pushing these shared roads and paths which initially were not designed to be shared and haven’t been modified so that they can be safely shared. The onus of safety has been pushed back to drivers, cyclists and pedestrians rather than responsible traffic management and design.

While this is a tragic accident and I hope the cyclist isn’t too injured, he unfortunately didn’t look at the oncoming traffic before he crossed. More experience would have told him that he needed to stop and have a really good look at approaching traffic because cars are approaching from below. This cyclist appeared to have little idea that a car was approaching at all.

Ouch. Just a suggestion which no doubt will be ignored by many – the footage is just one aspect the police will examine during their investigation, so bear that in mind before attributing guilt.