Mayor Rattenbury has penned a plea for motorists and cyclists to leave off all the hating:
There is a rumbling debate in Canberra about the rights and responsibilities of cyclists, pedestrians and car drivers. Many people take sides with one of these groups, depending on their personal perspective. As someone who drives, rides and walks around our town, it’s clear to me that that unfortunately there are irresponsible road users in all of these groups.
We need to come out of the trenches. This shouldn’t be a war between cyclists and car drivers. It should be a discussion about how we can have safe roads and paths for everyone in the community, because the truth is that neither car drivers or cyclists want to see or be involved in accidents.
“Vulnerable road users” is a term used for people who are most at risk in traffic, and who are the weaker party in any collision: pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.
Weekly Newsletter
Every Thursday afternoon, we package up the most-read and trending RiotACT stories of the past seven days and deliver straight to your inbox..Last year there were 4 pedestrians, 3 motorcyclists and 1 cyclist killed on ACT roads, compared to 3 car drivers. While only 8% of all motor vehicle crashes involved injury, 57% of crashes involving bicycles were injury crashes.
I’d like to see the concept of “vulnerable road users” become well recognised in Canberra, and entrenched in our road transport laws. We need to recognise vulnerability in the way we plan and design our city, and road users need to recognise it in the way they interact. The reality is that car drivers have a special onus to be aware of the more vulnerable people around them. Cyclists and pedestrians need to behave in a way that is safe and respectful. Cyclists need to ensure they are visible, consider pedestrians, and show respect for road rules.
This week I will call on the ACT Legislative Assembly to establish a Committee inquiry to investigate the ACT’s approach to vulnerable road users. There are interesting and successful advancements being made all over the world and the Committee will be able to harness these new ideas and recommend improvements for the ACT.
There will, no doubt, be many trips required to Amsterdam and Copenhagen, so not a bad secretariat to get onto.
Loading ...
What’s Your opinion?
Shane pleads for peace in our times. And calls for a committee on cyclists
Masquara said :
I’ll give you the Easy Peasy Albanese. That was quite amusing.
It’s hard to disagree that special care needs to be taken to protect vulnerable road users but I fear this is going to turn into an assumption of culpability on the part of motorists when incidents occur.
I drive to work through Braddon and the city and I treat all cyclists with same care as I would treat my friends who cycle. I’ve had several near misses and I’ve seen many more. In most cases it’s caused by cyclists who are willing to use their vulnerability to gain right of way when they don’t have it. I don’t accept that I’m more responsible for a cyclists safety than they are for their own safety.
I can’t argue with Shane Rattenbury’s starting position but we’ll see where the debate goes from here.
Postalgeek said :
Easy Peasy Albanese! Read comment #1 for starters! : ]
“…it’s clear to me that that unfortunately there are irresponsible road users in all of these groups.”
Rattenbury may be a simple sort, but this observation is spot on.
Masquara said :
Can you show me evidence of this bipartisan hate agreement, or is this just another example of you oozing hate and squirting it onto everyone else again?
Why can’t we all just get along?
Ben_Dover said :
I’m sure they will all have representation on the committee.
Mayor Rattenbury should have noticed by now that there is considerable bipartisan agreement betwixt cyclists and car drivers on hatin’ on lots of his bogus Green “policy work”! The enemy of my enemy is both our enemy!
switch said :
I`m quite happy to fit one of these to my bicycle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Range_Acoustic_Device
GardeningGirl said :
To this day, steam locos in the USA have to operate with a bell clanging away on them all the while.
GardeningGirl said :
Clothes pegs in the spokes? 🙂
>>Cyclists need to ensure they are visible, consider pedestrians, and show respect for road rules.<<
Went for a walk yesterday. Thank you to the one cyclist out of about a dozen who rang his bell. I have an idea. The problem as I see it is the magpie swooping effect of a cyclist suddenly whooshing past your shoulder with no warning. Since all this talk and the signs I've seen on some paths isn't making much difference to some cyclists habits, what about making it compulsory for bikes to be fitted with something that makes some noise so that you can HEAR them coming from an adequate distance WITHOUT the cyclist needing to operate any device?
He forgot to include original Australians, the transgender community, people of uncertain ethnicity, fluffy bunnies, unicorns and rainbows in that message. He’s slipping.
We may well see peace in the Middle East before this happens.
We all hate each other equally.