Cycling in Brisbane Australia
Coxy's daily rant
Might as well have my own thread :P
The positive: somehow I managed to beat my best time into work by 2 minutes...I guess I was lucky with stops (or lack thereof).
The negative: Again, Sylvan Road. The intersection with Croydon St. Huge big group waiting at the lights, which isn't unusual. But as the lights changed and we'd all just made it across the intersection, a guy on what looked like a mountain bike (green t-shirt for those of you playing at home) decides to swing out wide of the group and pass everyone - swerving in front of a car who not surprisingly blew his horn. Cyclist turned around, gave the driver a death stare and a gesture. FFS mate, you were in the wrong. It's people like that who antagonise drivers and worsen the cyclist-motorist rivalry.
Disappointing to see.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Shaun Moran on -
+1
Agree - there are attitude faults on both sides (drives & cyclists). The unfortunate thing is that regardless of who is at fault the cyclist will always come off worst in an accident. Pretty hard for a 10kg bike to do much damage to a 1.5T car.
Cant remember who posted it earlier but awareness campaigns need to educate both drivers and cyclists. An until we get something like what happen in Amsterdam (http://hembrow.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-dutch-got-their-cycling.html) happen here - education is probably the only positive change to cycling that can happen.
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Permalink Reply by Paul Stockwell on -
Also +1.
To be taken seriously we need to be able to hold the moral high ground. Fools that do stupid things like that don't help when we have situations where we are legally allowed to hold our lane on the road.
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Permalink Reply by Paul Martin on -
Yeah... this behaviour really annoys me. As do the 'shoalers' - those types that wiggle there way to the front of the queue at the lights, only to take off slowly, cock up their clipless pedals and just get in everyone's way.
If I'm in the Mango and it is busy there, I will queue behind the cars and ride vehicularly with them rather than sitting in the bike 'lane' (silly little strip) which can get crowded. Doing it that way is predictable for all concerned.
I must say, I've been avoiding Sylvan Road lately as every time I've been through there while they are 'improving' it, they have made life more difficult and dangerous for cyclists. Why no traffic controllers to make things safer for us? Shame.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Cox on -
Yeah, no major obstacles caused by the construction at the moment. In fact, seems to be bugger all construction happening.
But that stretch is horrendous for bad manners from cyclists. Because of the lights you inevitably get a lot of bikes lined up waiting. And inevitably someone (or more than one person) wants to rush through to the front through the intersection.
I have no problem with people passing me, but when there's bugger all room around me it makes me nervous. If passer gets clipped by a car as they're going past me, I'm going to get brought down with them.
I always just line up behind whatever bike is in front of me at the lights, even if I see there's space in front of that bike. I wait until that bike has taken off and I try and take off promptly at a similar speed behind. It's not rocket surgery - you just ride your bike like you'd approach and leave traffic lights in a car.
Once everyone's up to speed, if I feel I can pass the person in front I'll do so if it's safe. But usually in that stretch I'm reluctant because so many cars parked in the bike lane etc. I'm usually content to wait until I get onto the Bicentennial bikeway after going under Coro Drive.
But like drivers, I don't get why some cyclists want to rush to pass people etc to get to the next intersection 5 seconds before me.
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Permalink Reply by Paul Martin on
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It's crazy isn't it. People just need to calm down and stop treating the ride to work as a race. The more people are trying to 'beat the clock' the more this sort of behaviour appears.
I just leave home nice and early and just ride relaxed. Much more enjoyable. Of course, if I'm in the Mango I'll be going faster... naturally. ;)
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Permalink Reply by Chris Cox on
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Yep. I mean even I like to "beat the clock", but still ride sensibly at bottlenecks/heavy traffic areas. I try and make up time by being more consistent up hills, accelerate over the crest of hills to get more momentum downhill, maintain speed on flats etc.
If there's congestion, just sit on someone's wheel and take it easy. No point risking everyone else's safety to beat the clock by a few seconds.
I didn't feel I did anything special today and yet shaved 2 minutes off my fastest ride to work.
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Permalink Reply by Raymond on -
Tonight, after being again inspired by recent reports of Sylvan Rd and Sumners Rd, I just had to go see the Western/Centenary Bikeway via Sylvan Rd again (having not visited for a while) - even though rush hour had already passed, this was the first time I headed that way on a weekday/weeknight.
Some observations from tonight:
- Once again, I had "no problem" with the ludicrous Sylvan Rd/Croyden St intersection as I was alone and gave myself plenty of time to definitively let the queue of cars pass as I floated in the middle of the intersection - half pedestrian, half "bike lane" cyclist - with all-round visibility and "eye" contact. I arrived there at 18:25 for what it's worth and don't recall encountering another cyclist in the same direction on Sylvan Rd. But being familiar with the behaviour of some around the Oxleys/Drift floating restaurant blind boardwalk corner - Chris's report of certain attention-attracting rush hour behaviour is disappointingly unsurprising.
- Sumners Rd definitely looks different now. I'll just say that the changes compared to a month or two ago is um; interesting - I wonder if they're going to update the signposted locality map; what a farce.
- Oh my, Paul Martin is right about the Western Freeway/Centenary Bikeway's adjacent road traffic being deafening and putrid - it's not fantastic on a weekend but during a weeknight, really quite hellish! Almost considering earplugs to let me think and focus on my own path!
Only made it out as far as crossing to the other side of Sumners Rd tonight - I did intend to perhaps make it as far as Forest Lake Railway Station but I had had enough of the unjust and fuzzy intersections for one night (40km return). It's also a pity that the suburb of Forest Lake itself is so SUV-oriented with sub-par footpaths and "bike lanes" (despite being relatively new). The last and only time I went there was during after school rush and while there were some kids catching the bus and walking - it just didn't look that safe for anyone without a full understanding of how certain implemented "designs" worked to speed up cars at points that don't really cost any more time for motorists.
Otherwise, on the positive; I experimented a little more with simply coasting downhill (with perhaps even a little tuck) instead of hitting the big ring to save energy for climbs - seemed to work quite well, although I'm not sure what effect this will have on the muscles tomorrow. :)
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Permalink Reply by AllanBrown on -
Am sure we would not see bloggers on a RACQ site bagging other drivers....it comes down to bike ed
or lack of....mtn bike means he probably is a tradesman and cycles cause he is done for DUI or something...
give the poor cyclist some grace...we cop enough ribbing from the 98% who dont cycle....
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Permalink Reply by Paul Stockwell on
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Allan, I think Chris's point wasn't that the guy was on a mountain bike, rather that he was being reckless in traffic in ways that gives cyclists a bad reputation with the 98% who don't cycle. It reinforces the "us versus them" mentality between drivers and cyclists and really doesn't help the situation at all.
Many of the people on these forums ride mountain bike, not necessarily road bikes (I have both, for example), and I've seen equally bad behaviour from people that ride whatever type of bike. It doesn't matter if he's a tradesman, professional or an academic or whatever the reason is, you need to consider how your actions affect the perception of ALL cyclists.
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Permalink Reply by AllanBrown on
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sorry...am into condescending cyclists on a blog....keep that for the RACQ NRMA Tracy Grimshaws of this world....do we blame the toddler who gets run over by their parent in a driveway?
It is a complex issue.
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Permalink Reply by Paul Stockwell on
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Not really. The guy acted like a dickhead in traffic, nearly got run over and in the process take out a half dozen other riders who would have been doing nothing wrong. Who he was really doesn't matter a tinker's cuss.
Forgive me if I'm missing the point, but what's so complex about that?
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Permalink Reply by Chris Cox on
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Sorry Allan, I didn't realise it was you :P
Just joking. Seriously I'm not casting a judgement on mountain bike riders, tradies, or even people who wear garish green t-shirts. I'm simply noting the dangerous behaviour that put himself, the driver of the vehicle (and those behind them) and the other riders (including me) who were in the group and likely to be taken out in an accident at that point, in danger. There was no reason for passing at that stage, and certainly no excuse for drifting out into the car lane in front of a vehicle.
It was reckless, stupid riding. And as Paul Stockwell said, the point was that the driver(s) witnessing that behaviour may now have a perception of cyclists as being reckless, stupid idiots. That's not going to help next time they come across cyclists is it?
I wonder what the driver posted on Facebook when they got to where they were going? And I wonder how many of their friends said "ZOMG, I know, cyclists are dumb!"...
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