Comments on: Bike lane, NOT motorbike lane

By: Adrian

Adrian — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 01:53:50 +0000

I know this topic was posted a long time ago but it is still a problem for me and my morning commute in Perth, Australia. Today a scooter overtook me without even leaving the bike lane and nearly bumped me off into a guard rail. I was furious! I tried to get his licence without any success. I think it is ridiculous to allow motorised vehicles to share cycle lanes on roads. I believe some of the danger comes from having people who have no specific motorbike training allowed to ride scooters without a full understanding of how other motorists see them and what is dangerous interaction with other road users. Surely we should be encouraging non motorised transport?

By: d

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 02:43:30 +0000

i have wanted to say this to you forever

SHARE THE ROAD

By: Treadly and Me

Treadly and Me — Thu, 13 May 2010 21:46:43 +0000

@Murray: More than happy to oblige. I've revised and expanded that section.

I reckon the claim that a motorcycle is a bicycle can be rejected based simply on the common usage of either term. But for good measure, in the Dictionary section of the Victorian Road Safety Road Rules a bicycle is defined as "a vehicle with 2 or more wheels that is built to be propelled by human power". The definition goes on to specifically exclude "a scooter, wheelchair, wheeled recreational device, wheeled toy, or any vehicle with an auxiliary motor capable of generating a power output over 200 watts (whether or not the motor is operating)". So in my state at least, that clearly leaves motorcycles outside the bike lane.

By: Murray

Murray — Tue, 11 May 2010 10:33:00 +0000

The links under the heading "Possible Confusion" aren't working.

Can you re-instate them or link to somewhere that gives the details of the law that says motorcycles are not allowed in cycle lanes?

It is a daily occurrence for me to have motorcycles bearing down on me on cycle lanes. Several times I have been shoved and had my wheel kicked (and buckled) by motorcyclists who considered me (on my bicycle) to be "in the way".

Last week a motorcyclist told me that on his tax disc his vehicle is described as a "bicycle" and therefore he is allowed on a cycle lane. This (probably fake) ignorance needs to be argued against with facts.

By: Stu

Stu — Fri, 15 May 2009 10:15:42 +0000

I moved from Sydney to Amsterdam about three months ago. In Amsterdam, cycling lanes are shared with scooters. From my experience, scooters and cyclists do not mix for two simple reasons. Scooters are faster and heavier than cyclists and therefore scooters pose a safety risk to cyclists. In Amsterdam, scooters always weave in and out of cyclist traffic at high speed and they are often driving at speeds quicker than cars on the roads! Scooter drivers naturally take on an air of superiority over cyclists because they are faster than cyclists. This is normal human behaviour. Cyclists do the same to pedestrians. Sometimes scooter drivers cheat by using the road to get past a queue of cyclists at an intersection then drive back onto the cycle lane to bypass a car traffic jam. I strongly urge you to protest any effort to allow scooters to use cycle lanes because if they are given approval to use cycle lanes it will be virtually impossible to overturn that decision in the future.