I nearly fell off my chair when I saw this opinion piece from Catherine Deveny in yesterday's Melbourne Age:
I've had a gutful of "cyclists are a menace" comments. A car cuts them off? The driver is an idiot. A cyclist cuts them off? ALL cyclists are menaces and they should ALL be off the road and NONE OF THEM should be allowed to breed. Here's the truth: cars kill, injure, annoy, abuse, cut off and hassle far more cyclists than vice versa. And if you don't believe me, get on a bike.
Now it makes a pleasant change to see some published opinion coming out strongly and unequivocally in support of cycling. More signs of the bicycle going mainstream, I suppose.
Of course Deveny is given to hyperbolic rants and clearly she isn't everyone's cup of tea (indeed one suspects Andrew Bolt has trouble detecting irony and satire), but I find it pretty hard to find fault with the general thrust of this piece. Especially when it comes to kids:
We are constantly being told that children are getting fatter and driving cars is now the environmental equivalent to piping cigarette smoke into humidicribs.
Yet there are still plenty of people who could easily walk or ride their children to school at least a couple of times a week who don't simply because they can't be bothered. The most effective way parents can encourage children to ride bikes is by riding bikes themselves.
Children should be encouraged to think of their bike not just as fun and exercise but transport.
The Japanese believe that by carrying their babies on their back it teaches the child when to bow. I suggest that parents riding with their children in baby seats and on tagalongs gives them an instinctive understanding of the flow of traffic. Keep in mind that I have no facts to back that up, it's just what I reckon.
In the absence of any supporting facts of my own, I'd say that sounds pretty reasonable.
I response to Deveny's opinion piece, John Fraser of Thornbury complains, in a letter in yesterday's Age, that as a pedestrian he has "been bullied by cyclists at least as many times as cyclists are bullied by drivers." He then provides a list of anecdotes of cyclist misdemeanours including his near death encounter with a homicidal maniac on a bike.
I can match each of John's complaints with incidents where pedestrians have caused me, as a cyclist, grief and even potential injury, especially on shared pathways e.g.
- walking two abreast but refusing to step aside so I can safely pass
- not controlling their dog either on or off the lead
- not hearing my bell ring due to headphones then stepping in front of me
- unprovoked verbal abuse
etc.
I guess everyone makes mistakes and does silly things. We are all part of the problem and the solution. The key here is we all need to take responsibility for our own actions and respect other road/path users, whether we are a driver, cyclist or pedestrian.
If only the debate could move beyond the blame-game and simplicistic stereotypes, to a meaningful dialogue that leads to real solutions.
You ought to send that to the papers Doc H.
Comments
Nice opinion piece, but nothing new in it. Just reinforced to me the problem with stereotypes - not all cyclists are lentil-scoffing, tree-hugging, fitness-obsessed freaks who are constantly flouting the road laws as they weave through traffic. In fact, I am sure that most are decent folks who just happen to choose a bicycle as their mode of transport. The majority of car drivers are probably decent foks too, even if most consider themselves to be of above average skill & less likely to have an accident than their peers!