NASHIE wrote:Aushiker wrote:
What was I dong wrong here that didn't warrant respect? Is it because some other random rider did something "wrong" in her eyes and hence I hadn't earned this motor vehicle operators respect because I am on a bike?
That happens on the road everyday, car, bike ,bus pulling in front of other motorist. I don't think she had it in for you .....just didn't see you for one of many reasons. For all we know you might of been signalling to turn left and then changed your mind ?. There are countless t-bone, rear-end etc crashes daily MV vs MV
it's true, it happens every day and this just highlights why getting all cyclists to obey the traffic lights will do nothing to stop collisions between cars, motorcycles, bikes, pedestrians.
people don't run through a process before causing a collision, they don't sit there and think "hey, that cyclist ahead of me, i'm going to run into them because the other day I saw a cyclist go through a red light so i'm going to give this person less respect than they deserve and run into them".
they do it because they're not paying attention, they do it because they misjudge their speed, the distance, the conditions, people don't make a conscious decision to have an "accident".
these accidents and incidents won't disappear if we all obey the traffic lights, the "bad name" or "good name" cyclists get from obeying the rules all the time is worth nothing - in some situations cyclists get just as much of a bad name from obeying the rules as they do from not obeying them:
those bloody cyclists riding on the road, should be on the footpath !!
those bloody cyclists not paying rego
riding 2 abreast
claiming the lane (when safe to do, or dangerous not to)
those nutters that do intentionally close pass, abuse, hit cyclists don't do it because "they once saw some cyclist doing something a while back so they're going to teach the next cyclist a lesson", they do it because they're selfish mentally unhinged road users, even if we all obey every road rule and only ride 2-abreast on sundays while coming home from church, those lunatics are still going to be lunatics.
we shouldn't get drawn into confusing a perceived excuse for bad behaviour "they go through red lights" with the reason "I wasn't paying attention officer"
it's a weird sort of victim blaming.