Mr Purple wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 2:01 pm
The solutions are pretty straightforward. But the political will doesn't exist to actually implement them. As cyclists we are in a very small minority, and for some reason we are one of very few minorities that can be openly discriminated against.
The issues I have with riding on the road can be summarised in two areas - road design and driver behaviour.
Road Design
I have a 21km commute to work, it largely has plenty of room for cycling in the wide shoulders, but whatever bike infrastructure exists consists solely of green paint with a bicycle painted on it. But I can't ride to work on a weekday because I will die. Simply because there is probably a total of 500m in that 21km where the shoulder literally disappears to nothing, and forces me into traffic in a 70 or 80 zone.
This happens a total of four times in 21km - two of these times can be fixed by painting a strip of yellow paint down the curb to stop people parking there. How is that even remotely acceptable? This is a major arterial road which sees quite a few cyclists, and sheer lack of will has made it impassable for a guy that rides 300km a week.
Because there is no coordinated approach to road design at a state, federal or local level, it needs to be a mandatory requirement of every road upgrade that it include a safe space for active travel. Preferably this would be a separated lane, however at least give us metre of extra shoulder if that isn't possible. It takes approximately 30 seconds to look at a road and realise your design is forcing cyclists into direct conflict with traffic.
Motorist Behaviour
At the moment there are a number of motorists who look at cyclists and see them as an obstacle. This manifests as narrow passes and failure to give way. Only last weekend I had a car look directly at me and pull out from a side street - if I hadn't braked I would have gone through her open driver side window. She saw me, acknowledged I was there, and did not recognise me as something that she needed to give way to.
Motorists not only need to see cyclists, they need to fear us. The need to realise 'hey, if I hit this person I'm either going to jail or not driving for a very long time'. At the moment they receive exactly the same penalties in hitting and killing a cyclist as if they'd hit and caused minor panel damage to a car.
We absolutely need presumed liability. Given a motorist is at fault 80% of the time a cyclist is hit, I'm pretty sure the remaining 20% can support their case if they truly weren't at fault. Also none of this 'you get the same penalty regardless of the consequence' bulldust. I can see the legal reason for that but it must be legislated that if you kill or seriously injure someone through your neglect you are far more liable than if you cause a minor bingle.
Also motorists need to see driving as 'not a right' but a privelige. Part of that is sorting out our active travel so cycling is a viable option. But every day I see motorists behaving in such a way that you can immediately tell if their licence was immediately cancelled indefinitely our roads would instantly become a much safer place.
My safety experience is that if you meet bad road design and a bad driver at the same time, you die. So I avoid all bad road design if I can, and I avoid areas where I know the drivers are terrible. The sad thing is this rules out the Brisbane River Loop (King Arthur Terrace and the State Tennis centre couldn't be designed better to mince cyclists, and the drivers are the most arrogant sods you'll see in Brisbane) which is allegedly our cycling highlight in Brisbane.
But as above, just as they did after the recent cyclist death on Cootha (almost certainly caused by a speeding motorcyclist on the wrong side of the road from what I've seen) the general public will blame cyclists for our own lack of safety. Because they once saw a guy on a bike run a red light or something. And the police will continue to crack down on 10km/hr speed limit enforcement for cyclists because 'safety'.
Politics is 9
9% theatre so nothing will ever get fixed.