Magda Szubanski the woman living in a glass house who threw stones

I was hoping to write a good post about riding in the Australian Capital Territory. I was hoping to write a good post about new experiences cycling in a great place with good people and with excellent facilities. However today I am writing the first post since I moved to Canberra about an ugly rant by an unfunny comedian Magda Szubanski.

Magda Szubanski is the female equivalent of Mikey Robins – a comedian who used self depreciating humour regarding her obesity. Recently she decided to lose the weight by going on the Jenny Craig program and has now become the poster girl for Jenny Craig. It probably pays for her to promote its products (Jenny Craig is extremely expensive) as it does for other formerly flabby celebrities.

Her success with the Jenny Craig program had a good run in the press, including the usual blurbs in the women’s magazines and the newspapers. There was even an interview on the television news. However there was a moment when the wannabee shock jock on Today FM Kyle Sandilands came said words to the effect that Magda would lose more weight if she were put in a concentration camp. Immediately there was an outcry. Kyle who had come off a suspension for questioning a 14-year-old rape victim about her sex life. Was suspended again and sent to counselling.  There is still speculation as to if his show will return after the Christmas break.

On Good News Week a television program that sends up current affairs Magda took part in a segment which encourages participants to rant about something which irritates them. During this segment she ranted about cyclists on Beach Road Melbourne, saying “a four-lane highway is not your gym”. She continued to rant like a small child who missed out on a lolly about cyclists in lycra with their “bums in the air”. The rant was pretty much the usual crap that comes out of News Limited papers such as the Daily Terror or the Herald Sun. One would have thought that she had taken to ghost writing some of the crap used by Anita Ugly.  Until she and her fellow alleged comedian Julia Morris started coming out with “just drive and take them out” and “open the [car] door!”

Thankfully, I didn’t actually see the actual show. I saw the unedited version of the rant on YouTube. When I saw it I was disgusted. I thought about Ali a mate of mine who was killed while looking for a route to ride to work.

Ali was a keen cyclist and he was encouraged to ride to work by his workmates in Australian Quarantine & Inspection Service AQIS. He lived in Belmore. I work for Customs and we were working at the International Mail Centre in Clyde. Customs, AQIS and Australia Post. I initially thought it would be a real physical challenge for anyone to ride from Belmore to Clyde. 

Ali made it as far as Auburn. He got doored by an elderly woman and struck by a four wheel drive . It was a real shock for his workmates in AQIS and everyone at Clyde.  As Wade Wallace who runs cyclingtipsblog.com said in the Melbourne Age “every cyclist out there is probably about one or two people removed from knowing someone who has been killed or is in a wheelchair… That’s where it hits home pretty hard.”

This episode has led to some interesting stuff on the web. On one had we have had the Terror opening its article on the issue for comment and bringing out the usual bogans as only News Ltd can. On the other hand someone has come up with
http://twitpic.com/josl4 which basicaly a spoof of her environment week advert. There is now a Facebook group Magda Szubanski – Cyclist Hater. I thought it would be worth while posting this quote from a Melbourne cyclist who survived an incident on Beach Road
“My name is Michael Forbes. 15 months ago I was hit by a truck and ricocheted into a parked car whilst riding my bicycle on Beach Road. The accident was absolutely no fault of my own and I am now a quadriplegic in a wheelchair. GNW has always been my favourite hour of television and nothing has made me more angry than last night’s episode. For someone who is getting paid to lose weight to carry on like that last night showed no understanding of how to live a healthy lifestyle and keep that weight off. Beach Road gets more cycle traffic than car traffic on the weekend and it is best that they do not use the bike path as it would not take long for a child to be struck by a cyclist at speed. So excuse me if I have taken this comedy show a little bit seriously in this segment but could you imagine my anger as somebody goes on a rant about knocking cyclist off their bikes on the exact road that life as I knew it ended? Especially someone who is respected in this community. I can honestly say I have not been more angry than right now in my entire life. When my wife makes her way into a cafe wearing her cycling outfit by losing weight through exercise to meet me in my wheelchair, if you are there Magda be sure to expect me to introduce myself. This rant from my perspective is infinitely worse than Kyle’s effort on the radio.”

I agree with Michael in fact the “apology” is that came about as a result of the public pressure from the internet was such I had to go looking for the remorse. You can read it below:

“I am so sorry that the skit on bikers has caused offence. There are so many safety issues surrounding cyclists. Motorists need to become much more aware of cyclists on the road. My belief is that responsible cycling is to use bike paths where possible and if it’s not possible, to be extra careful on the roads.

We all make mistakes and the point is that hopefully we learn from them. Clearly my joke has brought to light that there are frustrations amongst cyclists and motorists. Hopefully some good will come of this and it will help promote useful dialogue between the two groups where some of these frustrations can be worked through in a productive way.

I am a bike rider from way back and in fact have been planning to buy a new bike. As a gesture of solidarity I have offered to participate in Bicycle Victoria’s sector of the National Ride to Work
Day on 14th October. Apologies again.

Magda.

And, yes, I will be wearing lycra.”

 I wonder how this effort will lead to ” useful dialogue between the two groups (I assume cyclists and motorists) where some of these frustrations can be worked through in a productive way”.

My own message for Magda is that the holocaust about which Kyle Sandilands joked was brought on by German contempt for Poles and Polish Jews in particular. They used words like subhuman to describe both Poles and Jews, pretty much in the same way that moronic motorists use similar words to target cyclists. In Nazi Europe it was OK to kill, maim or injure Jews so much so that Concentration Camps were used to bring this aim about. The contempt for nonmotorised road users in our roads legislation is such that the penalties for killing, maiming or injuring someone on our roads is best described as a joke – perhaps the only one that should have been highlighted in this sad and sorry saga. For the record Channel 10 is not innocent either. The GNW was not shown live and the producers chose to broadcast Magda’s comments.

Slow news day in Melbourne: Bicycle registration and other Bullshit

From todays Age: My comments will be in brackets. But I will start with the observation that if the cyclist depicted put a set of panniers and or a rack pack on the rack that number plate would be completly obscured!

A growing army of cyclists want to be free to ride free. But some drivers say it’s time they paid a rego fee

• Reid Sexton
• April 12, 2009

There have been calls to charge cyclists a registration fee to help pay for the State Government’s $115 million bike strategy, and to help identify rogue cyclists. Photo: Justin McManus

 

ASK Harry Barber if he thinks cyclists should pay a registration fee to ride their bikes and he is straight to the point.

It would be ridiculous, the Bicycle Victoria chief says, to tax transport that costs less to fund than other modes and contributes virtually nothing to carbon emissions.

But recent talk suggests the boom in cycling is accompanied by a similar rise in people who think cyclists should have to pay — and be held accountable — for their time on the road.

In February, 3AW radio host Neil Mitchell called for a registration fee or tax at the point of sale to help pay for the State Government’s new $115 million bike strategy (Mitchell has not heard about second had bikes or custom building).

His call echoed that of then Federal Opposition spokesman on sports, Pat Farmer, who last year said cyclists should pay registration to fund infrastructure and safety campaigns (Neil Mitchell is a Victorian and probably is not aware that Pat Farmer made his statements as a diversion from the fact that he had moved from his electorate in Campbelltown – a working class electorate he only just held onto in the middle of a landslide election. In the end the diversion did not work with Farmer set to leave politics at the end of the parliamentary term – good ridance to bad rubbish!)

The latest Transport Accident Commission data shows that in the five years to 2007, the number of cyclists lodging successful claims after an accident with motorised transport rose significantly each year while the number of other claims plateaued or fell.

In 2003, 3.6 per cent of approved claims for taxpayer assistance for medical bills came from cyclists. By 2007, cyclists made up 5.4 per cent of approved claims.

This figure is roughly in line with the boom that led to around 22,000 people riding to work at the time of the 2006 census, a rise of around 50 per cent in five years.

All indicators suggest that number has grown steadily since then, but the issue of medical funding is not the only one that has people thinking cyclists should pay for their road use.

A survey commissioned last month by car insurer Budget Direct found 50 per cent of Melbourne motorists surveyed supported the introduction of a cyclist registration fee (with claims from cyclists against them rising I guess they had to use some sort of spin to try to attack cycling and possibly drum up new motorists for their insurance business).

Some who want cyclists registered said bike riders should pay for infrastructure costs like other road users, but most said cyclists should be registered so they could be identified if they broke road rules (Like the motorists who steal number plates so they can steal petrol no doubt!).

Budget Direct spokeswoman Richelle Ward said drivers were tired of putting up with cyclists who regularly flouted the law but could not be reported. “A lot of people feel very strongly about this,” she said.

“It’s nothing sinister but a lot of people are saying they get nervous when bicycles do silly things on the road … they feel cyclists should be held accountable (with successful claims indicating that the motorist was at fault some thing tells me that Richell should stop attacking cyclists).

“The problem isn’t (children) on the road. It’s when cyclists are ducking in and out of traffic and running red lights.”

Victoria Police defended its record of catching errant cyclists, saying it was not aware of issues regarding identification of cyclists who commit road offences.

Harry Barber concedes a minority of cyclists break the law but said better enforcement rather than better identification would solve the problem. “Enforcement is a job for police, (not motorists),” he said.

“This is not a matter of passing a lot of laws that aren’t enforced.

“The police have plenty of laws that they can enforce but they have other priorities and are pretty busy.”

Mr Barber said most cyclists were also motorists and so already funded the TAC through car registration fees.

But he said if non-drivers were asked to provide TAC funding then it would have to extend to pedestrians and public transport users, because they were also at risk of being injured by a car.

Mr Barber said cycling infrastructure provided taxpayers with value for money by moving more people for less cost than other transport modes.

He cited the recent safety upgrade of bike lanes on Rathdowne Street in Carlton — which has boosted the number of riders who use it by 100 a day — for $150,000.

This is a fraction of what it would cost to get a comparable number of people on buses or moving through Melbourne’s congested road network by car, he said. “Asking cyclists to pay is having it exactly the wrong way around,” he said.

“The saving that using a bike delivers (to taxpayers) is enormous … then there are the climate and health benefits.”

But in Brisbane, the idea of using cyclist registration fees to fund bicycle infrastructure appears to be gaining pace.

Last week, just under half of 400 cyclists surveyed said they would support a licensing scheme, with most saying their support would be withdrawn if the money was not put towards creating better bike paths.

The survey organiser said it showed that people were now prepared to pay to ride if it meant guaranteeing their safety.

Cyclist James Storer, 34, rides his bike to work most days from Carnegie to South Melbourne.

He would back a bike levy of around $200 but only if it funded education campaigns to improve the relationship between cyclists and motorists (A voluntary $200 donation the the Amy Gillett Foundaton could achieve the same thing).

His friend and fellow cyclist Nathan Gallacher said only a nominal fee would be appropriate, and even then only for identification purposes.

“If you look at the damage to roads and the environment caused by cars … a bike does zero damage in comparison.”

A VicRoads spokesman said it did not have the resources to make bicycle registration a viable option.

The Amy’s Ride Albury report (Contribution to A Grand for Charity = 124 km)

 

 

 

 

On Friday the 7^th of March, I went to Albury for the Amy’s Ride Albury. This ride was held as part of the Multisport Albury City (MAC) event held over 2 weeks. My brother in law gave me a bike rack for the car and I used it successfully to get to the Tour De Hills, so it would be interesting to see how it would work for the 553 km trip to Albury. I decided to give myself 3 weeks off work to wind down and so decided to include the Amy’s Ride Albury and the Big Canberra Bike Ride in the first week with the Mt Cootha Challenge in Qld, being a possibility for the next week.

The ride was in support of the Amy Gillett Foundation which raises money to promote safe cycling and foster and promote better relationships between drivers and cyclists. The Foundation is named after Amy Gillett, a professional cyclist who was killed while training with the Australian Women’s Cycling Team.

There was a choice of either a 124 km ride or a 40 km ride. Both of these rides took the riders over the Victorian Border. I chose to do the 124 km ride. I left Sydney at about 09:30 after collecting a baby swing my mother bought for my nephew on ebay. I drove down the Hume Highway and found to my surprise that the petrol for the drive cost less than the rail or air fares. Earlier that week I had booked myself a hotel room at the Astor Hotel Motel. When I got there I found that I had been there before when I did a road trip to Melbourne. The drive was relatively uneventful even though as with the drive to Castle Hill it took longer than advised by the whereis.com. I found the approach to Albury has changed heaps when I arrived – there is now a bypass of the town centre.

I found my way to the Astor and unpacked the car. I then walked to the town centre and got some breakfast cereal and other supplies. I found that the service in café’s etc was slow. So I wound up having a meal in my room. I watched the first quarter of the Essendon versus Collingwood game and then retired for the night. I wound up finding that the band playing in the Hotel part of the Astor and the subsequent brawling by some of the patrons kept me awake for part of the night.

In the morning I got myself up and packed the car. I got myself ready and double checked the directions I had been given to Noreuil Park. Fortunately I had been given a map of the town and checked my directions as I would have been sent on a wild goose chase and nearly wound up back on the Hume. Fortunately I found the park, unfortunately I wound up missing the start. There were two other riders with me, I went out to try and catch up with the ride. However I wound up having to return to the park, where I collected my registration and got a briefing on where the route. I fully expected to be told that I was going to wind up doing the 40 km ride. If I had I would have copped it on the chin and done the 40 km ride (it would have been a good excuse to go up to the Central Coast and do the Loop the Lake the next day!) However the organisers arranged for the car that was to be following the ride to wait for me over on the causeway over the boarder at Wodonga.

 

After getting my number pinned on I rode all out to catch up with the other riders. I found the support car and went through the back roads through Wodonga in hot pursuit of the other riders. Just outside Wodonga the support driver offered to drive me up to the rest of the riders but I turned him down. I rode on through Bandiana and the back roads towards Tallangatta when I finally caught the last two riders and passed a guy who it turned out had broken a spoke in his rear wheel.

I said hello to the two tail end riders and we discussed the reasons for our lateness. All of us had not been to Albury for a while and had no idea where Noreuil Park was. We settled in and became the back of the pack group. When we got to a community hall that was open so we could use the toilets we stopped and used the loos and introduced ourselves. My riding companions were Irene and Chris from Melbourne. Chris had been on the Great Escapade and we exchanged stories of the start at Lithgow. Irene works at a gaming venue in Melbourne. We were about to head off, when we found the kittens from a neighbouring house. It turns out there were 11 of them and Chris and Irene are cat lovers.

We finally headed off and rode as a group. I discussed cycling in Sydney with Irene as we proceeded through Kergunyah 

towards Hume Weir.The ride went through the back roads, we passed some local cyclists either commuting or touring. The attitude demonstrated by drivers in Northern Victoria was a stark contrast to the attitude of New South Wales motorists. We were given space and were passed by cars at slow speeds. We rode through the cattle country which included a sprinkling of orchards and horse studs. We rode past Latchford Barracks and onto the halfway point. Before we got to Hume Weir Chris and Irene went to a service station for food while I rode on. I rode across the weir and into New South Wales. I met the rotary volunteers and refilled my water bottles and had some of the fruit and energy bars there. It turned out that one of the volunteers lived at Sydenham and was familiar with my neighbourhood. We were joined by Chris and Irene, who claimed that the service station also doubled as a bottle shop. The usual jokes about alchol went around. We restocked on energy gels which became useful in the hills that were to come.

We headed off and followed the lake to a bridge where we crossed into Victoria again at Bethanga. I there were some small hills but these were easy compared to the gap. I finally got backed to Talgarno and went for a toilet stop. While I was there Chris and Irene caught up, we discussed the ride and were warned about the two cattle grids which we would encounter on the return route to Albury. After we freshened up we began our ride back into NSW.

We headed back across the bridge. We followed rode back to Doctors Point and then followed of the Riverina Highway to the outskirts of Albury. We turned off into residential streets which lead to a road that lead through and industrial estate and lead under the bypasses. The road followed the Murray after which we were diverted through residential streets to the Kiewa street and then onto Murray street for the entry to Noreuil Park. Collin had caught up with Chris and Irene and lead them into the park but I was too far ahead and wound up riding in to the park at the tail end of a criterium race.

I had a look around the park and watch some of the racing. I caught up with Chris and Irene and was told about their return to the park. I also got talking to the representative of the Amy Gillett Foundation. He and I discussed the possibility of a NSW ride and he claimed that NSW and Sydney especially is a difficult market. He claimed that Bicycle NSW wasn’t forth coming with support for the ride. He said Amy’s ride Brisbane and Canberra were going to be held sooner than either NSW or Sydney.

I got myself ready for the trip to Ruth’s place at Warrimoo. I put the bike rack on the car and put the bike on the rack. After a 15 minute power nap, I headed off out of Albury back up the Hume. I reached Warrimoo at 10:30 and got myself off to bed for the next days trip to Wollongong.

Talgarno. The countryside was suffering from the drought, you could see the level the water had dropped by the layers of the sand in the lake. The hills started off some gentle climbs but we became separated as the climbs got steeper. The challenging climb came when I arrived at a Gap (I forgot who’s Gap it is named after but as I am beginning to suspect anything called a gap meant to describe a steep climb). On this Gap I found myself having to use the granny gear and on two occasions had to stop and have an energy gel and some water. I saw Chris and Irene followed by Colin (the guy driving the support vehicle) and was able to complete the climb. When I reached the summit I was able to enjoy the descent into