Lets face it most Motorists are hypocrits. After the latest report of the death of a cyclist on Swanson Street in Melbourne the local tabloid- the Herald Sun, opened a readers comments section where the public got to express an opinion on what had happened. Melbourne is one of Australia’s safer cities for cyclists. It has a good participation rate and is developing facilities faster and of a better quality than my city of Sydney. Nethertheless I was sickened by the vile & ugly sentiment expressed by some in the comments section of the Herald Sun.
It seems that there are some in the community who cannot see past their own bias when commenting on the tragedy. The Herald Sun comments give us a sterling example of this sort of logic:
“Wait… sorry… ban buses? Ban cars? Um, who exactly do you think it is that pays for the roads via rego? Push bike riders get a free ride. They have no right to be on the rd in the first place, may as well say I have the right to WALK on the rd since I live here and pay taxes. Rego your bike and contribute and maybe the rest of us will have a bit more respect for you. At the moment you don’t earn your right to the road, all you do is irritate and endanger the rest of us with your disregard for anyone else.”
Posted by: Maggie of Cranbourne 12:30pm September 18, 2008
Comment 47 of 117
“Bikes have no place in the busy streets of a city centre.”
Posted by: b of Canberra 1:50pm September 18, 2008
“TO DAVID ELLIOTT,YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING,I SEE MANY A BIKE RIDER THAT DOES NOT THINK THEY HAVE TO STOP FOR A RED LIGHT AND THINKS THEY HAVE MORE RIGHTS THAN ANY OTHER TRANSPORT ON THE ROAD.YES SOME PEOPLE IN CARS DON’T WATCH OUT FOR BIKES AS I HAD A MATE KILLED BY SOMEONE THAT WAS TO BUSY SENDING A TEXT INSTEAD OF WATCHING WHERE THEY WERE GOING.”
Posted by: STEVE of BAYSWATER 12:33pm September 18,
“Cyclist & Motorist of Lower Templestowe 12:22 – Not entirely correct as that I own a shabby car (to take to the station), a European car and a motorcycle (sometimes to ride to work etc.) and I pay three different registration. According to your logic, I should pay the highest of the one registration because I only drive one at a time. There is wear and tear because the public are losing roads for cycles which count only a small proportion of the public. Also there is the accountability issue as it is easier for a person to identify a cyclist with a registration imprinted on a special visible vest than the usual kaleidoscopic lycra wear. sooner or later this will happen because as cars leave the road for cycles, the government will have to have a new way of obtaining revenue.”
Posted by: Paul Chao of Box Hill 1:51pm September 18,
“Cyclists are Germs on the road, They rate up there with people who Ride scooters. They cut in front of you, ride up along side of you at red lights and then slowly ride off in front of you. This isn’t even starting on them trying to slip stream trucks and Busses and there disregard to follow any road rules. The only people who don’t think Cyclists arn’t a meanace is Cyclists themselves. Yuri lay off Maggie, Its a have your say forum Titled “Bus ban call”. It not like she is making distastful comments in a forum dedicated to the cyclist. Your talk about being a human being but feel its ok to trash talk her. You filthy hypocrite. You will probably find Truck drivers kill the most people on the roads these days and idiots who drink drive. Its an unfortunate acident , but choosing to ride a push bike, scooter or even a motor bike is making a educated choice to be less safe on the road.”
Posted by: Grugerty 1:58pm September 18,
“It’s easy to solve. Ban bikes in the city. The fact is, the more bikes you have, the more people get killed. “
Posted by: Noel Jackson 2:11pm
The ultimate sickenting comment came with
“For all Bike riders, posting here. The fact is you are making a conscious decision to put yourself in greater danger everytime you Ride on a main road. For thise who post ” I have had many near misses” why would you be crazy enough to keep riding.? Will people please stop posting about insenotive people. This is a have your say forum and is not a memorium to the cyclist. I don’t see whe its bad for people to post their thoughts”
Posted by: Gink 3:17pm September
“It is sorry to here about a death on the roads but until Cyclists start obeying the road rules and stop carry on like cowboys its hard to have an sympathy for them if they want to share the roads with other users they should have to pay registration insurance and pass a test then they would have as much right to use the roads until then stick to cycle paths away from main roads”
Posted by: Mick Hooker of Melbourne 4:46pm
“Cyclists seem to beleive that they have total use of the road and don,t give a damm about other road users and pedestrains (BAN THE CYCLISTS)”
Posted by: Jim Ryan of Albury 5:18pm September
The correlation between the anticycling sentiment and intellect is demonstrated further by
“cyclist should be ban!!”
Posted by: george 7:20pm September
“Cyclists should be banned! The roads weren’t designed for cycle use.”
Posted by: Paul Tanner 8:11am September 19, 2008
The above comment is interesting given that cyclists were the ones who had the roads treated with Tar Macadam. In addition Swanston Street was not designed for cars but the old horse and buggy era,
Comment
“Riding a bike in the CBD should be banned and should attract a fine of no less than $500 for those who ignore the ban. The number of times I have seen bike riders go through red (traffic) lights, weave their way through moving vehicles and barge their way through pedestrians who are legally crossing at the traffic lights is beyond belief. “
Posted by: Bill of Melbourne 8:17am September 19, 2008
Comment 113 of 117
“If the roads were designed for cyclists, why don’t they pay road tax? Register those bikes! $800 a year! “
Posted by: b of Canberra
There were comments that balanced the ugly garbage (there were many people writing in and the Herald Sun was obliged to publish them).
I often wonder about what would happen if the Herald Sun or the Daily Telegraph put a comments page on the an accident involving a truck crushing a car? Would there be people comming out with the same sort of ugly vicious comments about people killed in the car?
Of course there would be an outcry against anyone posting similar comments. It was heartening to here that cyclists in Melbourne rallied at the site in the evening. This is something I doubt I would see from my fellow cyclists in Sydney.
The other issue about the incident was that (from the Age September 19, 2008) the “Melbourne City Council last year considered forcing tour buses from Swanston Street to a purpose-built terminal at Federation Square.But the council buckled under pressure from tour operators – which pick up 320,000 customers a year on Swanston Street from nearby hotels.The council pledged to instead move buses to near the corner of Bourke and Exhibition streets in 2009.The Lord Mayor, questioned yesterday over cyclist safety, defended himself against accusations of inaction. “It doesn’t matter where you park the buses, accidents do occur,” he said. Later, Cr So rang back and broke down, saying he would call for buses to be parked elsewhere. The council’s chief executive, Kathy Alexander, said tour buses would, after “a reasonable notice period”, have their parking permits revoked, and be allowed to pick up and set down on St Kilda Road, opposite the Arts Centre.” In other words it took a fatality to get the council moving on the issue of the danger that busses posed to cyclists. How pathetic. In NSW we have had a coronial inquest find Gosford Council’s masterly inactivity on the issues of the old Pacific Highway lead to the death of a family who’s car went over the edge of a sink hole. Their relatives are looking at suing the Gosford city council for damages. I would urge the family of the cyclist killed on Swanson street (- a 33 year old woman. One year younger than me) to do the same.
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