Sandsie. ... you are such a delicious provacateur.
Black is the New white .Colour is overrated ROY is dead .... long live noir. Such a beautiful colour. Black on black on black. A beauty to behold.
Bring back more grey too I say.
What is a glog?
The other side of the story http://www.bv.com.au/forums/
In Europe if a cyclist does not obey the road rules, they get points taken off their driving license (car). Of course this would only discourage bad behavior if they have a license.
All cyclists using the roads should have number plate and pay rego. They need to be identified and must obey the road rules same as motorists. Rego should not be much as to be a revenue raiser but just to cover admin costs - say $40 a year. IMO of course and I know people will disagree but I think they have to be accountable.
Do you seriously want to restrict our freedom so much that you or your children cant hop on a bike and pop down the road to visit a friend or travel to work without being caught up in a **load of paperwork called registration.
In the last month how many people of been killed by drunk drivers, speeding truckies, car drivers using their phones, hoons, speeding drivers etc. Many.
How many have been killed by cyclists? Bit fat zero.
Still here you are winging on the internet about cyclists, and the clothes they wear.
At my local ferry terminal , there are usually over 200 bikes parked at the terminal, people that have riden instead of using their car.
Imagine how much worse parking and the morning traffic would be if people did not use bikes.
I used to ride to work, but I have stopped because it is simply too dangerous. I used to ride to work in the UK ( London) all the time, over 4 years, and I only had one incident where I feared for my life.
In 2 years of riding in Sydney - I could not count how many close shaves I have had.
The attitude to cyclists in Australia is shocking.
The recent behaviour of cricketer Shane Warne is a perfect of example of the normal attitude that cyclists in Australia have to put up with.
www.heraldsun.com.au/nocookies?a=A.flavipes
CYCLING advocates are urging the Victorian Government to consider laws that would make drivers guilty until proven innocent.
Monash University Accident Research Centre researcher Dr Marilyn Johnson said the laws used in some European countries should be examined as part of a review of road rules.
"Responsibility is about whoever's driving the larger vehicle. It's about structuring the hierarchy of our vehicles on the road and making drivers of larger vehicles more responsible," Dr Johnson said.
The rules would mean motorists would be automatically culpable in incidents with more vulnerable road users until proven otherwise.
It follows research that shows drivers are to blame in almost 90 per cent of incidents involving motorists and cyclists, and that most drivers didn't realise their actions had even affected the rider.
Some points:
*Strict liability is the rule in the majority of European countries, where there is actually harmony between bikes and cars - increased numbers of riders with all the health/environment/congestion benefits.
*Cars are larger vehicles, with much greater potential to seriously injure or kill and increased responsibility should be allocated as such.
*Many drivers don't understand the implications their actions have on a bike rider (such as squeezing a cyclist into the gutter or door zone) or the road rules (cyclists are allowed to claim a lane, and can ride two abreast). Discussion regarding liability would hopefully increase the average motorist's awareness and change attitudes.
*A lot of car drivers give the SMIDSY (sorry mate I didn't see you) excuse in an accident or near miss. This isn't good enough, and these rules would support this.
*In 2010, a cyclist James Cross died after a car door was opened in his path which knocked him under a truck. The driver was neither prosecuted nor fined.
*Many cyclists do the wrong thing - riding without helmets, lights and running reds, which reflects poorly on the majority.
*A lot of pedestrians also die in car collisions.
Ok, so your wife encountered a douche bag. Would compulsory registration have actually changed anything in this situation?? It's pretty hard to get a car license no. in a quickly evolving situation and it sounds like they had left pretty much immediately.
Perhaps lobbying your government to provide a decent road setup to accommodate both bikes and cars would be a better solution?
I'd happily pay rego on my bike, but can't think of any practical way of displaying a rego number large enough to be seen, and given how may people ride without helmets, lights at night etc (and have NEVER seen a policeman stopping any of these) I don't expect the uptake would be high let alone enforced.
PS your description of the event is a bit weird - bikes seldom OVERtake (on the right) generally preferring to be on the left and 6 bikes hitting the ground would generally leave at least 1 not immediately rideable, giving your wife ample time to have a chat. Not suggesting anything just pointing out we only have 1 side of the story and 2nd hand at that.
Do you have any information on European countries with laws making it automatically the fault of the car driver? My searches only find a 2002 Guardian article about proposed laws.
The concept of making car drivers automatically guilty is absurd. You can't criminalise people for minor mistakes. There has to be a demonstrated intent and criminal negligence. Driving drunk is a crime. Speeding is a crime.
The discussion of fault is pointless and irrelevant. The cars may cause the accidents but the cyclists create the situation that turns a minor error into a potentially fatal accident.
The Age showed video from cyclist's helmet cams showing accidents where the cars were at fault.
www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/video-insurance-coming-to-a-helmet-near-you-20120204-1qz1a.html
The car fails to give way to the cyclist and pulls in to the road. The cyclist then rides into the car. The car caused the accident. The bike finished it off by piling into the car.
If it was two cars there would be screeching brakes, blaring horns and abuse. At worst a few thousand dollars damage covered by insurance.
Throw in a cyclist riding too fast to stop, with inadequate brakes, almost invisible amongst the traffic, semi-naked and wearing a chunk of foam on their head. Add in an imperative to maintain your speed and momentum at all times and accidents are inevitable.
The irony of all this is you get guys driving the Audi to the beach with 5-star safety ratings and 7 air bags and safety cells and seat belts. Then they jump on their bikes and play chicken with the traffic in the nude.
BTW Just leafing through a copy of Ride On magazine for December-January. A person from Amsterdam is talking about riding to work in Australia and how aggressive Australian cyclists are.
One thing i have learnt with cars drivers cyclists involved in accidents and that is there are two sides to the story.
I wonder what the cyclists was?
From the sound of the story, the cyclist was in the wrong. I have no problem with that.
Its the idiotic cry for all cyclists to be banned from the roads because they wear lycra and dont pay road tax, blah blah blah.
I can only assume that people with this mentality have
(a) never riden a bike,
(b) have become old, grumpy and intolerant of others.
Panda, its difficult to not ride in the blind spot when you are on a bike.
If you dont ride in the bind spot , then you need to ride in the middle of the road.
Im amazed when people want to ride on a busy main road, do you people have a deathwish? 
I drive down Wanneroo rd most days to get to work and I generally see 2-3 people riding on the road, and 1-2 on the bike/footpath. When I ride I generally ride on the path when on main/dual caridge ways, and when on back streets I ride on the road and footpaths depending how busy it is.
Why do road races think that they own the bloody road and btw coffee shops!! 
I can sort of understand speed freaks doing it, but the other day a codger was riding along on the busy road at peak hour.
He's on a crappy hybrid bike and doing barely 15-20kph. Directly opposite him was a nice, vacant cycle track. The exact cycle track I commute on every day outside the after work wind season. I would be riding on it if I didn't have a car full of gear and an appointment with the wind.
Actually, I'm not so sure about the speed freaks either. They're doing 35-40+ kph in the pack. Even more when they've got a push on.
Their hands are on the hoods so they can barely reach the brakes. Even if they could the brakes on road bikes are for slowing down, not stopping. Everyone has seen what happens on any road race when the pack tries to stop.
I reckon the scale speed these guys are doing is the equivalent of a car doing 130kph. ie. Racers on high performance machines going at race pace. That's hooning. They cannot stop for anything. They have killed people. They constantly terrorise people. I think their bikes should be impounded like any hoon.
I heard a rumour that bike packs of more than 4 on arterial roads in NSW will be banned unless special permission has been granted with safety vehicles and advisory signs.I also heard that pigs might fly
I've been cruising around by pushbike on a daily basis for 45+ years and by now I reckon I pretty much seen it all.
The lycra packs are not just an inconvienience to motor traffic.
On the rare occasion I venture onto a busy road and a pack of these dudes catches and pass me they'll run me up into the gutter every time.
I have mates who ride in these packs. If they ride alone or in pairs there fine. once they form a peleton as they call it then their competative nature kicks in and anything can happen. even shared pathways aren't safe anymore as they race around blind corners at 60kph.
I learnt a long time ago that if you want to stay as safe as posible on a bicycle it may be necessary to break a few rules. Riding on footpath being the main one. I'm travelling around a bit at the moment and the first thing I do in a new place is plot a course to get where I need to go with as little exposure to motor traffic as possible.
Police can and do enforce road rules on cyclists. Deffending infringement notices in court is getting to be a bit of a micro-hobby for me.
Registration for bikes is a daft idea. I won't support anything that erodes yet another basic freedom. Nearly all adult cyclists pay rego on the cars they leave at home. I'm paying rego on 4 cars at it is, and with all the other governent charges about at the moment I'm just about bleeding from the arse.
I think I do society a favour by using a bike. one less car on the road and the fittness advantage keeps me from being a burden on the medical system and always ready for watersport.
it's this iPad thingo
Can we make a topic about those bloody windsurfers (in neoprene or even Lycra too) who don't pay any rego and race between each other breaking the marine safety rules (crossing channel, going faster than 6 knts near the coast for exemple) when power boats or jetskis want to properly use the waterways ?[}:)]
Good job all you "haters" don't live in London, there wouldn't be enough time in the day to complain:
"Former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone set a target of a 400% increase in cycling between 2008 and 2025. On 9 February 2008 Livingstone announced an estimated £400 million of initiatives to improve and increase cycling and walking. To be co-ordinated by the TfL and London boroughs the aims include having 1 in 10 Londoners making a round trip by bike each day and five per cent of all daily trips by bike by 2025."
and
London Mayor Boris Johnson is considering schemes to allow cyclists to turn left at red traffic lights.
All from wiki so don't quote me
Can't say I hate them I generally couldn't give a rats. Most of the time I give em space where I can and ignore where possible, but will not hesitate to get on the horn when the road is being blocked.
I also ride a pushie, but generally to check the surf or to ride to nippers with the kids on a Sunday. I do give cars the room to move, stay out of their way and expect that they probably don't see me(born from motorcycling - that is about life and death). I don't think the heros of the lycramob think this way. It's like once those legs become human pistons, (just watch me pump them) they think they are powered by a 1000cc vtwin. Unfortunatly for both them and the motorist they are not.
