Two weeks ago a woman by the name of Carolyn Rawlins was killed on Swanston Street in Melbourne’s CBD when her front tyre was caught in the tram tracks and a coach failed to see her. Her death has ignited debate about traffic flow through the city and it seems like now every one -car, bus, bike or pedestrian – has an opinion.
And that of course includes me. Eco-nazi and cyclist. I like my bike and I like most of the ride to Crikey each day, it’s mostly a pleasant side street trundle past a nice park, but I don’t like whoever decided fake bike lanes was a good idea. I don’t know about other cities in Oz but Melbourne’s council clearly thought people wouldn’t actually need to ride down the street when they created these hybrid carpark/bike lane strips and three centimetre wide green painted bits.
Firstly, you can’t actually ride in a bike lane that has cars parked in it.
Secondly, my tyres are fatter than some of those green strips.
The result of these fake bike lanes is that cars hate me and I hate cars. I am forced into car lanes, thrust at speed through terrifying gorges where trams, buses and cars loom on either side of me. The cars only know that some crazy cyclist is suddenly way too close for comfort and get upset, honking and shouting and fingers rudely pointed skyward.
All the car people say bikes should stay at home and away from the scary peak hour traffic and all the bike people say we’re saving the planet and getting fit! Both of them are right and I think I know the solution for at least a couple of problems.
City councils everywhere must do away with fake bike lanes. They must make bike lanes car free zones at least during peak hour and they must be realistic about how skinny cyclists are when painting green bits.
There you go Garnaut, that’s what I reckon.
6 Comments
We would do well to harness the expertise of the Danish Road Directorate to make roads and paths in Australian cities and towns better for cyclists.
Fortunately the Danish Government has made this knowledge freely available in the form of a publication called ‘Collection of Cycle Concepts’ in excellent English.
The Road Directorate does not give cycling token treatment, instead it is seen as essential:
‘The future role of the bicycle must also be strong in order to create a sustainable society. It is important to develop and infrastructure that permits the optimal exploitation of the bicycle’s qualities and possibilities.’
WOW!!! Wouldn’t it be nice if this happened in Australia.
In Denmark 1 in 5 trips is by bicycle. I’ve visited Denmark and seen the multitude of ordinary people cycling to and from work.
We could save time and resources if we create infrastructure that we know works rather than starting from scratch with poorly conceived ideas such as the cycle lanes described in the blog post.
‘Collection of Cycle Concepts is part of the Danish
Ministry of Transport’s overall plan for promoting
more and safer bicycle traffic. The purpose of the
book is to present an overview, inspiration and
motivation regarding bicycle traffic. Use it for
general orientation and improvement of qualifi-
cations and as a reference work.’
It is available via http://www.vejdirektoratet.dk/dokument.asp?page=document&objno=17291
Woo hoo! I agree with everything you say.
And as for those fat smug car drivers who somehow think they have greater rights to the road than cyclists … if they think driver’s with road rage are a problem the next one that hoots his horn at me will get more than the lane blocking reaction the last one got. I have a D-lock and I’m not afraid to use it
I think you should start a campaign for “fatter green bits.” And the more people take to their bikes in the face of rising petrol prices and global warming worries, the more pressing this problem will become….
I don’t know about any of this stuff but I totally hate recumbent cyclists and advocate their elimination.
And I speak as former member of the Australian Bicycle Council.
Bernard I’m not a recumbent cyclist. They are crazy folk.
What’s wrong Bernard … do they keep overtaking you
(I agree it looks pretty crazy)