Letters to Cyclingnews - 29 September, 2006

Cycling deaths: In the Australian state of New South Wales it seems that road-rage by motorists towards cyclists is now permissible following a recent court verdict. Details of the case were revealed by a newspaper columnist who is also a keen cyclist.

The incident started with the motorist charging straight out of a driveway and almost colliding with a group of cyclists passing by. When the riders called him an “effing idiot”, the driver chased them and menaced them again. One of the riders was an off-duty police inspector. In the court hearing the magistrate found the road-rage charge proved but dismissed it without conviction and placed the driver on a bond. The magistrate said that this was because the motorist had been “provoked” into endangering the cyclists a second time after they had sworn at him. The magistrate also criticized the police inspector for being “passionately involved” as a victim.

Cyclists’ safety is already being constantly threatened by motorists who think it’s clever and funny to ’scare’ them. The magistrate’s verdict in the above incident is only giving motorists the green light to continue with such stupid and dangerous antics. Do they ever consider the consequences of killing or maiming cyclists? As for cyclists in New South Wales, will they now face unjust treatment in the courts as well as increased hostility from motorists on the road?

Peter Newey,
Newcastle, NSW
Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Cycling deaths

Driver awareness is critical - but laws banning auto features isn’t going to do anything - the stats all say that they aren’t the big cause. With mobile phone on a steep exponential increase, there are fewer vehicle accidents (look at the NHTSA numbers). Not exactly the correlation most people would like to believe. The highest cause of vehicle distractions goes to eating while driving and then adjusting the radio. So if anything - eliminate fast food drive up windows. That won’t happen because nobody makes money from that. Politicians choose their fights carefully so that they can appear to care about us while making some industry money (like with mobile phone hands free accessories).

Driver awareness could be improved if people simply followed the laws already in place. So few people actually know and follow the existing traffic laws - I’d rather push for re-testing (written and road tests) every eight years for drivers licenses. Some states in the U.S. I believe also have laws requiring three feet for cyclists by passing cars. Given that traffic laws would seemingly require motorists to signal and then use a clear passing lane already (given that bikes ARE traffic too) this law is redundant although it would provide an additional charge to drivers in the case of an incident. We could also fund more educational activities, like our Preferred Care Elite Cycling team does. We hold bike safety and helmet awareness rodeos and it is surprising how many parents tell us they learned things from it.

Todd Scheske,
Genesee Valley Cycling Club President
Friday, September 22, 2006

Cycling deaths

In my twenty-plus years of road and off road cycling, I have been hit by cars twice. Once, a woman looked me in the eye as she was running a stop sign. Luckily, I was able to manoeuvre and avoid a direct hit. That crash resulted only in a bent rim and some bruises. The second time I wasn’t so lucky. I was hit full on by a woman in a pick up turning left through an intersection. As I lay on the ground I could plainly here the woman screaming, “I didn’t even see Him!” I had to have my scalp stapled shut, a tendon in my finger re-attached and the maximum amount of contusions, bruises, cuts, etc. I was unable to work for almost a month and obviously missed the same amount of time on the bike in a year when I was in the best shape of my life and looking to kill it racing. The woman who ruined my summer was not charged with anything! I honestly feel that penalties for these ‘accidents’ need to be severely stiffened. A motorist who kills a cyclist should be charged with murder, period.

Daniel J. O’Connor,
Salt Lake City, Utah
Friday, September 22, 2006

Cycling deaths

Alan Switzer’s letter is timely. Not only are cyclists’ deaths more in the news, at the same time we are still seeing the same age-old reaction from law makers and law enforcers across the world that cycling isn’t important enough to warrant behavioural change amongst drivers to demand drivers pay attention. The consequences of inattention are often dire. A cyclist, pedestrian, or motor bike rider dies or is maimed and the offender gets a minimal token penalty, if anything.

Sadly any cyclist’s death on the road is one too many, however, statistically, compared to car deaths, deaths in society from motor vehicle exhaust emissions, deaths from obesity from lack of exercise and inappropriate diet and deaths from heart disease, there are not enough cyclists’ deaths from vehicle crashes to warrant drastic change by governments to driver education, attitudes or legal processes of enforcement to deliver a meaningful outcome.

Drivers are cocooned with GPS systems, reversing cameras, talking onboard controls, Hi Fi sound systems, cushy seats, and are generally insulated from the elements. They are given reduced obligation to keep a proper look out by road advisory signs, traffic lights, marked road lanes and tail lights. The responsibility to others has been inadvertently abrogated by our approach to ‘advances’ in traffic and driving systems in our world of pace and instant gratification. Cyclists and pedestrians on the other hand move at a human pace, subject to the elements and usually come off second best when confronted by a driver being inattentive, distracted or cocooned in their steel space, especially when enraged by another presence on the road.

As an advocate for cycling safety, I am constantly working to bring to the attention of governments, law officers, educators and the media the need for personal responsibility by all road users. Cyclists have a responsibility to be predictable, visible, skilled and to obey the law. Drivers have a legal responsibility to keep a proper look out and drive within the conditions, but in addition they should be more attentive to outside factors, much more alert to all road users, prepare to yield to vulnerable road users for a few extra seconds and, above all, clearly know the road laws relating to all other road users.

Rob Eke,
Melbourne, Australia
Co-Convenor Wheels of Justice (www.woj.com.au)
Friday, September 22, 2006

Cycling deaths

This so-called study which shows that cars pass closer to a cyclist wearing a helmet as opposed to those not wearing helmets is just plain garbage. The results were based on the personal observations of a single author. I have yet to hear of a single cycling death related to a vehicle passing close to a cyclist. Deaths are caused by vehicles driving into cyclists (or vice versa.) This implies that the driver has not seen the cyclist, rather than (a) seen the cyclist, (b) noticed he was indeed wearing a helmet, (c) decided to buzz him and, (d) miscalculated and hit him.

Paul Salmon,
Albany,
West Australia
Monday, September 25, 2006