Sunday Mail: Cycling ‘death traps’ revealed

They are Adelaide’s cycling blackspots – supposed safe havens that are pitted with potholes and come to an abrupt end just centimetres from hurtling trucks. Cyclists are demanding a revamp of the state’s cycle lanes in an attempt to reduce road deaths and injuries. One road safety advocate has set up a website – complete with maps and photographs – identifying cycling blackspots. The photographs show busy roads with no room for bikes, bicycle lanes that deteriorate into loose gravel full of potholes and lanes that come to a sudden end alongside passing cars and trucks.

The calls from Adelaide’s cycling community follow the death of German tourist Leszek Wereszka, killed on August 13 when he was hit by a truck on Port Wakefield Rd, just 70km short of completing a 20,000km ride around Australia. Mr Wereszka’s death sparked heated debate across cycling website forums, where riders were quick to point out the risks of taking to the road.

“I have been passed inches away by a semi-trailer,” one cyclist wrote on the Bicycles Network Australia site. “It was one of the most terrifying moments of my life. My vision went dark around the side and all I was thinking was `fall away from the road’. ”

The wind and the noise was terrible and my body tensed up like crazy but I was able to hold my line at the edge of the road.”

Another rider described the feeling of being “sucked under” passing trucks. “The majority (of truck drivers) clearly have no concept of the forces we are dealing with, even though there are many good drivers who no doubt believe they do,” he wrote.

“I can easily understand how a driver can suck a cyclist under his wheels, simply by getting too close – and we’re talking feet, not inches.”

Adelaide North Terrace Bicycle User Group member David Bowler set up a cycling hazards website to encourage the State Government to build continual bike lanes along major city corridors. Go there: Click here Mr Bowler, who regularly rides from Salisbury into the city, said there was a “level of hazard” in cycling that put most people off riding.

“I’ve been run off the road a few times by trucks where there’s not enough room for me and the truck,” he said. But he said the main problem was bicycle lanes that ended abruptly – forcing cyclists to veer suddenly into lanes of heavy traffic. “I ride along Salisbury Highway for about 10km of bike lane and then it just drops you on Port Wakefield Rd,” he said.

“You end up on a road with no verge and if there are two trucks driving along, you have nowhere to go.” Mr Bowler said he believed joining the broken sections of bike lanes on roads like Salisbury Highway and Port Wakefield Rd would substantially reduce risks to cyclists. “My understanding is that SA spends less per head on cycling than any other state,” he said.

Bicycle Institute of SA chair Sam Powrie said the Government needed to reduce the speed limit to 50km/h on all arterial roads. “Research shows that if you get hit by a car travelling at 60km/h, you have a 96 per cent chance of dying,” he said. “If you get hit at 50km/h that drops dramatically to below 60 per cent. If the speed of the car drops to 40km/h, you would be very unlucky to die.”

He said SA was missing dedicated cycling paths separate from the road. In June, the State Government announced it would contribute $1.3 million to join local councils in building a series of bike paths around the state. Of that, $627,000 was put towards work on the Coast to Vines Trail, a bike path beginning at Marion and ending at Willunga. Road Safety Minister Carmel Zollo said the Government was putting money into bike paths and “shared use” paths along rivers and transport corridors.

She said there were also a range of programs, including the State Black Spot Cycling Projects Program and the State Bicycle Fund, that looked at improving safety for cyclists. “The reality is that cycling infrastructure can’t be provided for every stretch of road in the state,” she said.

“Therefore, there is a strong onus on all road users to be responsible.” This financial year, the Government will develop the state’s “Green Travel Corridors”. Projects include a bike path in Keswick adjacent to the Belair/Noarlunga railway line and the Port Adelaide railway route will link dead-end streets and a bicycle crossing bridge over Rosetta St.