I would never cycle on the roads. Footpath is considerably safer and if you do have an accident considerably less serious!


My dads brothers son was at waiting at an intersection on a push bike to turn left. A very large truck was also turning left. The driver could not see the

bicycle due to the height he was at and ran over him causing death. Never was allowed a bike after that.

petermac33 said...

My dads brothers son...

Your cousin?

Jfunk said..

petermac33 said..
Footpath is considerably safer and if you do have an accident considerably less serious!

Illegal to ride on the footpath.

Not in all states. I think in WA its allowed.

Jfunk said..

petermac33 said..
Footpath is considerably safer and if you do have an accident considerably less serious!

Illegal to ride on the footpath.

I think you should read the rules on the QLD transport website mate

www.qld.gov.au/transport/safety/rules/wheeled-devices/bicycle

"Riding on the footpath (s288)

In Queensland, cyclists of any age are allowed to ride on a footpath unless prohibited by a 'NO BICYCLES' sign ? you must give way to pedestrians and ride in a manner that does not inconvenience or endanger other footpath users."

Jfunk said..

petermac33 said..
Footpath is considerably safer and if you do have an accident considerably less serious!

Illegal to ride on the footpath.

Not illegal in Queensland.

Towny said..

I pay a yearly registration to drive my car on the road

If your referring to the fact that because you pay rego you can drive on the road but cyclist should not. Then the argument can apply that you stay on NSW roads and I stay on QLD roads because that's what we have paid rego to use.

I dont cycle, but drive my car wearing lycra and go and hang at the coffee cafe to show my twig and berry's to all that dont want to see while they are having their morning coffee . Is that ok or do I need to pay extra on my rego??

But I do wear boardies over my wetsuit.

Towny said..

I pay a yearly registration to drive my car on the road

!

Mr Milk said..

This is an old story. The Qld report into cycling laws came out soon after. It recommended a $2800.00 fine and 8 demerit pts for passing less than 1m from a cyclist, which the gov't said they would adopt. For my 2c worth, the penalty is over the top.

"The penalty is over the top", eh?

LOL

Lets do the maths shall we?

Truck hits and kills a cyclist, police turn up (2 constables at a rate of $35 an hour), stay for 2 hours doing paper work and other tasks, plus another hmm lets say 2 weeks with court appearances and other desk duties whilst they could be out there on the beat. All up over a few months I would fathom to guess.. hmmm about $20,000 there alone.

Council gets involved and dept of transport - plus traffic accident commission on their stats and other govt departments: I would guess hmmm about $250,000 all up.

Media gets involved - reports, time, media formatting, prepwork, etc. Hmmm about $10,000 assuming one reporter

*we have not even got to the cost to the family members and funerals etc*

Shall I go on? yes lets!

Road Traffic Insurance and claims: could be tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands.

Oh and I forgot - police detective work trying to find the bastard that caused the accident: add another $50,000.. hmm actually make it $100K for any other unforseen matters such as false reporting from witnesses or a review of the investigation, auditors, etc.

And the cost to the family... $$$$

So you still think a mere $2,800 is too much to fine idiots out there on the road!?

That would not even pay the excess the government will have to pay to claim on the insurance bill alone!

A fine is a fine, but really... punks on roads should do jail time.

Loftywinds said..

Mr Milk said..

This is an old story. The Qld report into cycling laws came out soon after. It recommended a $2800.00 fine and 8 demerit pts for passing less than 1m from a cyclist, which the gov't said they would adopt. For my 2c worth, the penalty is over the top.

"The penalty is over the top", eh?

LOL

Lets do the maths shall we?

Truck hits and kills a cyclist, police turn up (2 constables at a rate of $35 an hour), stay for 2 hours doing paper work and other tasks, plus another hmm lets say 2 weeks with court appearances and other desk duties whilst they could be out there on the beat. All up over a few months I would fathom to guess.. hmmm about $20,000 there alone.

Council gets involved and dept of transport - plus traffic accident commission on their stats and other govt departments: I would guess hmmm about $250,000 all up.

Media gets involved - reports, time, media formatting, prepwork, etc. Hmmm about $10,000 assuming one reporter

*we have not even got to the cost to the family members and funerals etc*

Shall I go on? yes lets!

Road Traffic Insurance and claims: could be tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands.

Oh and I forgot - police detective work trying to find the bastard that caused the accident: add another $50,000.. hmm actually make it $100K for any other unforseen matters such as false reporting from witnesses or a review of the investigation, auditors, etc.

And the cost to the family... $$$$

So you still think a mere $2,800 is too much to fine idiots out there on the road!?

That would not even pay the excess the government will have to pay to claim on the insurance bill alone!

A fine is a fine, but really... punks on roads should do jail time.

Why do I think it is over the top?

Because it is such a change in the law that it looks like a political wedge to me. Just think how much more reason it gives anti cyclist drivers to hate cyclists. Especially if they get charged on the basis of evidence from the rider's own helmet camera.

It is a bigger fine than normally gets imposed for 1st time drunk driving. It is so big that I would hope that reasonable cops would be reluctant to issue the ticket.

Which is why I think that a graded system of fines would be better. $ 300 for being a bit frightening, $1000 for seriously scary, and loss of licence, fine, prison if you hit someone from behind. A bit like speeding and DUI are graded offences.

Your fantasy about the driver leaving the scene of the accident is covered by other laws.

And I ride a lot, up and down largish hills on roughly repaired rural roads.

As someone who travels along Beach Rd Bayside Melbourne regularly..... I don't really mind the cyclists for the most part they do the right thing and as do most of the drivers........

BUT ..... I absolutely hate the idiots that lane split or come up alongside you at the traffic lights only to stop directly in front of you causing you to have to go around them a second time.... only to repeat the scenario at the next set of lights...

It is dangerous to force the whole row of cars to go around you and merge again and again at each set of lights ... by all means ride in the middle of the left hand lane but for fks sake stay behind the cars in front of you at the lights...

Im opening my door on the next one that does it ...... rant over

SWE said..

Towny said...
I pay a yearly registration to drive my car on the road

Good on you. I would say that at a guess 99% of people on bikes would also pay rego.
You should be thanking every one of them that you pass as
A. One less car on the road to make your trip quicker and
B. Less of your tax payer $ being spent on health care with these people getting out and doing some form of exercise.

really, you think you take a car off the road and replace it with a cyclists that makes the trip quicker? FAIL, a cyclists is a massive inconvenience to a motorist and to the flow of traffic, if your lucky you can literately get stuck behind a gang off them on a windy single lane rd, or perhaps the cyclists can force all traffic into a bottleneck, as all cars stuck behind one now come out into the next lane, riding is fun, but motorists shouldn't have to suffer them, ive also had a few cyclists be pretty aggressive at me, one resulted with me punching this guy, but he was still tied to the pedals, so, that went well for him

My yearly car registration includes insurance which covers me for any injury i cause to other road users while using the road.

5 month old story, why now OP??

As I said 5 months ago when this was news, if he wasn't repeatedly lane splitting and creeping up the outside then this wouldn't have happened. It's the 3rd time -on cam- that the car is passing him how many before that.

Also you can't really tell in the vid but that's one of brisbane's tightest traffic spots - 2 lanes each way and so tight that you have to hold your breath going round a corner next to a bus. No verges, no room for error, walls on each side, and a main truck route. The guy is an idiot to be forcing himself into the middle of that - and inconveniencing everyone else in the process on an already tricky section of road, in peak hour traffic as well.

If he tries it under the proposed law, every single motorist that passes him will be liable for up to $4400. Every single time they pass him at the next set of lights. There isn't a metre spare. Another stupid Newman brainfart of a law.

I pay rego for 2 cars and I ride a bike, i would prefer to ride my pushbike a lot more if I thought it was safe enough to do so on the roads.
Also I would be happy to pay a registration to ride my bike on the road if they were made safer or if there were safer, better cycleways available.

Riding a bike on the footpath (wether legal or not) is not an option for anyone who wants to commute any sort of distance, for a start there is the very real danger of being hit by cars reversing out of driveways as the drivers and cyclist vision is often block by vegetation, also they are usually way to rough for a road bike.

Only a few weeks ago I was riding my bike home from the shops just up the road, I approached a roundabout, where I was going straight and a road enters from the left, I approached the roundabout with caution at about 20km/h and saw a car approaching on the road to my left, it looked to me as though the driver was looking straight at me so I thought I was safe to continue, the car then accelerated and ran straight into me and knocked me for 6.
I was extremely lucky that I wasn't seriously hurt, however I took a bit of skin off here and there and had a bruised heal for a week or so, I still have a sore leg weeks later which I suspect may be a hairline fracture of my fibula.

I also know of another Breezer who was knock off his bike a week or so back and I believe has fractured his fibula and has other complications due to the accident.

P.S. I don't wear lycra or ride in groups to the coffee shop.