Cycling Australia

Tenzor07

Wow, some horrific reports coming from Oz about cyclists being run over by cars... seems to be quite cyclist unfriendly country? Not least of which is making helmets compulsory and banning cycling from most open public areas.

video-australian-driver-hits-cyclist-behind


five-cyclists-seriously-injured-in-sydney-car-accident

Dancor

This was on Broadsheet.ie today.

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2014/03/18/meanwhile-in-melbourne-7/

A female cyclist was knocked from her bike on Collins Street in Melbourne yesterday when a man opened the passenger-side door of a taxi.

The woman captured the incident, and the follow-up conversation she had with the man who stepped out of the taxi, on camera.

Would never happen in Dublin.

metroburgers

If this did happen in Dublin, which it probably has, who is liable the Taxi driver or the customer for dooring someone?

Tenzor07

metroburgers wrote: »

If this did happen in Dublin, which it probably has, who is liable the Taxi driver or the customer for dooring someone?

No "Anti-dooring" laws in Ireland Afaik?

At best you could pursue the Taxi driver for damages..

zell12

Motorists have expressed their fury at a cyclist using a road instead of a bike lane
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6767327/Motorists-fury-cyclist-spotted-hogging-entire-lane-set-traffic-lights.html

DirkVoodoo

I only spent 7 months in Sydney, but yes, it was by far the most dangerous place I have cycled in.

Cyclists mostly confined to Centennial park, or road racing at Heffron park. The cycle lanes were pretty abysmal and a lot of dangerous or aggressive driving if you were ever on the road.

Having said that, they have red light cameras so everyone stops on red, something that shocked me when I came home. Red is more like "ah, another 3 or 4 cars can still get through".

It's a big country though, so maybe this bad behaviour is just confined to the larger cities. I did have some lovely longer distance cycles over there.

Duckjob

Tenzor07 wrote: »

Wow, some horrific reports coming from Oz about cyclists being run over by cars... seems to be quite cyclist unfriendly country? Not least of which is making helmets compulsory and banning cycling from most open public areas.

Given that it's Australia, when the camera car pulled over and started to reverse I was half wondering if he wanted to make sure the job was done properly.

emclau

Lived in Oz for 10 years... Cycling from Coogee to Sydney CBD for work for a lot of it.. parts of it were crazy-changing over three lanes to make right turns, buses within a breath of you on the bus lane, and a bad attitude in general from the public (aka Daily Telegraph).

Re. The road deaths mentioned above- Sydney is not like Dublin in that you have to cycle on the motorways (like m50) to get out of the city or go for a long cycle - it took me almost an hours drive to get out of the city.. obviously motor ways shares with large vehicles-not like Dublin where you can get to the mountains relatively easy... never appealed to me!

I must say since I moved home I love my cycle from Shankill to Ballsbridge- barely overtaken by 5 cars to Dun Laoghaire, path to Seapoint, Booterstown Park then bus lane to Ballsbridge.. much safer than what I was used to! (Might have a different opinion if I cycled the Quays each day!)

emclau

Oh, and a $450 fine in Oz for cyclists breaking a red light! Madness!

Peter T

A dude I know got a 120 dollaroo fine for parking his bicycle somewhere in Sydney

zell12

21-year-old woman accused of killing an elite cyclist allegedly sent a text message to her boyfriend moments before the fatal car crash..
The victim was wearing dark cycling gear at the time, and could have also had headphones in - possibly diminishing his hearing.
A trial will be held later this year.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6979575/Woman-21-sent-text-message-driving-ran-killed-champion-cyclist.html

ED E

Necro anyone?