Comments on: Bikes vs Cars – Road Rules

By: Liz Quilty ✔

Liz Quilty ✔ — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:31:05 +0000

I find it interesting to hear that cyclists are supposedly very angry aggressive riders, however i find car drivers generally more aggressive. and when it comes down to it, it doesn't matter who is aggressive, just that those on bikes are vulnerable no matter what you do.
If you want to abuse somebody, stop, have a rant or even loud talk, but for gods sake, don't use your mode of transport as a weapon. We should be acting like the grown ups we are!

By: Carl Smith

Carl Smith — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:23:51 +0000

Great post, well said, the other day I was out with a friend riding a quiet country road, I heard a vehicle coming so got into single file, while the car was still over 100 metres away, they started blasting the horn, then slowed to scream abuse at us. What's up with that, we didn't do anything to impede them, just angry folks I guess.

By: Liz Quilty ✔

Liz Quilty ✔ — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:34:02 +0000

The speed limit does indeed apply to cyclists, and i don't know many that tend to break it, 50km zone is just far too dangerous to cycle over that.
Most semi serious cyclists do a minimum of 40km on a weekend ride, since riding in the city is fairly dangerous, they go out to the country to ride. The Pickled Pedallers whom i rode with in Auckland usually do a 70km ride on the weekends with a 100km option, and most of them at this time of year are doing at least 120km rides on the weekend in prep for Lake Taupo 160km race at the end of the month http://www.cyclechallenge.com/ .

By: Matt Powell

Matt Powell — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:15:00 +0000

"I’ve seen a lot of cyclists doing up to, and over 80km/ph"

Does the speed limit somehow not apply to cyclists?

I wish more cyclists were aware of these rules: there seems to be a culture of angry entitlement among cyclists purely because they will always come off worse in a car vs cyclist accident. The really odd part is that this doesn't seem transitive: as someone who walks a lot to and from work in central Christchurch, it is a rare day that I don't have to go out of my way to avoid a cyclist riding full-tilt down the footpath simply because the one-way system is inconvenient, or plowing through pedestrian traffic at the busy two-way pedestrian crossing on the corner of Hereford and Colombo Streets. It goes double for skateboarders, actually, but since they can't skate on the road, what are they going to do?

I don't know what cyclists are like in other parts of the country, but in Christchurch, they routinely run red lights, ride two-abreast through the city (which IS illegal, since they are travelling outside the line of parked cars), and just make general dicks of themselves. I'm not at all defending New Zealand drivers, but there is a lot of moral posturing (especially events like Critical Mass) which I would find a lot easier to swallow if more cyclists behaved considerately to other road (and FOOTpath) users. At the moment, it's largely hypocrisy.