Bitumen Battleground
By Chris Brunner
With the Tour Down Under about to get under way in Adelaide,
inspired cyclists are taking to the roads in their hundreds, but the
increased presence of cyclists on our roads is no cause for concern if
you all just settle down and look at it this way...
To a motorist, cyclists are pests, and every January in Adelaide
there’s a plague. The biggest cycling event in the southern hemisphere
comes to town and everyone wants to be like Lance.
Motorists, beginning a new year of work or study, find themselves
sharing the road with swarms of cyclists.
And they don’t like it.
Well just chill out.
From my perspective there are a few things we all can do to make sure
the stress levels remain low, and no one gets killed.
I’m able to make unbiased comment because I’m a bikist.
By this I mean I’m not a cyclist, but I ride a bike.
Bikists are bicycle riding persons in no way connected to the cycling
world.
A sure way to spot a bikist is by his clothes.
Unlike a cyclist, lycra-clad and ridiculous looking, the bikist rides
his two-wheeled trekking machine with dignity, or at least normal
looking clothes.
His general attire is completely unsuitable for the act of riding a
bike.
His thongs betray a freshly lacerated big toe, and his pant leg is torn
from constantly getting caught in the chain.
Bikists are the middle ground, the neutral territory between the two
extreme worlds of cycling and motoring.
Bikists are the key to bridging the chasm of misunderstanding on our
roads.
To begin with bikists are, for the most part, solitary creatures.
You will not find them on the road blocking an entire lane or more with
their incessant inter-bike chatter.
This is a major point of contention between cyclists and motorists.
Cyclists feel well within their rights to bunch, or ride two-abreast
(which is legal); especially in the early morning and even more so on
Sundays.
Bikists side with motorists on this one, the road is for travelling on,
not for social networking.
Can you picture two motorists in their Honda’s, windows rolled down,
having a casual chat at 40km’s per hour?
It’s illegal to even hang your arm out the window let alone discuss
which days of the week you can’t use your garden hose.
If you want to ride together get a tandem bike, or better still, an
octobike.
I’ve seen these contraptions in Europe.
 |
| I MUST find one of these and ride it w/ 7 of my closest friends! ~C.G. |
Eight riders sit in a
circle facing each other each pedalling for the collective good, while
the octobike travels in the direction dictated by the lead cyclist who
controls the steering.
Most of the cyclists can’t even see where they are going.
With these wonderful inventions you can all cycle and chat facing each
other, while only taking up the space of less than two bicycles riding
side by side. Seven of you can even sip Lattés while the eighth takes
care of the handle bars. First problem solved.
Motorists are especially frustrated by cyclists riding on the winding
roads of the Adelaide Hills.
Bikists, by their very nature, avoid anything resembling an incline,
not to mention large hills and small mountains.
As a bikist, it is beyond my imagination to fathom the motivation that
tempts cyclists up these roads.
The scenery I’m sure is not quite so beautiful through sweat stung
eyes. Moreover, the motorists enjoying this same scenery suddenly find
themselves approaching a group of cyclists on an incline travelling no
faster than the evolutionary process, and there are more dangerous
encounters still on the descent.
I know in my previous experience as a motorist the smallest and most
inconsequential infringements made by a cyclist have been enough to
raise me to a completely unreasonable degree of anger and frustration.
Motorists’ biggest grievance with cyclists is not that they shouldn’t
be on the road, but that they are able to exploit the road rules in ways
which a motorist cannot. Although a cyclist is legally obliged to
dismount and walk if he wishes to cross with the pedestrian traffic, we
are all aware that in the vast majority of cases they do not.
This gets on the motorists’ collective nerve, like the older child who
is told to be sensible while the younger one relishes in the joys of
irresponsibility. It’s simply not fair.
A cyclist zipping in amongst the swarm of pedestrians crossing from
Rundle Mall over Pultney Street at 30kms an hour is just plain
dangerous.
Bikists have been known to be guilty in this regard too, but they tend
to take it easy and cruise, even waiting for the people to completely
dissipate before venturing out, very timidly, like a possum.
Cyclists are faster, much faster than their bikist counterparts, and
dangerously more confident.
I have seen a gang of BMX riders fly through that very intersection
scarcely avoiding a multitude of pedestrians. These BMX riders are
neither cyclists nor bikists; they are hooligans, and not to be trusted.
As a bikist, I am no more threat to pedestrians than a toddler passing
joyfully on his tricycle.
The cyclist who speeds past a strolling pedestrian may have judged his
path correctly, but the bewildered pedestrian who perceives that he’s
just been narrowly missed by a ‘cocky-lycra-boy’ is filled with fear and
rage.
Motorists, this is not your battlefield. Besides how does it affect
you?
Other than the cyclist has gotten away with something you could never
get away with, but would love to.
When it does affect motorists is when cyclists run red lights and
simply merge with the flow of traffic.
Again, a degree of calm needs to be observed.
Try to avoid savagely swerving toward, and attempting to frighten the
cyclist into submission.
This is not good for anyone.
If a cyclist does pull an utterly stupid move in your path he deserves
nothing less, and nothing more for that matter, than a wee word of
caution.
Think of it as an excellent opportunity to test your horn.
It’s easy to divide these two groups, and to stereotype them.
But there are good cyclists who observe the rules, and there are those
that don’t. There are reasonable and tolerant motorists, and there are
those who are grumpy, impatient, and just plain rude.
The first step people, is not to generalise.
Don’t invent excuses to abuse a cyclist if he or she hasn’t done a
thing wrong.
A cyclist in your lane trying to avoid parked cars in the cycle-lane is
only doing as he needs to keep getting to where he’s going.
And cyclists, not all motorists are out to monster you.
You take a gamble every time you ride on roads with things much
heavier, much faster, and infinitely more powerful than you.
There’s no need to enrage the beast by cutting him off or blocking his
path.
The trick, I think, is to be respectful. Cars and bikes are legitimate
forms of transport.
In this day and age too, the motorist should consider the environmental
benefits of riding a bike.
Perhaps they wouldn’t be so afraid to make the switch if there were
less people like themselves ready to provide the cyclists with their
standard of three near-death experiences a day.
To reach an understanding, we should all take the view of the bikist.
The bikist represents everyone, and can give a reasonable, unbiased
viewpoint on this issue.
So remember, when I swerve out in front of your car, or I narrowly miss
you at an intersection and you scream after me, fist pumping in the air
– ‘F*#king cyclist!,’ I just keep on riding, it’s like water off a
ducks back, I’m a bikist.
