… vs Cars

Posted on forums.farkin.net earlier today (emphasis mine):

Fuck them. (The motorists that is.) They’ll hate you because you’re a cyclist in front of them, no matter what. Whether you’re a reflective-vest-commuter-noob, lycra-clad-Dura-Ace-racer, an average joe on a mountain bike or a hardened-streetwise-courier.

It MAKES NO DIFFERENCE.
Follow the rules. They hate you for slowing them down.
Break the rules. They hate you because you get to your destination faster than them.
Ride on the road. They hate you because “you don’t pay rego”.
Ride fast. They hate you because you’re constantly in front of them or passing them.

Basically, your average motorist has made up their mind a long time ago if they’re sympathetic to cyclists or not.
A sympathetic one will see a noob trying to make a difference, doing the right thing while out of their comfort zone. The vest will only reinforce this.
An unsympathetic one… well… nothing will ever convince them that a bike should be on the road, no matter what the skill level or experience.

Bottom line: Don’t worry about what the motorists think of cyclists. It won’t change things or their mind. Certainly not a full-on-flouro-vest-commuter, anyway. Support your own kind. Support other cyclists.

Original.

The Hobart papers have been filled with articles regarding the danger on our roads for truck drivers, cyclists and scooter riders. The common factor? Cars. It seems that far too much effort is put into regulating other forms of transport when the most common problem is the average moron who gets behind a wheel and thinks he/she has a god-given right to be on the road. If we don’t start seeing serious penalties for drivers who use their vehicles as weapons, things are going to get nasty.

A recent letter to the editor in The Mercury talked of trendy cyclists with their “trendy flashing lights” and how they become just another set of lights on the road. It seems that some drivers don’t believe their use of the road includes using their eyes to watch for other road users. Perhaps a helmet with a police-style flashing light and a loud, continuous siren would be the appropriate way to inform drivers that there’s a cyclist in the area. Maybe the best thing to do would be to cover cars in padding and limit their maximum speed to 10kp/h, that way drivers won’t have to take any responsibility for their actions and can bump into anything they damn well please.