Be careful not to kill or seriously injure someone while driving today.
Personally, it feels quite tiresome. Reading and listening to the same old nonsense, over and over. It would probably be easier to blank it out. To let it slip into the background white noise. But for what is worth, here is an attempt to shine some light on the issue. I know it’s a feeble, minority voice but hopefuly, from little things big things will grow.
Not so long ago we had the Coroner telling us that we cyclists should be taking more responsibility to keep ourselves safe. He stopped short of telling us to stop cycling.
We have that idiot from the NZ Herald telling pedestrians that they deserve to die for dearing to assume they can walk on city streets without getting run over by a speeding motorist. Of course cities were designed through the windscreens of cars. That has become obvious to a handful of us.
Now we are being told that killer i-pods are on the loose. To walk and listen to music simultaneously is tantamount to a death wish. The poor girl was run over by a motorist for goodness sake. ‘Oops, I didn’t see her?’ Maybe she should have been wearing a helmet like NZ cyclists are required by the law to wear. Cars kill. No further analysis is needed. What’s needed is a serious attempt on creating a culture that doesn’t allow any more of these tragedies. Not more dross dished up by the Coroner. Sheesh.
Cycling is safe. Well, it poses small risks. But the risks are far outweighed by the risks of not cycling.
This time lapse video of a busy Melbourne street was used by the media to perpetuate the myth of pedestrians and cyclists indulging in risk taking behaviour on the city streets by breaking the road rules. Well they are ‘road’ rules. For vehicles. Where do people fit in to this equation? Currently, somewhere as a footnote is the answer.
I gave up ‘vehicular’ cycling ages ago. I am not a vehicle. I am a person on a bike. In contrast, you have cities in Denmark creating rules at intersections that are in favour of people on bicycles. This highlights how ‘off the pace’ we are in Auckland. That’s why I really don’t see any point in looking to Australia for inspiration.
The culture of death still prevails in Auckland. But feel free to share any success stories; experiences you may have had that tell us that things in Auckland are improving.
You can follow the #wheeledpedestrian on Twitter- @wheeledped
Cycling. It’s as easy as walking, but faster….
I've taken my bike over to Melbourne when visiting my sister and they do have some good things going. She was living in North Melbourne at the time and commute into the city, and even over to Richmond was not bad at all. Many of the "Commuter" streets have excellent bike lanes, as well as along side the Yarra.
Also, Eric Thompson IS an idiot. I run a pretty significant online modified car community/club and I'd say that a lot of people would also agree with this sentiment. He is definitely not the voice of the average driver.
Yes well said there,
The coroner sadly seems to be such an ill informed chap that you might even have thought he was possibly brought up in some strange "alternative world". For example a small country at the bottom of the planet that for some reason or other became the vanguard for anti cycling legislation. You know the kind of things; mandatory helmets, no right of way across intersections for cycle paths etc etc.
In truth this is the issue he needs to understand: That ANY social change that makes cycling less viable, makes us more vulnerable, so more marginal, so more vulnerable and so on.
He has so far made public, all the old car centric "blame the victim, not the killer" arguments that most educated countries have sucesfully sidelined into the "he didnt realy just say that did he?" basket.
In my view, the whole proceess of hearings is becomeing a bit of an international embaresment.
I am just waiting for the bogus arguments that "children are not cognitively able to safely cope with cycling until they are at least 12 or 13" or that "all cycling injuries should not get ACC cover". He will then have the dubios honour of expounding almost all of the ignorant, ill informed, car centic thinking that has been thrown around and rejected by any sensible comentator on the subject.
Who is this guy working for anyway? Holden or Toyota?.
Obviously not, but still you can see their CEOs laughing and back slapping over every press article. Economic times are getting tough, they need every trick in the book to keep New Zealand one of the most car dependant markets in the world.
Do you think they care about a bit of colateral damage to people who they (seemingly aided by the state), argue are so clearly irresponsibly choosing to ride a bike?
Tom
@Tom I was expecting the involvement of the Coroner to provide some much needed inertia towards the normalising/promoting of cycling. This has not been the case. I don't think it has damaged the cause excessively because the coroner has in effect just said out loud what most people currently tend to believe anyway. There is a 'silver lining' in all of this. The cycling lobby should now know it is a long way further from normalising cycling than originally thought. Currently, cycle promotion (culture/infrastructure) is done on a community cake stall scale. The Coroner's attitue tells us how much more work needs to be done to make a positive influence on the hearts and minds of the public.
It also tells me that the distinction between sports/recreational cycling and short, urban transport related cycling trips needs to be made clearer.
Yes Mark, I totally agree with that. Cycle Action Waiheke are currently in talks with AT about a different type of safety education campaign on the island. The idea started from us effectively self declaring the island to have normalised a special level of care for vulnerable users. This could develop into an attitude thats similar to the european laws (interestingly brought about by enlightened coroners) that made drivers more responsible for all other vulnerable users. Its early days with AT but I have had some very encouraging attitudes and ideas from the key staff. Ideas of slogans like "Its what we do around here" and "sail before steam, humans before motors" etc
Getting the local police on side will be key and that will need some careful diplomacy.
Watch this space. Afteral, Waiheke was about the first community in NZ go "Nuclear free" Why not "driver resonsible". We like setting the trends over here!
@Tom I agree with you that Waiheke is a perfect place for a development like this. I think it is imperative that a 'culture' of road use is developed alongside infrastructure improvements to grow cycling. I hope we are witnessing NZ slowly emerging from a wild west environment of road culture where cars, speed, death are blithely accepted as the way we do things in NZ. It's time for people to reclaim the streets. Sounds familiar. Nothing new in that concept.
if such a culture is established hopefully it might cross pollinate into Auckland through the 4wd driving "summer" Waiheke population
@Steve Waiheke would be great if it wasn't for all those tourists from Akl, eh!?
guilty as charged, M'lud,
but then I know some tourists from London as well
Let's not give up on the Coroner's enquiry just yet; there are still three hearings to go in Auckland, Wgtn and probably Chch (dates still to be finalised; waiting on Police cases). So you guys in Auckland still have an opportunity to make your case. Having got the heads-up from the first two hearings about what the Coroner is musing on allows the opportunity to prepare some compelling counter-arguments.
@Glen And being that the Coroner is smarter than the average …, he will pick up on those counter arguments very quickly. I agree with your assessment. It is a perfect opportunity to provide some balance to the situation.
I have been in touch with the corroners office and have considered presenting in Auckland. However, what I have to say is not about any particular crash, rather its about the whole bigger picture. I am not sure Its apropriate to take time from the families and detailed assesmant of the individulal tragedies. Then again I think the coroner needs to hear the bigger picture somehow and that was the ideia of him sitting on all the cases. What do people think?
@Tom Looking at the big picture was the original intention. The coroner's brief was to look for links between all the DEATHS. Unfortunately the coroner has simply repeated the old tripe about cyclists needing to take more care. Its just business as usual. There really needs to be a strong showing at the Auckland hearings to place the International Perspective of cycling to the Coroner. This is an opportunity that needs to be grasped.
From an article in the Herald written by Steve Matthewman, Socioligist at Auckland University.
"Consider car accidents. Ian Roberts, a Professor in Public Health, noted that it is the young rather than the old, the poor rather than the rich, the populations of the global south rather than the north, the pedestrian rather than the driver that overwhelmingly pay the price: 3000 people are killed every day and 10 times that are seriously injured. According to the World Health Organisation's Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability programme 90 per cent of vehicle-related deaths are in the developing world. The financial costs of these accidents exceed what these nations receive in aid payments. One thing we might want to consider, then, is that technologies – whether individually owned like cars or corporately owned like mines and cargo ships – are capable of creating profound social problems."