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In Victoria at least, it is a legal requirement to allow a 1 metre gap between your vehicle and a cyclist when overtaking. If the bus driver did not do this, then regardless of whether the cyclist was in a T-Way or not, the bus driver broke the law. Maybe NSW is different. Also in Victoria, it is legal for cyclists to ride two abreast on almost any road. In fact they may be 3 abreast when one overtakes two others. I believe the only exception is a single lane road. Most Victorian motorists and some Victorian police don't know this rule. Unfortunately for cyclists, if a vehicle fails to give way or breaks the law, the cyclist is most at risk of serious injury or death. Luckily for motorists, if a cyclist fails to give way or breaks the law, the motorist might get a scratch on their car, but again the cyclist is in grave danger. So it's the cyclist at risk, regardless of who's at fault. Cyclists are the most vulnerable road users. Why can't motorists understand this and learn to be patient and drive more carefully? Every time I cycle up Mt Dandenong, at least half a dozen drivers overtake on blind corners over double white lines. They endanger me, themselves and anyone coming the other way. Just plain impatience, ignorance of the law and fool hardiness. What ever the cyclist did to the bus driver in this incident, I do not believe he did it unprovoked. Maybe he over reacted, or maybe he felt his life was in grave danger and suffered from "temporary insanity". Lord knows I could have been in that category before. Either way, he didn't loose his cool without reason. I don't care how difficult it is to drive a bus in peak hour. If the driver cannot do it safely and without endangering other road users, then maybe buses shouldn't be on the road.

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If anyone wants to vent a bit more righteous indignation, have a read of the remarkably ill-informed and polarising drivel spouted by Miranda Devine in the Fairfax press. The comments to the story by readers overwhelmingly speak out against this type of sensationalist journalism and her point of view which seems to be solely formed to pit motorists against cyclists and pedestrians. http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/roads-are-for-cars-not-lycra-louts-20091028-hkwr.html?autostart=1 I have to ride home this evening - hopefully without a target on my back, painted by Ms Devine who suggests that I shouldn't be on the road - as they are only for cars.

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There is no excuse whatsoever for anyone to partake in violence against someone else. The cyclist should NOT have been on the T-Way in the first place, and as such is completely in the wrong. I do cycle and I make sure that I follow the road rules stipulated for the roads I am traveling on. I value my life and always do my bit to try and make sure that I arrive back home after a ride alive. I've had a few near misses, one deliberate and quite frightful, but I survived. Some of the things that I have seen other cyclists do make me angry as a fellow cyclist and there is no wonder that we are perceived as a menace. I drive and scoot so I pay my Registration and CTP on both vehicles already so would not like to see a registration fee for cyclists as well - there is no way that the government will spend any cyclist registration fee income on improving cycling safety as they don't dpend much of the income raised from vehicle fees on roads (3% only I think). Behave as a cyclist and do the right thing - we shouldn't lower our standards to those that abuse us - and eventually (I hope) all road users can share successfully.

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It's pretty obvious that this subject has the ability to polarise, with differing opinions within the cycling fraternity and those outside of it. Which raises the question, is there some cycling movement which is lobbying the Governments (State and Federal) with respect to this very issue? Does anyone think K Rudd would be interested? Or given our minority status, this issue is just not good political fodder? Are the guys at SBS willing to raise the awareness of cyclists?

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Bus driving at peak hour would have to be one of the hardest jobs in the world. Not only do they have to keep an eye on the traffic that surrounds them as they stop and start but they have to watch the stops, listen for the bell, make sure some idiot isn't writing graffiti everywhere all while keeping to unrealistic time schedules. As far as I know it is illegal to ride on the footpath in Adelaide instead you have to ride along cycling lanes alongside the road. I find it hard enough to judge if I have enough room to get around a cyclists in my car so it doesn't surprise me that a bus driver would have difficulties avoiding cyclists as they stop in the cycling lane. I don't know the facts of this case let alone what a T-way is but I wouldn't go condemning the bus drier unless you know he has done something wrong. Besides there are no excuses for violent vigilantly action no matter what happens, that’s how you end up in jail.

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This comment is off topic but I couldn't find a "contact us" section on the website so here goes. Given that the Tour de france route has just been released and those of us planning on going over to follow it are in the midst of making some preliminary plans to go, could one of the guys from Cycling Central please write a blog/article with a practical guide with tips and hints to following the tour de france as a spectator. It would be great if it covered matters such as how long before the riders came through do they close the roads to cars/cyclists? Can you camp beside the road on the big climbs such as the tourmalet? What are the best times to go to see the most and have the closest contact with the riders? Do the roads get traffic jams around the tour? Cheers

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I can totally understand why a cyclist might want to take violent action against a motorist. The bus driver probably nearly killed him, and the resulting fear for his life turned to rage against the bus driver. The cyclist is probably lucky to be alive, and the bus driver probably deserved a wake up call. As a veteran cyclist I have little sympathy for the bus driver, especially as one nearly did me in not 2 weeks ago. I would say this cyclist is a mild mannered fellow who lost his cool after having his life threatened. That's what happens to average people when fear turns to fury. If you haven't experienced it, you've not been scared enough. Why is it that motorists can threaten a cyclist life, and cyclists just have to put up with it? Whether or not the cyclist was in the T-way is irrelevant. The bus driver shouldn't have threatened the cyclist life. The cyclist may have ended up there by an honest mistake. What would the headlines read if the bus driver had run over the cyclist? "Cyclist dies after collision with bus." Or "Bus driver helping police investigation as cyclist dies in road accident." Hmm. Sounds familiar. I believe a fellow cyclist died not long ago near Bright in Victoria resulting in headlines like that.

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I have changed my approach to drivers in the last 6 months. I used to take more chances, not stupid ones, but I guess you could call it "a bit pushy". Riding along beach road to and from work I saw lots of incidents and had what I thought was just cause to get upset with drivers on a number of occasions. I can understand cyclists getting upset at drivers when drivers do stupid things on the road, it is nothing short of your life we're talking about and that cannot be taken lightly. I have changed my ways however in the past few months as I see many more stupid things being done by cyclists on my daily commute than drivers. Heaps more. There are red lights across the bike path on beach road at a few places and most notably at Kerferd road. I always ride on the road so I stop at the red anyway. In 10 months of cycling to work, I have seen 1, yes 1 cyclist stop at that red light over the bike path. The symbol is a bike, it is red and all the road traffic is stopped. There are no excuses. I must have now seen literally hundres of cyclists run that light either at full speed or at a reduced speed (as if this somehow makes the thing legal...) I thanked that cyclist that stopped. The other one I see all time is the "I'll just nick onto the footpath around this red light" move. Classic. I find myself yelling at cyclists more than drivers these days. C'mon guys, the PR battle is going to be a long, hard slog and while there are cyclists out there breaking laws, weaving in and out of traffic etc. we're going to get hammered.

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I have been cycling since the late 70s when there were no bike paths. It is quite clear to me that cycle paths are not designed by people who ride bicycles. Many are lanes full of parked cars that the council have signed as bike path, in a cheeky and cheap way for them to increase their advertised kilometres of bike paths. Some are riduculously short, necesitating the need to merge on or off the road continoussly, and are basically a waste of time. Givng the council some credit, most of the bike paths near me are along newly constructed roads and adjacent to the pavement (they have spent alot of money there), so no chance of getting cleaned up by a car there, however every 300m where there is a side road, there is a detour on the path, a railing and sign telling you to dismount. How is that a usable bike path for anything other than dawdling along getting nowhere fast. I'll stick to the road until they make a usable bike path.

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Yeh it's time to alienate the belligerent cyclist! I was riding in London the last few years and they had the same problem with the surge of cyclists - self centred, ignorant, mouthy, hormone fueled, hell on wheels. Nothing more satisfying than getting their attention at the lights, maybe get a smirk from them, and then tell them they look like a dick. Done right, done calmly, they feel very small very fast.

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