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'Nobody goes home and moans to their spouse about me - whether I'm driving or riding, I'm one of the boring majority who follows the rules and offers no anecdote material.' Yeah, right Andy. 'The biggest difference I can see between cyclists and motorists is that the majority of motorists breaking the law do so inadvertently, through moments of inattention'. I would put that at 50/50. Failing to give way, stop or wait at an intersection because the on coming cyclist is the only traffic still constitutes 'breaking the law'. Changing lanes and stopping in front of cyclists to let their passenger out, this is breaking the law. EVERY morning commute my rights on the road as a cyclist are denied me, purposefully, and i have to give way because i am not a lane wide nor weigh hundreds of Kilo's. Giving excuses for motorists to become 'inflamed' through some anecdotal evidence is, as you say 'tired, old and just plain stupid'. No rider or driver on the road is perfect, some of us are better riders than others, and seeing some cyclists not religiously follow every road rule (do you have a bell, reflectors, flag, use hand signals, and have a reflective vest on each and every time you ride?), whilst lamentable,especially running reds thru an intersection, is inevitable and not worth getting angry about. Personally, i think racing clubs should be pushing the road safety message to their members a bit more, and the Amy Gillet foundation (among others), not only putting out there the '1m space' message, but the importance of cyclists riding with consideration and awareness of the traffic, not in spite of it.

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Great artcile Matt,a nd I have really enjoyed all the comments, especially those about making sure we as cyclists obey the road rules. On the education front, our council moperates a bike to school program. Kids are encouraged to ride their bikes to school, and there are signs put up along the designated bike route to warn/remind motorists that there are kids cycling to school. Maybe if there were more of these schemes put into practise, there maybe less of a problem, as both kids and their car driving parents would be more aware and respectful to cyclists. No parent wants a motorist to be driving in a manner as would endanger their child when riding, maybe it would sink into the psyche that we need to be courteous to all road users.

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So much of this argument is tired, old and just plain stupid. The problem is not motorists, nor is it cyclists - it's the members of both groups who don't obey the laws. If everyone did what they're supposed to on the roads, the problems wouldn't exist. Sure, everyone's got a story about the guy who ran them off the road, or clipped them while passing, but most people also have a couple of stories about cyclists suddenly hopping off the footpath in front of them or running red lights. Why does no-one remember that while one person did something stupid and dangerous, hundreds of others didn't? Nobody goes home and moans to their spouse about me - whether I'm driving or riding, I'm one of the boring majority who follows the rules and offers no anecdote material. The biggest difference I can see between cyclists and motorists is that the majority of motorists breaking the law do so inadvertently, through moments of inattention. Cyclists, on the other hand, often seem to feel that they only need to obey the laws that suit them at the time - that's right, all you no-helmet, red light running gutter jumpers, I'm talking about you. The reason so many motorists are violently against cyclists is because so many cyclists are so inflammatory. I commute every day by bike. I share the road with dozens of cyclists and hundreds of motorists. In the last 10 000k, I've had a bunch of near misses but only one accident - and that was caused by a cyclist suddenly appearing off the footpath in front of me. On my way in this morning I had two near misses - one caused by two cyclists running a stop sign, the other by two cyclists entering a blind corner on the wrong side of the bike path. And had to change lanes to go round a bunch of arrogant pillocks with bikes standing around in the middle of the road waiting for the rest of their (already dangerously large) bunch to turn up. And all of these were 'real' cyclists on drop bars in lycra. If you can't or won't follow the rules, leave the bike at home and walk or catch the bus. Don't drive, though - you'd be just as big a problem doing that.

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I agree and disagree with this. I am both a cyclist and a driver. Yet even I get annoyed at people on bikes when I am driving. I am not talking about inner city driving , I am taking about in the suburbs, on highways. where I live in Tasmania it is nothing to see cyclist riding 3 or 4 abreast on the road and holding up traffic. There is a windy road which travels from Kingston to Taroona and cyclist use it often. UNfortunately they will not move over for a car and as the road is windy and double lined cars cant over take. Just the other day I was coming up to a roundabout and there was a car travelling behind me. A bike was moving up to the roundabout on the left entrance to us. I made it through the roundabout, the care behind me was half way through the roundabout , but the cyclist did not give way to the right and very nearly caused an accident for the car behind. so while cycling in the city may be faster , cycling out of the city is not. Riding 4 abreast is just plain rude, failing to follow the road rules is unsafe and showing a complete disregard for cars on the road simply becuase you feel as though you can goes nowhere to creating an atmosphere where people welcome cyclists on the road.

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Well said Matt Keenan, all valid points, especially making the distinction between that fact that its actually the taxes taken from our income that really maintain the roads, whereas registration fees fund accident compensation schemes. As for the maintenance of the roads point, when was the last time anyone, cyclist or driver saw a cyclist hit a freshly filled in pot hole and destroy it as many cars, vans and trucks do on a daily basis? Anyway, the main point i want to add is for the average city cyclist getting to work in the morning to observe the fact that the main reason we get close enough to motor vehicle traffic to cause any disruption is the endless supply of parked cars along every Melb. street, that causes many bike lanes to be inaccessible outside of clear way hours. A point any car driver when complaining of cyclists on the roads would do well to heed, but then again, we are not exactly partaking in a rational debate here, if the 'readers' of the Herald Sun are anything to go by. Ok, one more point, the running of lights question, i spotted a certain Aussie Euro-Professional run one near the VIS, seconds before he dismounted and went inside, what for??!!! The longest any of us will wait for a light is 60-80 seconds , the best thing a lot of us can do for cyclist safety on our roads is to be active, considerate and law abiding road users.

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I read that and also this http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,1,26692804-952,00.html the third such article in the same hostile hate inciting manner. I have felt much more nervous on the road since - maybe without need but the articles aren't exactly warm and welcoming. More myopic and ignorant. I agree we need to all understand and share roads, but I struggle to see how to change attitudes like this. I plan to move to Europe this year, partly to escape such bigotry. A real shame, we have a great country otherwise...

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The problem starts early or should I say young. On my way to Willunga today on a dead straight rode a car carrying two pimply faced teanagers overtook a truck and was heading straight for me. I went off the rode and the car was still on the wrong side of the rode a further 100 metres later. Educate young people and as they age they will hopefully be better drivers. Make the Legal driving age 18 and that might help too.

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In response to Jake, I imagine that the rate of bookings of miscreant motorists by camera v. those via police action must be at least 10:1 and it has to be a tad tougher to ping plate-free pedallers with pixels! So put front & back plates on bikes I say. Also if large enough to be read by cameras they will have the additional advantage, much like parachutes, of slowing them down too. And let us not stop there, all human beings wishing to cross roads should be licensed and carry plates as well. In fact all human powered road transgressors should be preceded by vehicles bearing red warning lanterns like they used to do in the old days .... er ... I think I may be getting a little confused here.

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Hello all It is great to read positive affirmations regarding cyclist but as you all know this is not the norm. Education is the key but you only have to watch motorists reactions to sharing the road with each other to see it is a huge up hill battle to educate them to share with cyclists. I am always amused and some time angered when i hear how cyclist endanger other road users ...i have yet to hear of a cyclist coming out on top with an altercation with a car etc. Most complaints against cyclist are centered around how we disrupt traffic, slow it down, go through red lights and generally annoy other road users but really it is about the fact while they are stuck in traffic we can go around it so it comes down to envy and the selfish attitudes of motorists. In the last few years there have been several incidents involving cyclist and other motorists and i have to say where are the voices from the different cycling organisations.....their silence is deafening. To have some hope of educating the general public our cycling organisations need to stand up and make their voices heard.

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your idea of putting the bikes on the roof will work as waving at people can be taken as anything other than what is intended! a campaign one day a month, first monday will if ALL join in make the motorists aware particularly if wearing the cycle gear in the car and there are signs on the car windows . Years ago there were "norm the couch potato" ads, several generations pass and the problem is worse! Children are not taught in school to "Get my own back" when they start driving so where is this "attitude towards cyclists " coming from? 5ft cycle lanes & the same for overtaking needs to become a national safety issue addressed by action on the councils not comments in the media! Each month through to TDF in july there should be a" mass polite publicized action" involving the media so that the "Motorised Cowboys can see that Cyclist not only can be polite but that they are a majority of responsible road users not the "lonely target" that the "Clown/cowboy" who has had a row with their "partner/work mate/neighbour" comes across when in need of venting their frustration ". Every country has the "Journo/Personality" who trumpets their views about "Issues" most of them are bullies and it is too much work to tell their employers that you are no longer buying their products but we need a few more "Ralph Nader" types to get the message across. at www.parrabuddy.blogspot.com i am trying to help "disabled cycling in my own way and would enjoy contact with any that are coming to france this july but in betweens would appreciate details of the "Aussie winter paralympic Team" at @skippydetour "Disability is not a word, it is not a sentence, it is a challenging way of life. Don't join by accident! Ride Safe!

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