[Peakoil] FW: Off yer bike - for the sake of all of us on the roads

[Adrian Whitehead]

-----Original Message-----
From: Rolf von Behrens [mailto:rolfvb at sustainability.org.au] 
Sent: Monday, 5 December 2005 2:54 PM
To: smoothlooming at westnet.com.au; paul.magarey at dotars.gov.au; Adrian
Whitehead; Huw Thomas; keith at evfit.com; Ian Humphries; esh at internode.on.net
Subject: Fwd: Off yer bike - for the sake of all of us on the roads


FYI:

-----
From: "Tanja Von Behrens" <tanja_vb at wildmail.com>

Dear All,

A letter published in SMH on the weekend by an utter twit! Be riled!

___________________________________________________________-

Off yer bike - for the sake of all of us on the roads By Michael Duffy
December 3, 2005

IT'S TIME to get bikes off our roads. As a mainstream form of transport, the
bicycle has proved itself the equivalent of communism: 
a lovely idea that failed dismally in practice. Bikes are dangerous to ride
and slow traffic, which creates more pollution. For the good of all of us,
we need to ban the bike.

When Government started to encourage bike riding a few decades ago, it was
like the balmy days after the Russian Revolution: the future looked golden.
It was hoped that a significant proportion of all trips made in Sydney would
soon be by bike.

Where it all went wrong was that almost no one showed any enthusiasm to get
on their bikes. Today, fewer than 1 per cent of all trips in Sydney are made
by bike. The bike activists blame this on the paucity of bike lanes and
tracks, but this is like Marxists excusing the failure of communism in the
Soviet Union by blaming the nature of its regime. The sad truth is that in
both cases a vanguard tried to impose a new form of behaviour on the
populace and was rejected. The only difference is that the bike lobby hasn't
accepted this.

Every week I travel 10 kilometres down a crowded, four-lane, inner-city
road. Whenever it contains bikes, the traffic is frequently forced to slow
to a crawl as drivers wait for a chance to pass them. This increases the
pollution given off by the cars, as well as raising tempers all round.

Many bike riders hog the centre of their lane, legally and perhaps wisely,
but also slip between traffic when it stops. Where there are traffic lights,
this means you can find yourself grinding along behind the same bike several
times in the space of a journey. So thousands of cars are inconvenienced by
two or three bikes, and the amount of greenhouse gas produced increases.

Bike riders tend to be unhappy and resentful people. They relish telling
stories of narrow escapes from death at the hands of stupid car drivers.
While glad the individuals involved survived, one has to wonder why they
persist. We all know that significant proportions of the population are
depressed, tense, on a vast range of attention-limiting prescription and
non-prescription drugs, or like using their mobile phones while driving.

For bike riders to launch into city traffic expecting everyone else to
respond instantaneously to their unexpected appearance in the same lane, or
when they flash through red lights at intersections, suggests a desire for
self-harm. As does their preparedness to engage in sustained exercise where
they breathe in large quantities of monoxide, with health consequences that
can only be guessed at.

Possibly their thinking has been adversely affected by the smog. 
Consider some of the proposals the lobby group Bicycle NSW made at the last
state election. These included "affirmative action" such as forcing people
to stop driving by introducing parking restrictions and imposing a general
urban speed limit of 50kmh for all of Sydney. 
Considering the tiny number of cyclists who would benefit from such a
change, you wonder if the bike lobby is suffering from delusions of
grandeur.

Given the threat bike riders pose to themselves and others, the big question
is whether it is right to encourage them. Unfortunately, bike riding is one
of those activities that has acquired an aura of virtue. Supporting it (with
other people's money) is an easy way of demonstrating your moral stature.
The new Westlink M7 has a 40-kilometre cycleway stretching from Prestons to
Baulkham Hills. 
This was recommended in the tollway's environmental impact statement on the
sole grounds (here quoting from the one-volume summary) that it "would
improve cycling opportunities in the region".

Now, almost no one rides bikes on roads in the western suburbs. 
According to a Westlink spokesman, there are not even any estimated usage
figures for the new bike path. Very wise, that - but it makes you wonder
just why building an unwanted 40-kilometre strip of concrete to be lit at
night by coal-powered electricity should be considered environmentally
beneficial.

The Westlink spokesman refused to disclose how much the cycleway had added
to the cost of the project - or to the toll that will be charged to road
users.

Fortunately the State Government is less enthusiastic about spending its
money on bike infrastructure and has recently halved such expenditure. But
more needs to be done. A public campaign encouraging people not to ride
bikes in traffic would be a responsible start.


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