Rant: Cyclists, Oz Bureaucracy ....
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Nepia" data-cid="560435" data-time="1456267585"><p>
Bonkers. I do get quite conflicted when a hot female cyclist comes riding past me - <strong>I'd imagine it would be similar to Jegga finding himself physically attracted to a Green Party member</strong>.<br><br></p></blockquote>
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This has happened. Unfortunately Ms Holt was under the mistaken impression anyone cared about her opinions. God bless the man who invented the mute button.<br><br><br>
My main objections with cycling are:<br><br>
Its a very third world way of getting around, its understandable if you live in Cambodia less so when a half decent jap import costs less that the bikes most of these people get around on.<br><br>
No one is interested in your lycra clad scrotum , surely you can wear surf shorts?<br><br>
Also what MN5 said about Island bay is bang on, someone will be hurt or die there soon.<br><br>
Do these weirdos still mess the traffic up in Sydney? <a class="bbc_url" href="https://www.facebook.com/SydneyCriticalMass/">https://www.facebook.com/SydneyCriticalMass/</a> if so fuck them. -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="antipodean" data-cid="560456" data-time="1456270575">
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<p> <br>
Pedestrians shouldn't move - the cyclist will have determined their path and is only warning you not to do something sudden or stupid. Unfortunately the fat bitches walking four abreast taking up the entire path startle like gazelle and show remarkable alacrity in moving, like someone just announced free donuts...<br>
<br><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://i.imgur.com/dcsTxyl.png'><img src="http://i.imgur.com/dcsTxyll.png" alt="dcsTxyll.png"></a></p>
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<p>Indeed. The bell is just a courtesy that a cyclist is passing.<br>
Not to get out of the way.</p>
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<p>It's amazing the amount of pedestrians who get upset because some nasty cyclist dare rung their bell at them.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="MajorRage" data-cid="560572" data-time="1456296663">
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<p>I think that generation has already started to be honest ...</p>
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<p>I'm not saying you wouldn't get pissed off about it, I'm saying you wouldn't get so pissed off that you'd feel the need to do a TSF rant!</p>
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<p>Maybe I would maybe I wouldn't (I see a lot of stupid driving but not prick-ish stuff like I mentioned in the OP) - but I'm damn sure all the drivers on the Fern wouldn't be coming out defending the pricks for being pricks and considering them to be in the 'right'.</p> -
<p>The bit about roads & use is right tho' Once everyone is in auto-pilot cars & you take out the abysmal driving & add in lightning reflexes & 360 degree monitoring cycling will go thru the roof. No more blind spots, no more trucks turning across cyclists etc.</p>
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<p>While I very much agree a lot of cyclists are asshats, the ones in the car are far worse & they are the ones who will kill you, so the impending removal of them - coming from the likes of Tesla, Ford, Audi etc can't get here fast enough.</p>
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<p>You'd assume it will very quickly become the case that user driven cars are initially banned from city areas. </p> -
Ooh a cycling thread. I don't need to read it because I'm a self righteous, self entitled prick always looking to be outraged by what some car driving maniac has done this time. Nah.<br><br>
I used to cycle to work into London quite regularly and guess what, most people got along just fine. Motorists are now way more considerate/aware than they used be. Most danger tends to come from:<br>
Other cyclists - especially when they jump lights at junctions and nearly crash into you <br>
Pedestrians crossing the road while bikes are moving through stationary traffic.<br><br>
Some cyclists don't seem to understand that car drivers don't have 360 degree vision, some car drivers don't understand that it's difficult for a cyclist to ride a middle lane in a multi-lane highway.<br><br>
Generally though, if you are stuck in traffic and annoyed at all the bikes whizzing past, imagine how even more stuck in traffic you would be if all those bike riders were in cars instead. -
<div>The level of self-absorbed whining from a position of massive privilege you get from drivers on cycling-related matters is astounding.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>This country spends billions and billions of dollars creating the infrastructure for you to be able to drive your car around the country, including multi lane roads/freeways/eyesores, ugly safety infrastructure, petrol facilities and so much more. This involves de facto exclusion of non-drivers from large proportions of built-up areas. Due to the inability of a large minority of drivers to obey the law, measures are put in place which cause considerable inconvenience to other citizens (e.g. barriers, speed bumps etc.). Also provided are large areas of public land for you to leave your cars (which apparently is still not enough given the amount of whining about full car parks and parking tickets).</div>
<div> </div>
<div>To fuel your cars we have to enter into deals with despotic regimes, and ship the fuel around the world at considerable risk to the environment. The pollution from your cars causes thousands of deaths per year and harm to the development of children costing billions of dollars in healthcare costs and lost working hours, as well as major environmental damage in the form of wildlife-damaging water and air pollution and global warming. This is to add to the more direct form of death and injury which is being actually hit by a car which is over a thousand deaths per year nationally.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>One of the biggest causes of death in this country is inactivity. Cars, by their hogging of public land and their danger to other citizens doing healthier activities such as walking or cycling, are a major contributor to that problem. The biggest losers in this are children, who have lost almost all of their places to play due to cars and their drivers.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>So poor you, a cyclist delayed you for 5 seconds or you witnessed a cyclist running a red light. Just remember there wouldn’t be a need for red lights if car drivers were capable of operating without something telling them when to go or stop. A world without cars is a world without traffic lights.</div> -
<p>A couple of towns in Europe and the USA got rid of their traffic lights. Accident rate plummeted once drivers actually had to <em>think</em> about their safety instead of having a ready-made system of allocating fault.</p>
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<p>That said: Willie, there is no excuse for flying in and out of traffic down either side of Spit Bridge. You freak a driver out and they're likely to hit someone trying to avoid a cyclist.</p>
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<p>Bit of give and take on both sides is what is required.</p>
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Cookie" data-cid="560602" data-time="1456325166">
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<p>I used to cycle to work into London quite regularly and guess what, most people got along just fine. Motorists are now way more considerate/aware than they used be. Most danger tends to come from:</p>
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<p>In Sydney I feel more comfortable riding in the CBD than out in the 'burbs - because CBD drivers are used to cyclists, or maybe ARE a cyclist. The bogans out west are definitely not</p> -
<p>What a pathetic rant Nepia.. should be in the comments section of a stuff article about an accident involving a cyclist.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I cycle to work every day. Am extremely courteous to drivers and never run a red light. Yet I've still been knocked off my bike 3 time in the last 3 years.. Only one driver bothered to stop to check if I was OK. I'm 99% sure that the other drivers were so unaware of their surroundings that they didn't even notice they'd hit me.</p>
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<p>Slightly worse than being delayed by a few seconds on your drive to work. And yet you feel the need to write a bloody essay on here about it.</p> -
Cyclists who drive and vice versa deinitely helps in simple understanding. <br><br>
For anyone who thinks driving is "the answer" I'm often reminded of a work trip I made to Scotland a few years ago. I was visiting a big call centre and office of a company I was working for at the time. It was a lovely award winning building in its own splendid isolation in the Scottish countryside.<br><br>
But there was something amiss about the place - took me a while to realise that the majority of workers were fat, some very fat. Problem was most people drove to work, parked in the copious car parks, ate in the subsidised restaurants, sat at their desks, ate some more and drove home. There was nothing else to do on site and most lived a distance that was just convenient to drive from - so just piled on the pounds.<br><br>
Maybe they should have run, walked or cycled. -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Hooroo" data-cid="560630" data-time="1456350797">
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<p>and you felt compelled to also rant away. go figure...</p>
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<p>I always thought it was 'three times a charm'. Obviously not</p>
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<p>Mine wasn't pages long like Nepia's.</p>
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<p>And I didn't start the conversation.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="MN5" data-cid="560632" data-time="1456351316">
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<p>SammyC and WillieTheWaiter, what colour lycra are you guys wearing today ? I always thought blue would look best on me to go with my eyes.</p>
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<p>I only wear lycra on training rides, never for the commute to work.</p>
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<p>For rides in excess of 1 hour Lycra is essential. Any other clothing would be bloody uncomfortable</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="WillieTheWaiter" data-cid="560622" data-time="1456347621">
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<p> </p>
<div>The level of self-absorbed whining from a position of massive privilege you get from drivers on cycling-related matters is astounding.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>This country spends billions and billions of dollars creating the infrastructure for you to be able to drive your car around the country, including multi lane roads/freeways/eyesores, ugly safety infrastructure, petrol facilities and so much more. This involves de facto exclusion of non-drivers from large proportions of built-up areas. Due to the inability of a large minority of drivers to obey the law, measures are put in place which cause considerable inconvenience to other citizens (e.g. barriers, speed bumps etc.). Also provided are large areas of public land for you to leave your cars (which apparently is still not enough given the amount of whining about full car parks and parking tickets).</div>
<div> </div>
<div>To fuel your cars we have to enter into deals with despotic regimes, and ship the fuel around the world at considerable risk to the environment. The pollution from your cars causes thousands of deaths per year and harm to the development of children costing billions of dollars in healthcare costs and lost working hours, as well as major environmental damage in the form of wildlife-damaging water and air pollution and global warming. This is to add to the more direct form of death and injury which is being actually hit by a car which is over a thousand deaths per year nationally.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>One of the biggest causes of death in this country is inactivity. Cars, by their hogging of public land and their danger to other citizens doing healthier activities such as walking or cycling, are a major contributor to that problem. <strong>The biggest losers in this are children, who have lost almost all of their places to play due to cars and their drivers.</strong></div>
<div> </div>
<div>So poor you, a cyclist delayed you for 5 seconds or you witnessed a cyclist running a red light. Just remember there wouldn’t be a need for red lights if car drivers were capable of operating without something telling them when to go or stop. A world without cars is a world without traffic lights.</div>
<p> </p>
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<p>Ha ha. Nice rant. I assume you don't ever drive and apparently cycling is the only form of exercise that provides health benefits.</p>
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<p>Actually, the bold would suggest that this mostly a pisstake ....</p>
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="SammyC" data-cid="560626" data-time="1456350134">
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<p>What a pathetic rant Nepia.. should be in the comments section of a stuff article about an accident involving a cyclist.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I cycle to work every day. Am extremely courteous to drivers and never run a red light. Yet I've still been knocked off my bike 3 time in the last 3 years.. Only one driver bothered to stop to check if I was OK. I'm 99% sure that the other drivers were so unaware of their surroundings that they didn't even notice they'd hit me.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Slightly worse than being delayed by a few seconds on your drive to work. And yet you feel the need to write a bloody essay on here about it.</strong></p>
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<p>Clearly you didn't read my rant properly when you replied with your rant, I discussed discourteous cyclists who in one case endangered pedestrians and I wasn't held up going to work by cyclists. Then to round it off you have a whinge about discourteous drivers.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="NTA" data-cid="560507" data-time="1456278318">
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<p>* Who the fuck studies the back of their hand?</p>
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<p>Mythbusters did an episode on it, and it was concluded, people DID know the back of their hand!</p> -
<p>Normally I don't have too much of an issue with cyclists. I normally drive around the North Island and they are pretty few and far between and I haven't seen hardly any nitwit behaviour.</p>
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<p>Recently however they had the 'Round the Mountain' cycle race in Taranaki and I had the misfortune of driving between Stratford and New Plymouth while this was on.</p>
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<p>This was god awful, heavy rain, poor visibility, amatuer cyclists who struggled to stick to the left and every now and then for shits and giggles appear to lose control and swoop right at the most inopportune moments..oh and lets not forget fuck-head drivers who didn't give a shit about the life threatening situation on and figured fuckhead overtaking maneuvers among this chaos was a great idea. I had at least 4 instances where I came within cm's of killing a cyclist or colliding with a car deciding to overtake me as I was overtaking a wobbly cyclist. I was a shaking mess my the end of that trip. Only a matter of time until there are fatalities in that event, and as much as I get the cycling is great and healthy you are always going to get fuckhead drivers who will kill indiscriminately just so they can get to their monthly fuckhead meeting on time. This event should be scrapped in its current form and instead the route should be altered to the backroads closer in to the mountain. There are a few sections where that may not be possible but there is no reason why the race should be on the main highways for the majority of the ride.</p>
