Feb 152012
 
Bike safety feel like an uphill battle? Get pushy!

Where when?

Date: Wednesday 29 February 2012

Time: 12:45pm for a 1pm start

Place:  Gordon Reserve – the small grass triangle on Spring Street just south of Parliament House, near the corner of Little Collins Street.

What is this all about?

We are everyday cyclists. We care about cycle safety. And we think it’s time to get a bit pushy. What we don’t want: roads only for cars. Roads so unforgiving that small errors have catastrophic consequences. What we do want: safe bike lanes. More of them. And respect.

Greens MP Greg Barber has introduced a bill to increase the penalty for dooring to the same as running a red light. This is a good first step to raise awareness. But we want more.

Ride your bike to Gordon Reserve to support the Dooring Bill and call for:
1. More safe bike lanes
2. A culture of respect on the roads

  9 Responses to “Join us on “leap day” to get pushy for cycle safety”

  1. OK but how about pedestrians? There was a letter in the Sunday Age today on this subject. I live in North Fitzroy and the shared walking paths are no longer shared but have been taken over by speeding cyclists who seldom warn of their approach. Because of a fear of cars they mostly ride on the pavement and seldom ring their bells and if I were to step one pace to the right or left I could be badly hurt. As for the underpass at Rushall station notices for cyclists to dismount are nearly always ignored. We don’t all want to ride bikes many of us are walkers who don’t choose to own cars.

  2. Other than careless drivers opening their doors into cyclists without checking first, the next most annoying thing is Taxi drivers that quickly pull over to pickup/dropoff passengers, but just half pull over and obstruct the cycle lane but not pull into the actual parking spot beside the curb… This happens ALL THE TIME on St Kilda Road.. (I commute from top to bottom of St Kilda Road every day). I’d like to see Police actually booking Taxi’s for this or at least running an internal campaign with the Taxi companies to encourage them to park properly instead of obstructing traffic and posing a risk to other road users.

    See you next Wednesday! Let’s GET PUSHY!

  3. We’ve all been doored or we will be one day. I’ll be there and will pass on the message to my cycling friends!

  4. […] want to ride to work too.  But they can’t see a safe way into the city.  It’s time to get pushy – Melbourne needs a network of safe bike lanes across the city, and in all […]

  5. […] painted bike lane in Lloyd St, Kensington. Don’t let them get away with it! Get pushy!  Spread the word!TwitterFacebookRedditTumblrEmailMorePrintDiggLike this:LikeBe the first to like […]

  6. Very much in support of a car dooring bill (was doored last year Tooronga Rd peak hr, hit by oncoming traffic after door, lucky to be alive)
    I’d like to see the risk assessment carried out by VicRoads/Councils prior to marking bike lanes adjacent to on street parking (I’m assuming there is one).
    100% of the time a car is parked, it will be alighted/entered by the driver, both those occasions the drivers door must occlude all or part of the bike lane.
    The likelihood of a collision occurring must be high (stats bear this out).
    The likely consequences for a cyclist colliding with the door at this time must be serious injury/death (stats also unfortunately bear this out).
    To not do a risk assessment is negligent.
    To ignore the results of a risk assessment is incompetent.
    To manipulate a risk assessment is fraudulent.

    • Some bike lanes overseas include a 30-50cm ‘buffer’ of striped paint in the dooring zone, then the bike lane, then the traffic lane. Unsurprisingly, they’re called buffered bike lanes and considered best practice.

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