BIKENCE - Minister Considers Bike Rego

Duncan Gay considers licence for cyclists, bans from certain roads

silently walks away

Pleased that the comments are pro-cyclist for once. (Appears you have to vote to see the comments.)

There are many farcicle suggestions in the article itself.

To propose a road be banned from use from a cyclist is pretty heinous, because a ‘couple’ of accidents occured there. If we took that stance on motored vehicles there would be no roads.

Likewise, every driver who gets killed, kills someone or does something stupid has a licence. Sigh.

yeh that guy is a fucken genius.
bike riders get killed by trucks and buses = bike riders need to be licensed.

Get fucked.

To be honest, my worst road experiences in Sydney have been bus related.

Why do cyclists ride on that hwy out of interest??

What highway? If you mean the princes hwy, it’s actually just king street which goes through newtown. A bunch of main roads out of Sydney are really just 4 or 6 lane traffic sewers that happen to be as much local road as highway. See also Pacific Hwy between North Sydney and Hornsby, or Parramatta Rd from the city to the start of the M4.

Sydney is completely fucked re: road infrastructure to the point that it will never catch up. They need to forget about roads and pour money into rail and cycle infrastructure.

Only practical way to get down South (to Waterfall/Wollongong etc). The other option (Princes Highway) is equally shit, narrower, and very indirect from the Eastern cycling clubs.

EDIT: I was referencing the South Dowling St/Airport Underpass ‘highway’.

This.

Problem is any govt. that wants to pour the $'s into this infrastructure will get voted out.
And the cities inhabitants also don’t want to pay for the costs of improving the cities infrastructure.

It’s almost a case of beyond repair and for far too long the only concern is that of the car. Makes me very, very sad,

Still, Duncan Gay’s proposal is not only ill timed but poorly thought out. That a minister comes out with these comments in response a cyclist getting killed under a bus makes me think those making decisions do not fully get the big picture nor show empathy for fellow humans.

I think the only way change this and to get the message across to a wider public is for someone to have an accident and ride over the top of the prime minister. Even then I think more than half the population would cheer and suggest if he paid rego it wouldn’t have happened.

Sit behind the wheel of a car: do whatchyalike :frowning:

I wince when seeing cyclists on Parramatta Rd, Military Rd, Cleveland St, sections of the Pacific Highway and many others. I’m all for banning cyclists if an alternate route is provided. Won’t see that happen …

There are already bans in certain places, ie the m4 between silverwater and parramatta. As you say, it’s reasonable to consider in other places, but only if there is infrastructure put in place to safely divert cyclists away. The banned bit on the m4 has a decent on/off-road path adjacent which makes it a no brainer.
There are already other places on my commute where the road is so narrow and busy that I don’t even chance it: windsor rd from northmead to baulkho is where I jump on the footpath. There are hardly any peds and i ride past cops all the time. they don’t give a rats.

Easier to let it slide than fill out the paperwork from an accident from you being on the road…

Exactly.

I just emailed Duncan Gay to let him know that he should think before he speaks.

only one problem with that, he doesn’t think.

The day I’m a lisenced and have to pay rego is the day I take a whole lane regardless of circumstance all the time.

even if we were licensed or paid regos, drivers will find something to bleat about.

Exactly.

If rego is based on GVM & emissions as it is for cars, i’ll be more than happy to pay $0.80 per bike, and fill my lungs with sweet sweet self-entitlement as I trundle down the middle of the lane wherever I choose to ride.

There is word around that the Neutral Bay rider was slaloming (not salmoning) between pedestrians up the footpath before charging out into the side of the bus…but being licensed would’ve saved him, right?

I won’t and nor should you.

Taxpayers would ultimately foot the cost of such a stupid scheme that achieves nothing and can’t pay for itself. Which is why I can’t see it ever happening.

In exactly the same way licencing prevents every other act of stupidity/negligence

I drove past the spot where the fellow cyclist was killed yesterday. Very sad.

It’s a shitty road … all of it. So much congestion, so narrow and even in a car it’s sketchy. Wasn’t even peak hour and there’s so much aggro and drivers of all vehicle types are fighting for every inch or car they can get ahead of. Things have got to change … Sydney’s a supposedly cosmopolitan, modern city that becomes 3rd world ghetto streetfight as soon as you want to use roads to get anywhere. As soon as people get behind the wheel the gloves come off.

Not good … at all. :frowning: