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, I can understand why some communities don't want cyclist events in their backyards. I am a member of an organization called St. John Ambulance Australia, a volunteer first aid organization and each Saturday afternoon when I'm not on afternoon shift I do a first aid duty with a local road racing cycle club. I know that not all cyclists have the bad attitudes of some but there are members of this club who definitely do. There is a section of the course they ride that is on the off ramp of the Stockton Bridge here in Newcastle and the cycle lane is marked by cones each Saturday afternoon. As each grade lines up on the starting line the commissair reads them the riot act, what they can and can't do. One of the can't dos is if you come up behind a slower grade you must not overtake outside the cones and thus stray in to the traffic lanes, vehicles doing 80 km/h, sometimes more. You must apply your brakes and stay behind the slower grade for the few hundred metres of the cone area. Invariably every week there is at least one rider suspended for a month for doing exactly this. When some people get on a bike they leave their brains at home.
I have also experienced cycle clubs out training in Sydney when I worked there that thought they could do just as they pleased and that the road rules didn't apply to them. They would ride at night on black bikes with all black clothing and no lights at all in the middle of winter. They also think nothing of going through red traffic lights without even slowing down or looking to see if there is any traffic coming through the green light. When one of their number was hit and killed by a poor truck driver (never had a chance, either of them) he was attacked by these morons as he got out of his truck to render aid as is required by law. He ended up in hospital and a cone of silence descended over the whole thing until a couple of car drivers who had initially seen the incident and stopped until they saw what was happeneing to the poor truckie and drove off, fearing for their own physical safety, came forward and assisted the police with their inquiries. Turns out the president of this particaular club was the ring leader in attacking the truckie while their member lay dying on the roadway. And they wonder why some car drivers justifiably think they are morons As I said, some people leave their brains at home when they get on a bike, and most of those that do will never ever make international standard, they will never ride for Australia or any other nation in the Tour de France.
Last weekend I travelled to Sydney to do a St John Ambulance B.E.R.T. (Bicycle Emergency Response Team) course. Unfortunately I have to go back to complete the distance ride (40 km) as I was too unfit to finish it because I had in the previous 24 hours caught a slight chest infection so my energy and stamina were right down. During the theory section on the Saturday morning we were read the safety riot act, what we could and could not do. St. John is a uniformed, disciplined organization with military ranks (goes back to the days of the crusades and was then the military ambulance and medical corps of the Christian armies). We were told we would be given a caution for our first safety breech and for a second we would be told to place our St. John bike to one side, gather up our personal stuff and leave the course. Believe me, the instructors weren't whistling dixie, they meant it so we all complied and no one was asked to leave the course. It doesn't take much to do it right and it is more of an attitude thing than being overly intelligent.
I must admit the majority of cyclists are very courteous and will do anything to avoid a collision or confrontation with car drivers but the few that have the attiude that they are God's gift to the travelling public spoil it for the law abiding ones. Admittedly, there are also some car drivers who need a lot of "attitude realignment" when it comes to cyclists. Cyclists sin NSW have the right to the first 1.4m of the road if in single file or 2.6m if travelling 2 abreast and they are entitled to do so and there is nothing the vehicle driver can do about it. Finally, when we're out on our bikes (I got on mine yesterday afternoon for the first time in about 10 years) we have to be responsible for our own safety and riding attitudes (as far as we can be). I've attended the results of cyclist versus car or truck prangs and it isn't a pretty sight. Even cyclist versus cyclist prangs can also be a traumatic result if it happens at 80 km/h. My apologies for the long post,but this is a subject close to my heart too, especially now I'm back on my own bike training to complete the next BERT course in probably 3 months time.
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,
Ross.