BYE BYE BICYCLE

What have these got in common?

Dodo

Mammoth

Dinosaur

Not yet unfortunately

Any time now.

Unlike Richard (of RBB) I don't really have a lot against cyclists other than the annoyance they are when driving.

I used to cycle a lot when I was younger - pre-school, at school, at university and up until I relocated to Auckland in 1981.
I had a few accidents - run over by one when I was 7; knocked unconscious by falling off one when I was 10; hospitalised again with cracked ribs and concussion when coming off one when I was 12; getting knocked off and run off the road when I was at university - but I kept at it.

It wasn't until I had my Carlton racing bike stolen in a burglary in 1984 that I finally gave riding away.

For a while now I've felt that cycling is just too dangerous. Around Auckland I see almost every day close encounters between cyclists and big vehicles. Big vehicles, obviously truck and trailer units but also the 'Remuera tractors that the mums drive, render cyclists virtually invisible to drivers.

Cyclists also are taking unnecessary risks. Roads are much busier than they used to be. Cars are faster and much bigger and roads haven't been widened to compensate.

Last weekend when being driven down to Auckland from Whangarei on a non-motorway open road we encountered dozens of cyclists all out for a Sunday ride. On the whole most of them rode in a dangerous manner - in tandem, racing cars downhill, wobbling while talking or drinking, being arseholes etc.

Don't get me wrong. I'm sympathetic about cyclists getting killed or injured. The Old Girl's cousin was run over by a truck and trailer unit a couple of months back - crushed pelvis, multiple breaks etc. She will be in hospital for many more months.

Basically, to repeat myself, it is too dangerous today to ride bikes on the road.

What's the alternative? Cycle lanes? Yes but there is no way that all roads can be modified with cycle lanes and, even if they could who pays? Cyclists don't pay road levies via registrations and why should the tax payer or motorist.

On a news report on this issue a couple of days ago a cyclist who rides with his wife and kids (small kids too) welcomes the barrier protected cycle lanes but lamented that there are too few of them.
"We hit the pavements a lot" he smugly , if not arrogantly said. Well fuck me this attitude really pisses me off. Footpaths as the word suggests are for pedestrians. I get annoyed with cyclists barrelling along them weaving in between pedestrians. It's actually illegal but very rarely enforced.

If cyclists want to use footpaths that don't have a separation between riders and walkers they should dismount and wheel their bloody machine.

I firmly believe that bicycles have had their day and should be banned from all roads that don't have barrier protected cycle lanes and that they should be totally banned from footpaths, walking tracks, bush tracks, reserves, parks and anywhere that people are likely to be walking.

They've had their day and now should join the ranks of the extinct