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I'm not in prison!
Well, it's the first of March, and despite being on the bike for 45 minutes, I didn't get pulled over to be checked for ID, or put in handcuffs for not having a bell on my bike. However, I was passed at close range by an impatient driver, and nor was he immediately taken to court.
Confused? This is the day that the new laws for cyclists rolled out in NSW by mastermind Duncan Gay that have led to the crazy jacking up the fines of a number of minor (at least in comparison to those of drivers) or negligible "offences" including as absurd not having a bell fitted to a bike (because this will be a great way to warn Caterpillars of one's presence) to make the state the laughing stock of the world.
I wrote a full analysis a month ago - check it out here.
But just wanted to add: I've messaged my MP, Matt Kean's office hoping to have a meeting with him regarding these flaws of the law hoping to add to the numbers. Not sure if it'll happen as I know he's already meeting with other cyclists, but at the very least I've added to the numbers of those with strong opinions to the matter, and would just like other cyclists to do the same.
Ultimately, the stated objective of the new package is to improve cyclist safety, but the reality is that it will do nothing but discourage cycling, and the fact that the government is blatantly pulling the wool over our eyes. (Laughably, it has quietly discarded the goal to "more than double the mode share of bicycle trips made in the Greater Sydney region by 2016.)
PS March 1st is celebrated in the US as "National Pig Day." How fitting (for Duncan Gay)...
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I'm not imagining a blitz on the first day of cycle law changes, but if I were a betting man, and I am, I'd predict a checkpoint type scenario at Terry Hills some weekend in the next few months. I so hope I'm wrong?
Police can not ask to check for ID unless they suspect that you have broken a law. A photo on a phone is sufficient and for the first 12 months they are only going to warn people who don't have ID.
Not much has really changed, wear a helmet and don't run red lights and you will be fine.
To your seatpost under your saddle or just above your rear reflector. I don't believe the law stipulates where on the bike it must be mounted.
at Centennial park on Saturday - catching speeders. They said cars as well, but it looked like almost exclusively cyclists
And Bondi beach the previous week, a workmate got pinged on a thursday evening (9pm) for:
1x no front light
1x no tail light
2x going through red lights
1x pavement riding
1x not signalling (dangerous riding?)
$430 in fines.
"Operation Comply" is what they're calling it.
You must have a working "warning device" so could be a bell, tail light, reflector, flag etc
Is just retarded.
If I need to pass pedestrians like in the mornings on spit bridge a polite 'Excuse me' and a 'Thank you' afterwards works best. If they are in their own head phone world one just have to patiently wait for a safe passing point.
For cars, if they have the window down, occasion appropriate verbal assessment of their driving skills followed by a reciprocal appreciation that there is one less car for the driver to contest with can also be exchanged but windows up - no point to try to engage in such a meaningful exchange of mutual admiration.
So, what have the geniuses behind this thought a friggin' nondescript audible device would achieve?
On a carbon rim count as a sufficiently loud noise maker? The upside is you don't even need to take your hands off the controls, just stop pedalling and ŹZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
Wherever your opinion lies, i.e - comply, don't comply, meh, I'll just do it, meh, I won't, these laws and public opinions that bicycles are even remotely on the same level as cars is obscene, unintelligent and regressive as a policy, im sure the benefits of cycling are well documented and far outweigh the motor car for commute purposes. so if a politician cannot see this, what else is he not seeing? Duncan Gay should be removed from office asap, because with the laws he has cast a dark shadow on the psychology of cycling that will damage this city and state in so many ways for years and possibly decades to come.
Come back Abbott, all is forgiven!!
only joking things ain't that bad!
http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_t...
If someone wants to buy it
Well I just took mine for a spin tonight and I feel it isn't quite loud enough.
I think i need something like a 65mm deep aero section rim to amplify it. The guy on the weekend group road ride had a setup like that and you could hear it clearly over the wind noise at 60km/hr.
So I put the bell back on tonight.
I suppose it will save my voice at the Shimano GP on Saturday. It gets a bit much having to yell "track!" all the time with you young whippersnappers. Now I can just go "ting-ting" and the trail ahead will clear as if by magic. My podium placing is assured.
Apparently, such is their knee jerkness to this issue they have announced it before getting their house in order and the ID component isn't even law yet according to this article.
http://www.executivestyle.com.au/metre-passing-l...
when you defend yourself in front of a magistrate, they will not take kindly to you trying to pass off your voice as an 'audible warning device'. My hub is quite loud and you may get away with using it as a 'device'. Need someone who has been busted to try this. Would likely need to measure dB noise output of the hub vs a standard bell. I'd argue my hub is almost as loud...
I am also digging around in the bottom of the bike stuff pile to find a bell. Its going under my seat so when they ask where is my bell I can point to my d*ck
@pants gotta give you points for that. LOL.
I picked up 3 bells for $15 at my LBS.
however under your seat will probably have the same effect as using your voice with the magistrate.
to the general Nobmobber (not @pants specifically)
No wonder we have the higher litigation per capita than California. I mean a bell is supposed to be a warning device. I know I'm going to get ridiculed for that but what about the spirit of things? Put your bell where its supposed to go.
Is it any wonder we've turned into a nanny state? Because we push the envelope by arguing that a bell under our seat will do what it is supposed to do?
Originally when they said a road worthy bike has to have a working bell. No one thought anything of it at the time, probably many decades ago.
Times have certainly changed. Tell me you're surprised about the lock out laws as well? Is it any wonder? The binge drinking that goes on here in AU is incredible. So they use the coward punch as an excuse to make tough rules because we refuse to listen. Go to Europe. You'll find a lot less binge drinking there. And Most likely the ones doing it are the Australian & New Zealand tourists at the October fest.
Most of the problem we have here is the fact most of us refuse to listen to sensible advice. So the pollies, as well as having to go totally overboard with rules, bully us into doing whatever they decide. There would probably be a whole lot less Bulshit (like whats going on right now) If we'd started doing things by the spirit of its original intention. But Unfortunately I feel its far to late for that now & it will only get worse.
yes i totally agree, getting fined for not having a bell all of a sudden is mind boggling .Yes in the past, the policeman if he/she actually checked would probably said something quiet. like:"c'mon you should have a bell on your bike." and send you on your way. What happened to the Australia where everyone got a fair go?
it dissapeared a good 15-20 years ago.
/rant
and no I don't feel any better
LOL
maybe we all just need to relax a bit and go with the flow. Maybe a little dancing will help with the moods. I wonder if we could get this as a recorded message to play as a warning device? C'mon boys and girls, crank up the volume, let your hair down, pretend it's 3am circa 1988 and your at The Bourbon then just press play
http://youtu.be/SC88T2ZIHSI
is that safe for work? Might have to wait until I get home
Ding, Ding Ding!!!
nor has ever been safe to play in any environment.
Might take my chance with "a Bourbon tonight"
Uuuh,
I'm Swedish and you Aussies are good at binge drinking but not like a friggin' Scandinavian and I mean that in a good way - binge drinking is bad and losers do it but I don't think Oz has a worse binge drinking culture than Europe. It is just that it has become a moral majority nanny state.
When it comes to cycling it is a very sad and backwards discussion that goes on here. If anyone has been to e.g. Copenhagen you've seen how it should be done. But in Oz, rather than establishing safe bike facilities to get cars of the road cycling is discouraged. It does not take a genius to work out that establishing a facility that can throughput a certain amount of persons per time unit will be cheaper if the person is on a bike than in a car. So why discourage biking so that a greater investment in infrastructure is required to move the same amount of persons in cars? It does not make any sense what so ever - none at all. It is simply stupid.
and his minions have a lot to answer for here. They actively work to engineer the democratic process to suit their business and they brag about it.
The culture in that organization hasn't changed since I was an auditor there over 30 years ago, according to a recent escapee who works in our office. The toxicity bleeds over into its journalism (cough) where bullying and monstering soft targets that it sees as left of centre or a threat to business if they get too big is undertaken with glee and gusto.
Cycling is one of those targets. One of Rupert's strongest supporters in maintaining his family's dominance of the voting structure is an oil sheik who holds a large chunk of voting stock. The balance of reporting in his rags is pro-car, pro-fossil fuel, pro-big business, climate change sceptical, and anti-cycling.
Join the dots.
I agree with a lot of Stans analysis. I attribute a lot of it to the cultural abandonment of a sense of absolutes when it comes to right and wrong in favour of post-modern relativism. We have lost our moral compass.
Not. I've been for 2 rides this week, and been overtaken at close range four times. On one of the occasions, it was a police car. Really encouraging seeing as this is the mob that ran the blitz on cyclists at Centennial Park recently to crack down on them not following the laws. Now if only I'd recorded it on film...
As a side note, my MP Matt Kean has met with representatives from the cycling community this week and addressed the same points that I've made myself, and from all I'm hearing is at least the government is copping a fair bit of heat from it. As they should. But keep putting the pressure on.
I think, of all the sub-arguments one can gather about this, the proof that these new regulations do not address the stated objective (i.e., to improve cyclist safety) is clearly shown in one thing: wherever one stands in their view on whether cyclists should be on the road, nobody can deny that of all the positive feedback for these laws given from public comments, almost all are simply showing contempt for cyclists with smug satisfaction that they will be punished for pissing them off, rather than with real concern for road/cyclist safety as a whole. If you send a short email, even just mentioning this point, that'll get a message across.