Do you seriously want to restrict our freedom so much that you or your children cant hop on a bike and pop down the road to visit a friend or travel to work without being caught up in a **load of paperwork called registration.
In the last month how many people of been killed by drunk drivers, speeding truckies, car drivers using their phones, hoons, speeding drivers etc. Many.
How many have been killed by cyclists? Bit fat zero.
Still here you are winging on the internet about cyclists, and the clothes they wear.
At my local ferry terminal , there are usually over 200 bikes parked at the terminal, people that have riden instead of using their car.
Imagine how much worse parking and the morning traffic would be if people did not use bikes.
I used to ride to work, but I have stopped because it is simply too dangerous. I used to ride to work in the UK ( London) all the time, over 4 years, and I only had one incident where I feared for my life.
In 2 years of riding in Sydney - I could not count how many close shaves I have had.
The attitude to cyclists in Australia is shocking.
The recent behaviour of cricketer Shane Warne is a perfect of example of the normal attitude that cyclists in Australia have to put up with.
www.heraldsun.com.au/nocookies?a=A.flavipesCYCLING advocates are urging the Victorian Government to consider laws that would make drivers guilty until proven innocent.
Monash University Accident Research Centre researcher Dr Marilyn Johnson said the laws used in some European countries should be examined as part of a review of road rules.
"Responsibility is about whoever's driving the larger vehicle. It's about structuring the hierarchy of our vehicles on the road and making drivers of larger vehicles more responsible," Dr Johnson said.
The rules would mean motorists would be automatically culpable in incidents with more vulnerable road users until proven otherwise.
It follows research that shows drivers are to blame in almost 90 per cent of incidents involving motorists and cyclists, and that most drivers didn't realise their actions had even affected the rider.
Some points:
*Strict liability is the rule in the majority of European countries, where there is actually harmony between bikes and cars - increased numbers of riders with all the health/environment/congestion benefits.
*Cars are larger vehicles, with much greater potential to seriously injure or kill and increased responsibility should be allocated as such.
*Many drivers don't understand the implications their actions have on a bike rider (such as squeezing a cyclist into the gutter or door zone) or the road rules (cyclists are allowed to claim a lane, and can ride two abreast). Discussion regarding liability would hopefully increase the average motorist's awareness and change attitudes.
*A lot of car drivers give the SMIDSY (sorry mate I didn't see you) excuse in an accident or near miss. This isn't good enough, and these rules would support this.
*In 2010, a cyclist James Cross died after a car door was opened in his path which knocked him under a truck. The driver was neither prosecuted nor fined.
*Many cyclists do the wrong thing - riding without helmets, lights and running reds, which reflects poorly on the majority.
*A lot of pedestrians also die in car collisions.
