look once, look twice, look bike!

As a regular commuter on my bike for some time, I've seen some pretty poor behaviour over the years. Some of it from pedestrians, some of it from other cyclists, and most of it from mostorists. I have always maintained that it is the responsibility of everyone who uses the road to do the right thing, to behave appropriately and to be considerate.

I believe that sadly there is a certain proportion of people in this world who are selfish wankers. You know the ones, we've all met them or worked with them: they're the people that are always rude, obnoxious, treat other people badly, and think that it's all about them. It turns out that some of them ride bikes, and some of them drive cars. Honestly I've seen some cyclists that give me the absolute shits, blatantly running red lights, riding on the footpath, and generally doing stupid things that inconvenience others. I hate these guys because they give the rest of us a bad reputation. In that grand old tradition of tarring everyone with the same brush, many people who can't think for themselves simply see cyclists behaving badly like this and assume that all cyclists therefore are wankers.

And I've seen plenty of evidence of motorists behaving badly too. Opening car doors onto oncoming cyclists, driving too closely, cutting bikes off, beeping and yelling abuse, not giving way and pulling out in front of oncoming bikes. I see at least one of these thing happen most days that I ride - that is no exaggeration. It would be so easy for me to fall into the trap of tarring all motorists with the same brush ad assuming that they're all wankers. But of course I know they're not, because I'm aware enough to realise that for every motorist that behaves badly, there are countless others who go about their business doing the right thing, and in fact many who are very polite and give way to me when they don't have to or give me a very wide berth just to be safe.

It would be wonderful if everyone, cyclists and motorists, could stop and think for a moment and realise that despite that small proportion of cyclists and motorists who do the wrong thing and behave badly, there is a huge proportion who get on with it and do the right thing, are considerate and polite, and follow the road rules. You tend not to notice them as much as the bad eggs because they fade into the background, because they're behaving the way that they should. And without wishing to sound like a Miss Universe contestant, wouldn't it be nice if we could all just get along for once.

But I would like to make one distinction. Without a doubt bikes can be very dangerous and cause a lot of damage. But cars and other vehicles, they are deadly weapons. The amount of damage they can cause to each other is vast and undeniable, let alone to a cyclist. I posted last year about a crash I had where a car cut in front of me without seeing me, sending me careening into the side of the car at around 30kmph. Needless to say the occupants of the car were completely without physical impact - though they were visibly upset and shaken - whereas I ended up covered in bruises, stiff and sore, with my wheel buckled. I was lucky to not receive more serious injuries because I was able to stay upright. This power differential is undeniable, and will never change. I believe that it therefore places an extra onus on motorists - as the drivers of vehicles that can cause a serious amount of damage - to take greater caution around cyclists (and others in general).

I want to relay one other story. A couple of weeks ago I witnessed some of the worst road rage I have ever seen. Another cyclist overtook me (yes, sadly he was much fitter than I!) completely legally, and I even had time to look over my shoulder as he did so and noted that there was plenty of room in the lane to do so with a 4WD behind him in the lane. However, the driver of the 4WD took umbrage that this cyclist was in front of him (shock horror, he couldn't accelerate as fast as he would have liked, which woudl actually have been pointless as there was a red light up ahead) and proceeded to chase down the cyclist and swerve into him. The cyclist, shocked as he was, was able to get out of the way in time, and as the light turned green he took off again (might I add I was right behind the other cyclist this whole time, and we were both following the road rules and doing everything right), when the driver swerved again into where we were riding, narrowly missing both of us. We had to stop as he had completely blocked our path. He then proceeded to get out of his car, which he had stopped in the middle of a busy lane in the city, and verbally abuse the other cyclist. The other cyclist looked bewildered, said that he was sorry if he felt inconvenienced, and then managed to ride off again. At the next set of lights the driver did the same thing again, swerving into us and narrowly missing both of us, before he opened his window and yelled abuse again, then sped off. I was so shocked and upset I had trouble cycling all the way home. That man had gotten into such a rage over a trifling minor inconvenience which was completely legal, and used his massive car as a weapon. He could have easily knocked one or both of us off our bikes if we weren't being so careful and anticipating his erratic and boorish behaviour.

Think about that for a moment. A perceived slight resulted in a great big 4WD being used essentially as a weapon to intimidate if not harm. I can't imagine what made him think that was reasonable behaviour, even if the cyclist had done something wrong how could that ever be an acceptable way to react. Yep, he was definitely one of the aforementioned wankers that happens to drive a car.

There was a TV campaign when I was a child in England that went "look once, look twice, look bike" to raise awareness of cyclists and the rights and responsibilities of sharing the road. I believe it applies as much today as ever. I really do wish we could all just share the road fairly and responsibly and do the right thing, but I also know that as long as a small proportion of motorists think it's acceptable to behave so badly towards cyclists, the massive power differential will mean that cyclists will always feel more vulnerable and therefore defensive.

Stay safe on the roads, and remember to not just look for cars or a pair of headlights, but look for bikes and little flashing lights too!