Patrick Turner <info@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
> cfsmtb wrote:
>> jcjordan Wrote:
>> > The simple fact is that the NRMA, Evans in particular, hate all
>> > non car users and this hatred is particularly aimed at cyclist.
...snip..
>> A online petition has been created for NRMA members.
>> http://www.gopetition.com/online/19181.html
...snip..
>> -- cfsmtb
> I'm a car owner, '86 Ford Laser, and a keen cyclist.
...snip..
> Lots of wrong on BOTH sides, from what I witness every day.
Sure is, the great Aussie road users have pretty much the same attitude
to each other whether they are on bikes or in cars.
> I hate driving a car on Sydney's roads, and cycling is an unpleasant
...snip..
> I discovered Canberra, where someone actually bothered to plan a place
> that grated less on an ordinary human. Then I discovered its cycle
> paths, also a result of planning them in as a matter of course during
> suburban developments.
I really have to take exception with that; I grew up in Canberra, spent
some 20 years riding bikes to primary school, high school, university
and various places of work and found that its layout is designed for
speedy *car* trans****t, lots of roads with high average speeds -- hardly
what you want for riding. After-the-fact "cycle paths" were then put
in, twisting and winding this way and that through the parkland and
verges, crossing and recrossing the roads where at every intersection
you can be damn sure that the people on the cycle path give way to "real
traffic."
Yes, its better/easier to ride around Canberra than Sydney, but Canberra
was designed spread out with lots of roads because "in the future,
everyone will have a car!" -- it certainly wasn't designed for cycling.
Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, regardless of the infrastructure, the
people you have to deal with are the problem, and *that* is the problem
that the governments and the cycling bodies refuse to deal with. More
painted lines and more bike paths doesn't mean less f'wits trying to run
me down everytime a bike lane ends, every time a bike path wasn't built
to duplicate the road I want to ride along.
> Even Canberra is slowly and surely being Chatswood-ised, or
> Paramatta-ised, and that's all **** where its happening; progress and
> growth, like cancer to me.
>
> But fortunately the town dysplanning muckeration is not universal, and
> I can be in paddocks where cows and sheep graze peacefully within 5
> minutes of leaving home on a bicycle from my house in Watson which is
> 6km out of Canberra CDB, 'Civic', as its known.
>
> Patrick Turner.
Adrian
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