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this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2024
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I wasn't saying you were excusing the behaviour. I was saying that many, including the media do.
Every accident I have been to (and I've been to a lot), was either caused by driver impatience (driving faster than the conditions, drink driving, fiddling with phone, etc) or deliberate intent (suicide). The former is a driver education and training problem. We need to train young drivers to accept delays as OK. As a former motorcycle rider, I taught my kids the importance of patience and driving as if the rest of the world was out to kill you. Every driver should have to do (and pass) a defensive driving course. Also, too many bad habits are passed from parent to child, so every driver should have to spend a prescribed amount of time with registered driving instructors. In Germany, you cannot get your drivers licence without spending time with registered driving instructors, and if you fail your test it costs 400-500 euros to repeat, so there's a good incentive to learn the skills correctly the first time.
This was an organised event with signage etc.. There are many things that could be done, but better driver education to overcome the "bikes shouldn't be on roads" mentality would be a good start. Dedicated cycle lanes and a loosening of the ridiculous restrictions on e-bikes in NSW are some other things that would help imho.
I don't agree. Education and training can help and I do think they're a good idea. But fundamentally, they're not addressing the root cause of the problem, they're just a bandaid. The real fix is better road design. In cities, for example, clearly separating roads with a movement function from streets with a destination function, instead of the constant overuse of stroads that permeates our entire country's urban planning at present. It also means separated bike paths (which are actually not relevant in this post, because high-speed bunch rides belong on roads, not bike paths, but I'll bring it up because the conversation seems to have veered in a more generic direction) with raised priority crossings at intersections, offset from the road to provide maximum visibility. And yes, separated paths for bikes are also needed on inter-city routes.
We circulate the 'slow down and give cyclists space', and 'cyclists belong on the road' on every second bus and billboard. Everyone knows it they just don't do it.
I think defensive driving courses are a good idea for all drivers however they still won't stop this. The issue is complacancy and as you said, culture. Getting people to slow down on a quiet corner on a quiet road is near impossible in todays environment. To be clear they should do it, I just know they won't.
Driver education doesn't work, cos it's a cultural issue, youre right on the habits being passed from parent to child including the "just overtake this cyclist now" habits. This culture will be passed down irrespective of who does the driver training. And I'd also like to say on a sidenote, some consistency in driver training across states would be friggin amazing.
As a motocyclist (youre braver than i, for me driver behaviour will keep me off all motorbikes not on a farm) you would have experienced first hand bad driver behaviours even though motorbike messaging and education has been around for yonks.
That's why we need to take more proactive measures now like the escort cars (wilst maintaining the exisiting messaging), until that cultural shift occurs, which unfortunately in this country could be decades.