Comment on Australia, why are you still obsessed with freeways – when they’re driving us away from net zero?
Gorgritch_umie_killa@aussie.zone 4 weeks agoNot saying you’re wrong, the driver road rage mentality is definitely a thing, especially when it comes to cyclists.
But i’ve been surprised at the difference the 1 metre separation, etc laws have made to drivers general behaviour to cyclists. I think it really set a tone for better behaviour.
Since those laws were introduced i’ve seen one aggressive driver to cyclists. So thats a cool bit of annecdotal progress.
Zagorath@aussie.zone 4 weeks ago
Geez, I think I’ve had at least one bus driver alone, per year since I started working professionally who tried to run me off the road. And that’s despite mostly working from home since COVID, and ignoring all the car and ute drivers.
The one metre rule has made a difference for sure, but only against the marginal idiots. No difference with the complete morons or the actively hostile.
Gorgritch_umie_killa@aussie.zone 4 weeks ago
The bus driver bit is very surprising. Got some aggressive drivers out there in brisvegas hey?
But i’m not in the Perth city much, the roads are quieter where I am, pretty sure your inner suburbs brisbane so maybe theres a difference in that.
Zagorath@aussie.zone 4 weeks ago
It happened in a way that, if it were an extremely rare occurrence, I could easily put down to sheer ignorance, rather than aggressiveness. But it was just so common, and these are supposed to be professional drivers, so ignorance is a hard excuse to swallow. I’d be riding along and a bus would start overtaking me, and then mid-overtake would just suddenly pull into the kerb, forcing me to jump off my bike and onto the footpath to avoid getting crushed. I was only commuting along that particular road for about 2 years, but it probably happened 5 or 6 times on a single 400 m stretch of road.
Gorgritch_umie_killa@aussie.zone 4 weeks ago
Hmm, i had a road like that when i rode to work, Orrong rd, if you want to look it up. It was ‘dual carriageway??’ (I think, thats what you call it) and busy as fuck.
Riding along that road sounds similar to how you describe. I don’t know if anyone was really gunning for me, the roads construction feels constricting to the driver if you’re trying to pass a rider, so i’s happy to give the benefit of the doubt when a driver got a bit close.
After about a month or so I realised the council had me sorted, they’d constructed a safe road specifically for riders running parallel to Orrong, of course, until you reached the industrial area, no one ever gives a shit about riders or public transport in industrial areas, that shits me.