Cycling in Melbourne Australia
Cops target Melbourne cyclists
Saw this on my in-building lift news and found an appropriate link for it:
"Police will target cyclists in black spot areas throughout Melbourne this week in a bid to reduce road trauma.
Police members are set to heavily patrol a number of city intersections with
bicycles, on foot and in vehicles during peak cyclist times as part of
Operation Nora, a three day blitz which kicks off today.
Major intersections will be targeted, with the corners of Swanston and Latrobe
Streets and St Kilda Road, being of particular interest to police."
Full article here: http://www.vicpolicenews.com.au/more-news/5446-operation-nora-hits-...
Also : http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/cops-target-melbou...
Purely FYI. Stay safe out there!
"Police will target cyclists in black spot areas throughout Melbourne this week in a bid to reduce road trauma.
Police members are set to heavily patrol a number of city intersections with
bicycles, on foot and in vehicles during peak cyclist times as part of
Operation Nora, a three day blitz which kicks off today.
Major intersections will be targeted, with the corners of Swanston and Latrobe
Streets and St Kilda Road, being of particular interest to police."
Full article here: http://www.vicpolicenews.com.au/more-news/5446-operation-nora-hits-...
Also : http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/cops-target-melbou...
Purely FYI. Stay safe out there!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Etienne de Brignell on -
Let me guess: 90% of fines will go to helmet-less riders, whereas the other 10% will go to cyclists flouting the road rules or riding recklessly. It's so much easier to spot and fine the former, whereas if the police fully concentrated on the latter then they'd be doing a far greater service in trying to prevent accidents.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Harris on -
I don't see many helmetless riders these days but I saw one while I was driving yesterday, and surprisingly when he caught me at the next lights, he was still alive!
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Permalink Reply by Peter Robinson on -
I was riding around the inner city area last night helmetless as was another rider trying out the bike share scheme. He commented to me how was it possible the government could not see that the bike share scheme will not work with helmet laws. We both rode quite slowly around the park areas near Fed Square. I could not see how the authorities could possibly moralise that we were endangering our craniums.
No doubt the police will do their usual and, blinded by these bad helmetless riders, forget the other laws being broken.
All this brings to mind my experience riding in Sweden, obviously helmetless as it is allowed, but constantly reminded to obey the law, give way, use hand signals etc, by the Swedish rider with me and, importantly, to respect the rights of pedestrians. Its only the third safest country to ride in.
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Permalink Reply by Peter Robinson on
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I forgot to add that they ride much slower over there, almost casually.
Our helmets give our riders a false sense of security and we go faster and have more accidents
There is a huge difference in bicycle speed between Stockholm and Melbourne.
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Permalink Reply by Etienne de Brignell on
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Absolutely spot on Peter. I've cycled in various cities in the Netherlands and the contrast in speed compared to Melbourne is incredible. Apart from more numbers on bikes, it's one of the main factors why cycling in Europe is so much safer than here. It's incredible why the issue is never raised here by those who wish to protect us from ourselves.
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Permalink Reply by Steve Jay on -
Lets get one thing straight. If you take all motor vehicles off the road, the death toll would drop to zero. If you take all the cyclists off the road, the death toll would hardly change.
Police run around celebrating anti-cyclist ticket writing festivals, awarding "no bell" prizes and local Darwin awards for lidless heads, all the while ignoring drivers running red lights on intersections which have no red light cameras. (as many as 3 deep on City Rd/Southbank Bvd) I know which I reckon is more of a threat to people and property.
Cyclists have to stop taking the blame for the lack of calm traffic and for the total wrongheadedness of Police and community attitudes for cycling. This is not a PR issue that can be fixed for saying sorry to the other side, even if it's their fault. This is an issue that needs militant action.
We need 1000 cyclists riding en masse without helmets or bells, shouting "excuse me! I'm a human, not an animal, I don't need a bell" at the top of their lungs riding around the CBD with signs declaring that cycling is right, motoring is a privilege, because that is the actual legal position and Australians need that rammed down their throats until they understand it.
Ticket writing festivals are not justice. Pinging people at some red lights, some of the time, while not doing anything about other intersections is not justice. Targeting as a hazard a group who pose no threat, while doing eff all about actually jailing repeated speed limit breakers and other motoring sociopaths is not justice.
Come on, Rozzers, ping me for no bell and we'll waste a morning in court while I prove that my bicycle has a warning device - my voice.
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Permalink Reply by Etienne de Brignell on
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Heh, that's the first thing I think of whenever I hear of the latest police blitz on cyclists: a mass ticket-writing festival for trivial offences. One of these days they may decide to concentrate on protecting us from lunatic motorists rather than protecting us from ourselves.
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Permalink Reply by Justin Jolley on -
I agree that the "no bell" rule is a joke. Half the time a bell wouldn't work because every one in the city is just too distracted with where they need to go, talking on the phone or listening to their ipod etc. But i can tell you for a fact if a police officer has a chat to a cyclist the cyclist would have to be an absolute prick towards the police officer for him to issue a ticket for no bell. I see many more dangerous cyclists riding around in the city, like the kid i saw cruising down swanston street on a fixie with no breaks, not wearing a helmet, listening to Ipod, whilst drinking his slurpee. Its people like him that give us decent cyclists a bad rep.
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Permalink Reply by Doddsy on -
Police in Victoria weird me out, they are obviously controlled by a bunch of narrow minded motoring enthusiasts.
According to hospital data 29.9% of Melbourne CBD accidents are caused by dooring. In other words close to one third of cbd cycling accidents are caused by motor vehicles that arent even moving.
http://www.onlinepublications.austroads.com.au/script/Details.asp?D...
Another study concluded..
"Cyclists' lobby group CTC said the report needed to focus on driver behaviour rather than issues such as cyclists wearing helmets. Photograph: Antonio Olmos
A tiny proportion of accidents involving cyclists are caused by riders jumping red lights or stop signs, or failing to wear high-visibility clothing and use lights, a government-commissioned study has discovered.
The findings appear to contradict a spate of recent reports speculating that risky behaviour by riders, such as listening to music players while cycling, could be behind a near 20% rise in cyclist deaths and serious injuries in the second quarter of this year.
The study, carried out for the Department for Transport, found that in 2% of cases where cyclists were seriously injured in collisions with other road users police said that the rider disobeying a stop sign or traffic light was a likely contributing factor. Wearing dark clothing at night was seen as a potential cause in about 2.5% of cases, and failure to use lights was mentioned 2% of the time.
The figures were slightly higher when the cyclist was killed, but in such cases only the driver's account is available.
The data, which was analysed by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), showed that more than a quarter of all cycling deaths in 2005-07 happened when a vehicle ran into the rear of a bike. This rose to more than one-third in rural areas and to 40% in collisions that took place away from junctions.
The 64-page analysis found that police attributed responsibility for collisions more or less evenly between drivers and cyclists overall, but this was skewed by the fact that when child riders were involved their behaviour was named as a primary factor more than three-quarters of the time.
With adult cyclists, police found the driver solely responsible in about 60%-75% of all cases, and riders solely at fault 17%-25% of the time.
The cyclists' lobby group CTC said the report showed that the government needed to focus more on driver behaviour rather than on issues such as cyclists wearing helmets. The TRL published a separate DfT-commissioned report today in which it was estimated that the universal use of helmets could save between 10 and 15 lives a year, a conclusion disputed by the CTC.
"The main cause of crashes seems to be 'failed to look properly', whereas very few cyclists are injured or killed acting illegally, such as failing to use lights at night or disobeying traffic signals," said Chris Peck, from the lobby group.
"We believe this report strongly supports our view that the biggest problem for cyclists is bad driving. With that in mind we are greatly concerned that the government still seems fascinated with analysing and promoting cycle helmets, the value of which appears to be inconclusive. We believe that the government should now focus on tackling the causes of injury which appears to be mainly inconsiderate and dangerous driving. Reduced speed limits, stronger traffic law enforcement and cycle-friendly road design are the solutions."
TRL recommended that more research be carried out into the relatively high numbers of young casualties, finding that those aged 10 to 15 were most at risk of injury for each mile cycled. Riders aged 16 to 29 were more likely to suffer harm than any other adult group.
The data – which covered incidents on the highways – showed that 3% of all collisions leading to deaths or serious injuries took place on bike lanes, and almost 80% of casualties happened during daylight hours. Just over 15% of all such accidents involved the cyclist alone."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/dec/15/cycling-bike-acc...
In other words operation nora is bs.
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Permalink Reply by Steve Jay on
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The UK, culturally, is slightly more cyclist tolerant, but the figures are still enough in the ballpark to use in a writ of mandamus on the Commissioner, calling Vic Police to show cause why they target cyclists above motorists and what evidence they base that bias on.
Militancy now, I say.
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Permalink Reply by PeterT on
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Hi Doddsy,
"According to hospital data 29.9% of Melbourne CBD accidents are caused by dooring. In other words close to one third of cbd cycling accidents are caused by motor vehicles that arent even moving.
https://www.onlinepublications.austroads.com.au/script/Details.asp?...
The first link looks broken "404 File Not Found" - (2nd link is fine)
Thanks in advance
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