Cycling in Melbourne Australia
Jail threat for dangerous cyclists ... level playing field and all that
Melbourne media seems to be full of this today:
The Age: Jail threat for dangerous cyclists
Cyclists found to have killed or seriously injured a pedestrian will face penalties of up to five years in jail or a $68,000 fine, after tough new laws came into effect today. "Cyclists need to recognise that, if they do occasion damage, they have responsibilities. They do need to stop,'' said Roads Minister Tim Pallas said, launching the new laws this morning at a Bourke Street bicycle shop.
Anyway after a quick fiddle with the TAC Crash database, it returned the following stats that since August 26, 2006:
- 916 Victorians have lost their lives on Victorian roads,
- and a 17,012 (estimated) been injured.
August 26, 2006 was the date of the tragic incident involving James Gould and a rider on Beach Road.
That's going by what has been reported - ONE pedestrian killed with a incident with ONE rider.
"We're driving home to cyclists the need for them to obey road laws or be punished,'' he said. Cyclists would now be on a similar footing to motorists if they are charged with serious traffic offences, he said. "Cycling is becoming a legitimate form of transport,'' Mr Pallas said. "But (with the recognition) that this is an important means of transport comes increased responsibility. This Government will come down hard on bad behaviour because there is a real consequence.'' Over the last decade, two pedestrians have been killed by cyclists.
If cycling is becoming a legitimate form of transport then can we also share in the rights, not just the responsibilities?
Like third-party insurance, equal treatment by the police, full protection of the law and tax benefits already accorded to drivers? Or is these law changes simply more insipid tinkering in the margins? If so, that's Situation Normal.
Fatalities.statistics(2).pdf
Injuries to Dec 08.statistics.pdf
The Age: Jail threat for dangerous cyclists
Cyclists found to have killed or seriously injured a pedestrian will face penalties of up to five years in jail or a $68,000 fine, after tough new laws came into effect today. "Cyclists need to recognise that, if they do occasion damage, they have responsibilities. They do need to stop,'' said Roads Minister Tim Pallas said, launching the new laws this morning at a Bourke Street bicycle shop.
Anyway after a quick fiddle with the TAC Crash database, it returned the following stats that since August 26, 2006:
- 916 Victorians have lost their lives on Victorian roads,
- and a 17,012 (estimated) been injured.
August 26, 2006 was the date of the tragic incident involving James Gould and a rider on Beach Road.
That's going by what has been reported - ONE pedestrian killed with a incident with ONE rider.
"We're driving home to cyclists the need for them to obey road laws or be punished,'' he said. Cyclists would now be on a similar footing to motorists if they are charged with serious traffic offences, he said. "Cycling is becoming a legitimate form of transport,'' Mr Pallas said. "But (with the recognition) that this is an important means of transport comes increased responsibility. This Government will come down hard on bad behaviour because there is a real consequence.'' Over the last decade, two pedestrians have been killed by cyclists.
If cycling is becoming a legitimate form of transport then can we also share in the rights, not just the responsibilities?
Like third-party insurance, equal treatment by the police, full protection of the law and tax benefits already accorded to drivers? Or is these law changes simply more insipid tinkering in the margins? If so, that's Situation Normal.
Fatalities.statistics(2).pdf
Injuries to Dec 08.statistics.pdf
Comment
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Comment by bob steven on September 3, 2009 at 2:23pm - who made this law?
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Comment by RobE on June 23, 2009 at 11:52am
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The is an underlying agenda from this Government which has directed VicRoads to stand by to control paths and get paths more up to speed to have greater shared use capacity by applying them to paths to give control of path use by bicycles as vehicles to VicRoads. This is aimed to extend credence to a current study under way by VicRoads into shared path widths and to justify the huge expenditure currently in the can (
in an attempt to be out of step with the rest of the world) and move us on to shared paths for commuting and utility cycling... watch this space... but be somewhat comforted that this is a long way off, if ever, as the current findings show the existing paths do not even meet minimum D specs standards on a scale of A to D where A is considered safest and most useful (in their view) and D is unacceptably unsafe and of little benefit to users and the community beyond a badly designed built and not maintained mere walking path.
Current Melbourne major use shared paths are considered by VicRoads own study and their hired own experts as unacceptable for dedicated bike use let alone shared path use... so it all has a thinly veiled threat to on road vehicular cycling and to shift riders off the road and still be under the auspices of VicRoads...
Tim Pallas and VicRoads will expect us towalkride on water next... oh hang on some of us already do...!
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Comment by LongLoad on June 23, 2009 at 12:16am - If this is all in the name of applying equal rules to all users, why are there exemptions. As these rules appy to paths as well, will the government be introducing dangerous dog walking rules and requiring pedestrians to wear lights at night?
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Comment by Adrian Tritschler on June 20, 2009 at 2:14pm
- You can borrow it any time I'm not using it :)
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Comment by Cory on June 19, 2009 at 7:53pm - Thankyou Adrian. Can I borrow your eloquent brain some day, should the need arise?
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As far as I can see the actual legislation just closes a loophole, that previously "careless driving" and "dangerous driving" were drafted solely in terms of operating a motor vehicle and that now the offences also include bicycles, same as most other road laws include all vehicles. No big deal really. The big deal comes along if it starts getting selectively enforced and dozens of cyclists are booked for 'careless riding' while people are allowed to drive along on their phones, through their red lights, in excess of the speed limits.
Enforcement? As likely as enforcement of most of the other road laws in this country, arbitrary blitzes when someone high enough up tells the police "today you're to focus on people doing xyz". Xyz might be truckies with defective headlights one day, it might be careless cyclists with no bell the next.
The song and dance is the usual tabloid papers and screaming public doing the great Aussie tall-poppy thing, cyclists are different, cut 'em down. Its always "them" that are the problem, never "us"
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maybe now TP will demand Beach Road/Route 33 be opened and freed from that blight of weekend kerbside lane parking as he has single handedly ( in his opinion) put the ghosts of Saul Raisin Shaw's $400 fine to rest...ahemm...OK Tim show em what you're made of !
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Comment by ChrisS on June 19, 2009 at 4:32pm - I reckon it's mostly done from an appeasement angle, basically speaking it's been drafted to shut up the proles, mainstream media & Laura Norder.
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- it's pretty sloppy drafting... the first few cases ( if there are any) will test not only the courts, the prosecutors and the defendants, but also the court of public opinion...and in the end show lots of facial egg for this Govt and its rather wimpy Min for Roads... he has a lot more to do than just a poorly exceuted PR excercise in trying to pick low hanging fruit with a mega million dollar mechanism that should be focussed on a zero road toll not grabbing headlines in tabloids to appease bogan drivers and tabloid journos...hrrrmph
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Comment by ChrisS on June 19, 2009 at 3:14pm
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Adam came up with this on Sydney Cyclist:
Very difficult to understand where the logic is coming from on this issue. If two dead in 10 years (0.2 per year) is the "base" statistic there here's something that IS fair:
Let's assume "dangerous riding" leads to someone's unfortunate death. According to the article that's $13,610 or prison for twelve months or both. That's $6800 for each person killed by bicycle in the last 10 years.
Since 1700 people are killed by cars each year - that's 8500 people killed by cars for every person killed by bicycle. Therefore the equivalent fine to impose on car drivers is: $6800 X 8500 = $57 842 500!!!! or 4250 years!
Now that's fair....good one idiots!
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