NOTHING makes the heart jump more than when driving in a killing machine - aka the motor vehicle - and a previously unseen bicycle pops into vision.
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Take the other day for example.
Driving along Frederick Street about 6pm - it's dark - and the vehicle moves towards the traffic lights.
Nothing to see but the cars in front, the road ahead, and another car parked on the side of the road.
Then suddenly there's a cyclist just ahead of the car.
Wearing dark clothes.
No lights.
If that person had been hit by the car or even nudged by the car driven by the person that could not see them chances are that injury to the cyclist is highly likely.
Most drivers would feel tremendously accountable or guilty for that occurrence and may even be held criminally responsible or negligent in law.
Cyclists have a right to be on the roads, and applause to them for being healthy, using less petrol, saving the planet, sans exhaust.
Wish I could be one of them (but I know my own limits and experience and I would not trust most drivers).
Drivers have a duty to look out for said cyclists, respect their position on the roads, follow the road rules and do everything in their power to avoid them.
Yet drivers should not be accountable if the cyclists cannot be seen.
Also, nothing is more infuriating than when you see a cyclist run through red lights when the coast seems clear but failing to wait with the rest of the law abiding motorists at the lights.
What if a car came out of nowhere and knocked that person off?
Take another example.
Driving up to very busy roundabout near Launceston Silverdome.
Three cyclists.
One has already made it across to the other side into the Silverdome drive while another two sit, not on the road as they probably should be, but about five metres to the left where pedestrians might stand.
Car gives way to right, goes to pull out, checks to left as it is pulling out and one of the cyclists has dashed out across the roundabout.
This is sheer stupidity.
There are stupid cyclists just as there are stupid drivers and you cannot legislate for that, however, if there are no bicycle lanes or infrastructure then there should instead be a system that at least tests whether cyclists are competent with road rules and confident on roads.
Cyclist licences, a registration system with legal prescriptions for safety gear and night time riding perhaps?
If drivers knew that the cyclist ahead of them is a learner cyclist road user, or a provisional user, then they would afford them the leeway that is deserved, on top of the duty already owed.
If cyclists are doing the wrong thing then they can be pulled up for that and fined to deter it from happening again.
Surrounding road users could also report the offending behaviour, just as they too can be reported for their own behaviour.
It might seem like a heavy handed approach and maybe it is too expensive to even consider but safety should trump all.