In Queensland we’ve got new rules concerning cyclists. We drivers have to give at least 1 metre clearance if the speed limit is 60kmh or less and 1.5m over 60. We can cross double white lines or painted islands if we need to.

This is just bizarre….. and critically dangerous!

It is unbelievable how such laws could be introduced. It indicates to me that laws can be made by people who just don’t have a clue!

I can envisage a situation on the Cook Hwy north of Cairns, which is a road I am very familiar with, where this new rule could be deadly!

Cycling on this road north from Palm Cove to the Port Douglas turnoff should be banned outright, as it is a narrow winding road full of blind curves, trucks and busses, and drivers that treat it as a race track. Rank tailgaters are rife! It is very popular with cyclists.

So, there I am driving up this road, carefully and conservatively. I come across a cyclist just around a blind curve. The road is too narrow to pass with a 1.5 metre space without going well out across the centre line. I’ve got traffic up close behind me and there are oncoming vehicles. I CAN’T go out across the centre line, and I CAN’T quickly slow down to stay behind the cyclist until the road is clear on the other side, for fear of getting the car behind me running into me. But I can drive SAFELY if I pass the cyclist with 0.5 to 1 metre gap.

Then I find out later that this cyclist had a Gro cam mounted on his helmet and recorded me going past considerably closer than 1.5 metres and got my rego number as I drove ahead of him. He went to the cops in Mossman. And lo and behold, I’m BOOKED… when all I was doing was driving in the safest possible manner in the circumstances… and would have a been complete BLOODY IDIOT if I’d driven according to the STUUUUUPID new law!!

http://www.qld.gov.au/transport/news/features/bicycle-rules/index.html?gclid=CIv3oc_9_b0CFVcRvQodAVQAEQ

If you run over them Luddy, they are unlikely to get a picture of you.

All bike riders should be charged rego and ALL FUNDS should fund bikeways. Problem solved because if they are on the road, when a bikeways is available, that's a risk they take. If there is no bikeways on that rout, and they are not commuting to work, then tough because drivers have enough distractions without worrying about them.

They should also be restricted to riding in groups of less than three, otherwise they need to arrange for a permit just like an event, because I am sick to death of these lica clad groups of twenty of more hogging our roads and expecting us who fund the roads to give way to them.

Find a track and use it.

Stop whinging. What you need to do is OBEY THE ROAD RULES. If you had done that you wouldn't have put the cyclist at risk by passing so close.

The roads are for EVERYONE, not just drivers.

If you can't act with maturity and obey the road rules whether or not you agree with them, then hand in your licence. If not, then man up and pay the many fines you'll receive, and stop whinging like a little child.

From your angry, immature post I suspect the roads would be safer with you NOT having a driving licence.

Hello Nhoj. Friendly fellow aren’t you!

Let me guess; you just dropped in to this thread on one of your very occasional visits to OLO for the express purpose of having an offensive whinge, and you are completely not interested in debating the subject. Right?

It is obviously something you know stuff-all about.

You wrote:

<< What you need to do is OBEY THE ROAD RULES. >>

What an incredibly naïve perspective!

So…. do YOU obey the road rules? Do you never do 61kmh in a 60 zone? When you go from a 60 zone into an 80 zone, do you never exceed 60 until you get to the 80 sign? When you go from a 100 zone into an 80 zone, do you make sure you have lowered your speed to 80 by the time you reach the sign? What do you do when you encounter temporary speed limit signs at roadworks? Do you obey them strictly at face value, or do you very loosely observe them as the great majority of drivers do?

Of course you don’t strictly observe the road rules! NO ONE does. So stop being so totally and blatantly hypocritical!

Those that come closest to strictly observing the road rules set themselves apart from normal driving practice. If they are not rolling with the flow and doing the same speed as everyone else, regardless of the speed limit, then they can indeed create an increased risk of mishap. This is the case on the highways everywhere in the country. The ‘correct’ speed would be 90 to 95 where the speed limit is 100, just to make sure that you never inadvertently exceeded 100. But the cruising speed in a 100 zone is ~105, which means you would be going significantly slower. This would incur impatience from many drivers, tailgating, dangerous overtaking and in short; a quite significant increased risk factor.

I hope you can see my point Nhojjie.

You have just proven my point.

Bad drivers with bad attitudes, like you, are a danger to the safety of drivers who obey the road rules.

Pay your fine, adjust your behaviour, and stop whinging.