Rehctub, read this - It's sad to think that any push bike death on our roads could be so easily avoided, if not for the stubbiness (sic) of car drivers.

(1) Poor Ludwig, he just can't tolerate it when a topic doesn't go "his" way. So what does he do? He blames those horrible, evil posters.

(2) Poor Ludwig, he just can't tolerate it when the traffic flow doesn't go "his" way. So what does he do? He blames those horrible, evil cyclists.

Had an occasion today where to be 1.5 mt from the cyclist I had to be in the oncoming traffic lane and still he abused me.
Paid registration and license details displayed is the only way to go and then we can lock up a few of the fancy pant-ed riders who think they own the road.
Paint a line down the middle of their lane and fine them when they ignore it. The revenue would be enormous.

<< Whether you lot like it or not, the safest driver on the road is the one that goes with the fow of the surrounding traffic, even if this means doing a few K's over the limit. >>

YES!! Absolutely right rehctub!

I could give you a whole bunch of examples where general practice and the law are two quite different things, and where you’d be very well advised to observe general practice rather than the letter of the law, at least if there are any vehicles behind you!

One of them is passing cyclists at closer than 1.5 metres in 80 or 100 kmh zones, where you’d have to get out over the centre line if you observed this stupid law.

<< It's so sad to think any push bike death on our roads could be so easily avoided, if not for the stubbiness of push bike riders. >>

Stubbiness! Hahahaaaa.

Yeah, those stubby little bike riders with their stubby little legs on their stubbly little bikes can be a real hazard. Main reason being that they are so low to the ground you can’t even see them out your left window!!

Oh dear. Shame on me for making light of a very serious subject.

Sorry rechtub, I couldn’t help m’self!!

Returning to serious commentary: a large part of the problem lies with cyclists’ lack of awareness of the issues and hazards, as it does for drivers.

Rather than registering cyclists or bicycles, maybe all riders should all be required to do a training and hazard awareness course, and to then carry a certificate of having passed this course with them at all times when riding. This course should start for children as soon as they are old enough to ride on our roads.

And cyclist awareness should absolutely be a fundamental part of driver-training.

<< Had an occasion today where to be 1.5 mt from the cyclist I had to be in the oncoming traffic lane… >>

Thanks Chris for mentioning this.

It is pretty amazing to come across this situation and to think that you have to sometimes (in fact very often) get out across the centre line to legally pass a cyclist, or if you can’t safely do that due to oncoming traffic, or a tight curve ahead that you can’t see far enough around or whatever, then to very quickly slow down from your cruising speed of 80, 90 or 100 to 30 or 20 or 10 kmh to stay behind the cyclist until you can safely pass at >1.5m space… regardless of what’s behind you or the hazard that doing that could create.

The more I think about this law, the more bizarre and utterly absurd it seems to be.

So…. I wonder if dodgy Nhojjie or snoozy Susie have been out driving in the last three days since this thread started with this issue in mind and have done a bit of observing of cyclists, road widths, and the appropriateness or inappropriateness or downright absurdity of the new laws in this regard. Or have they just kept the blinkers up?

Ludwig, here's some good advice ...

(1) Follow the road rules

(2) If you don't like the road rules, lobby the correct authorities to get them changed.

But Ludwig doesn't like 1 or 2, as he prefers 3, 4 and 5 .....

(3) Disobey road rules when he disapproves of the rules.

(4) Never do anything to actually change these rules.

(5) Just relentlessly whinge on a public forum about these rules.

Gotta love that Ludwig modus operandi.

It's your way or the highway isn't it Ludwig?

Like most normal drivers, if I am behind a cyclist, I wait until the other side of the road is clear before I go around them.
So 1.5 metre clearances around bikes are the usual for me.
Obviously, Rehctub prefers not to wait.

I work full time as a community nurse and am on the road all day, 5 days a week.
Nothing you can say would convince me we all shouldn't already be giving cyclists at least a metre's clearance already, whether there are laws or not.

I have more than enough client's to patch up already without adding more work for myself knocking cyclists off their pedals!