The new cyclist safety margin laws in Queensland are just ridiculous. They were very poorly thought out. They have considerable negative connotations concerning safety. For one thng, it is just absurd that vehicles passing cyclists are now allowed to cross a double white centre line in order to uphold the minimum 1.5m gap when doing over 80kmh. What a bizarre piece of counter-intuitive law-making that is!

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=6349

And the policing regime is nigh on hopeless for road rules overall, let alone for those pertaining to cyclists. There is an enormous difference between the letter of the law and what the police actually police!

A complete overhaul is badly needed, nationwide. The same rules need to apply right across the country, and the policing regime needs to be uniform.

UOG, I love the irreverant writings I read here on OLO, and like you have great suspicions our masters are actually "looking after us, and doing everything for the greater good".

In fact I ride a recumbent tricycle these days, and do it because of "men's health issues" whereas formerly I got around Sydney, NSW - Brisbane, Qld & Geraldton in WA & then Darwin up until 2007 on a 2 wheeled velocipede.

In the cycling community I became a pariah, because the road signature of a trike is somewhat wider than my 2 wheeled counterparts and they have issues with me because 1: I am 'odd wheeled' and 2: I can sit stationary half way up a hill and not fall over. : )

It also gave rise to many people stopping me & questioning whether I was "disabled". In fact it was mostly people in gophers & motorised wheelchairs who pulled me up to enquire - "...is it comfortable, how did you get injured, can you still walk, does it go very fast, is it hard to get in & out of...? "

Regarding the issue of this thread and cyclists weaving their way through stationary or slowly moving traffic, I can do this, but it is fraught with greater perils, so I tend to stick mainly to the cycle/walking paths which in the NT have a maximum speed of 20 kph.

To go onto the public roadways is asking for trouble, because of the low profile of recumbents, a flag fitted to a thin fibreglass stick at the height of a persons head (say 1.8 m from ground level) is often the only thing visible to a motorist. A 4WD with its greater height would run right over me and not know it. At night a small flashing red light shows at the top of the stick - along with high intensity LED lights front & rear.

With all prudent measures to be visible by other road users taken, it still gets lots of abuse if I go onto the public roadways.

Ludwig,the whole Australian Constitution needs jacking up, and new number plates fitted. It was good 113 years ago, but has become anachronistic...fer Chrissake it doesn't even have a proper protection for the right to life ! Fact is that it was conceived on a piss trip voyage from Brisbane, on a steamboat in the Hawkesbury River. The bastard child of an American skeleton & a British whore. We could have done better !

The state/territory legislation needs to be unified...which is what I thought "Federation" in 1901 might have done - but failed to accomplish. Don't remove the 'state' identities, but retain uniform laws keeping the case precedents and common law applicable from the point it all becomes amalgamated. That might keep the Cane Toads placated after their recent loss of State of Origin.

ALBIE MAKES A BIG P0INT/that we need consistant rules accross australia
[cause in the federal/constitution it says where state laws/to the point where they are diverent/fall subject to the fderal law[and transportation/has never been made/nor enacted/state laws are thus void

see when we federated the STATES SURRENDERS THE RIGHT tO LEGISLATE
and by legislating differently invalidated

ON THE TOPIC OF TRANSPORTATION.act/that writes tese laws
they regulate trade/transport;delivery for money[carrying goods ;ONLY*

THOSE doing trade/of transport[for money]..need to have a vehicle/ie a conveyance;'regeserd'/under the act/and delivery vehicles need licenced opperators/and if your not doing commerce you dont need reester/cause its not a transport 'evhicle'[as per he act/doing transport.

and licence to travel/violates traditional convention of freemovement.
so they build these pats to nowhere/bu we bikers ae finding and claiming our pubic common use rights

‘morning rehctub,

I find the 1.5 m rule pretty useless. You need to be much closer if you want to “clip” the handlebars of the “Lycra Warriors”, crush the rear wheel or in the case of multiple riders, get them to collide with each other.

If they insist on scraping their peddles down the side of my car, knock my mirrors and give me death stares for not leaving them enough room to get to the front of the queue at the traffic lights, I reserve the right to call them out for road rage and to take “evasive action”.

I might take a different point of view if they paid their way on the roads, until then they can take their chances with those who pay for their privileges as a protected species.

There, I feel much better now!

It really infuriates the bass baritone voiced Toyota 4WDers when your pedal powered trike burns them off across an intersection...funnier still is their faces when they ask at the next set of lights - "How much does that thing cost?"...you reply... "Oh around $3,000...but I can get to Alice Springs on a kilogram of SunLong rice... how much does it cost you per litre to run that thing? That's when their smirks turn to sneers...$2.10 per litre for 91 octane unleaded in Darwin and rising.