Mulger bill wrote:
Or, as is the usual case, they are full of carp swept off the car lanes. I came across a large bolt and three wheel weights in the space of 600m on Menzies Drive yesterday. Stopped and kicked 'em all to the gutter.
Rang the council to whinge when I got home, should be done by Christmas
I'm in Melbourne and the street sweeper regularly (or seems to anyway.
) does the Albert Street, East Melbourne green bicycle lane (at least... it does the sweep going down the hill towards Hoddle Street, I don't know about up the hill towards the city as the leaves seem to still be there the next day). Of course, I've also seen some glass on the road in another part of my commute that hasn't been fixed up for at least a week.
The only problem with the sweeper is that I've seen it going at its normal speed in the cycle lane, and without slowing down an iota, hit the springy poles that supposedly separate the car lane from the bike lane (which absolutely do not work as taxis and cars have plenty of room between each pole to park IN the bicycle lane instead of in their designated parks) and then said springy poles have slapped the side of a parked car with considerable force. I believe it left a dent in the car's side panel (I was walking into the city at the time I saw this happen). The car was parked in a designated car park with plenty of space between it and the green bicycle lane so wasn't doing anything wrong.
Anyway, back on topic:
My dumb cyclist story is a man who I believe may be a regular rider (not on this forum, of course) as this is the second time this week I've seen him do this (and I only travel that particular route twice a week). He rides down Coppin Street towards Swan Street, Richmond from Bridge Road at about 7:55AM in the mornings... In the designated bicycle lane... On the wrong side of the road riding into the traffic.
Now this wasn't the end of it. He gets to Swan Street and then slows to a stop and turns right (not cutting across any lanes of traffic as he is already on the wrong side of the road) and then stops at the traffic lights (but still on the road, even though he could have hopped onto the footpath near the tram stop). So I'm thinking 'okay, he'll now take the pedestrian crossing to cross the road or the footpath and get off the road'.
No.
Instead he then proceeds to ride the wrong way down Swan Street (towards the city) on the road into traffic WITHOUT a bicycle lane. Since I was waiting at the lights going across Swan Street on Coppin towards Bridge I had a quick look as I crossed the intersection and I could see him bumbling his way on the wrong side of the road beside the parked cars up Swan Street.
I'm not sure whether to report him to the Richmond police so they can have a word with him or not... Especially if he does it every day at the same time.
For anyone interested in the intersection:
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?saddr=Co ... 53,,0,0.31" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
He was travelling on the left of the view near the brownish building.