ColinOldnCranky wrote:BJL wrote:ColinOldnCranky wrote:
Maybe the post was concerned about the distance, but that's just a function of the limited road space. And that is always going to be problematic where we are retrofitting the roads to accommodation bikes. \
Is this what is actually happening though? Roads, and bicycles, were around before motor vehicles and the way I see it, roads are being retrofitted to accommodate motor vehicles?
Really BJL? I hope you are just being pedantic more than serious because the counter is obvious. How far back are you willing to go? To a time when our bike space was "retrofitted" over cycle routes? Cycle routes over the whole of the continent occupied first by nomadic aboriginal nations? It's hardly retrofitting when we are building and expanding our towns and cities who's boundaries would be unrecognisable to a citizen of the 1920s. 1030s! 1940s!...
Most of suburbia and elsewhere in Oz that have had roads added in the last eight or more years have been added onto land that never had a bike on it. And now needs retrofitting for bikes and not vice-versa.
Maybe I'm SICK TO DEATH of the default notion that you and others like you seem to have taken on, and that's that 'roads are for CARS' and therefore need to be 'retrofitted' for bicycles. It's the piss poor attitude shown towards cyclists by motorists that needs to be addressed.
And as far as I can see, the vast majority of the roads out there are perfectly suitable for bicycles. But many of these same roads are in fact, dangerous for motorists to use. But it doesn't matter because roads are for cars and bikes can get the hell out of the way.
ROADS ARE FOR PEOPLE. And to prove the point, I'd love to get a group of 50-100 walkers to come with for a walk across the Black Spur in Victoria from Healesville to Narbethong. Or maybe a large group of cyclists. Guess what? The road is the ONLY way through there. There's no footpath or 'retrofitted' bicycle infrastructure through there so guess where we'd be walking or riding? That's right, ON the road. As per the intended use of the road network. For PEOPLE to get around. Same with the 1/20 from The Basin to Sassafras.
What would you do about it? A large group of PEOPLE legally walking along the road? Remove our basic human right to freedom of movement?
It's about time motorists had the point shoved right down their idiot throats that the roads are NOT theirs and forced to either accept it and share the roads in a safe and responsible manner, or MOTORISTS can get off the roads.
Screw you and your 'roads are for cars' default attitude.
And if you think I'm being pedantic over the last few decades where motor vehicles have been commonplace, you should go check out the middle east or any of our esteemed religions. They'll argue with you over stuff from hundreds and even thousands of years back.
Very rarely any jail time given for killing or maiming cyclists in Australia.
