Southbank Riverside Caution
Posted: Sat May 05, 2012 3:07 pm
Im usually a strong advocate for cyclists rights in shared locations, but an incident occurred a few weeks ago that really has shaken me.
I was riding along the pathway that runs along Southbank one Thursday afternoon about 5pm on my way to drinks in WestEnd. It was a great day, not too hot, i was dressed in good clothes heading for a night out, so felt no rush whatsoever as i poodled along on the fixed gear enjoying the whole southbank experience. There was the usual mixed crowd of commuters, tourists and the general throng out enjoying themselves. There were also many 'sideways ramblers' amongst the ped population. Given my fame of mind, i was more than happy to wind in and out, wait for gaps to appear etc. I really did default to a ped focus, as it seemed to suit the conditions. If ever there was a place peds should be able to 'amble' not necessarily in a straight line, perhaps this is it.
I started to compare this to many other 'dedicated' trips id made either late for work, or on my way home... the speeds i would normally do through there, and my thoughts were with my latest design classes project which had just finished which was analysing and redesigning a few of the hot conflict spots around the CBD. I also had noticed though that there was still a goodly proportion of cyclists pushing hard in the commutes home.
As i approached the William Jolly Bridge underpass, where it gets a little confusing because the path divides into ped and cycle, i saw two young women walking with a small boy of about 4-5yrs old. I rang the bell with plenty of time as i was still just poodling. They both looked around and moved to the right hand side of the bike path. All cool i thought. At this speed i could account for just about any unlikely circumstances, and ive never been too bent out of shape when people dont do what you may first expect them to do.
As i lazily passed them, out of the corner of my eye, i saw the young chap, who hadnt originally turned around, suddenly dart to his left towards me. No time to slow, or swerve.... i could only hope that our trajectories passed with no impact. But collide he did, at about the crank level, and even though i couldn't have been doing more than say 10-12km/hour, the sound was sickening. He bounced back in direction he was coming from, and let out such a blood curdling scream i thought id killed him. I immediately stopped and dropped the bike onto the grass and ran back the few paces. Thankfully he had only taken skin of his lower leg in a pretty wide shallow graze, so no deeper cuts or impact damage. The two women he was with embarrassingly withdrew him up the hill under the bridge. Despite me saying repeatedly that the water i had would take the sting away, and my apologies, they apologised to me, seemed very embarrassed and just wanted to get away. To be honest, if it had have been an adult, i would have felt bad that they were hurt, but that they were at fault, so tough t1tties.
Several people stopped and said they had seen it, and i was definitely not to blame, but that is no comfort whatsoever when your bike has just sconed a small boy. I have a lad about the same age, and all i could think about on the way home was both of them.
I am really on the look out for places of potential conflict on paths now. I used to ride as quickly as i could to and from work. I would speed by peds, and see them more as chicanes than people. I now see bikes hooting along bike paths in the CBD and it makes me ill, especially some of the ridiculous speeds along the Kangaroo Point stretch, Coronation Drive pat there ( cant remember the name) and most places in and around the city. I guess im not moralising as much as i am wincing when i see it.
That line between ok and not ok is far narrower now, i know, especially after a number of incidents ive had on both my road and fixed gear bikes, and i know its hypocritical of me to say, because i have always pushed it, but i see so many cyclists pushing the same boundaries with speed around peds, that it scares the !! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !! out of me.
So, its not a case of being spooked by speed, as i still hook in on the roads, but i dont want a dead-ped on my hands on the paths, and thought i may have chalked up my first on that Thursday evening.
Back to Southbank: Its the place out of all places around the CBD that i detect a sense of entitlement by cyclists, and its probably the silliest place to have that feeling given the ped predominace of this piece of infrastructure.
As a urban design professional, i am involved in not only the analysis and design of urban places, but also in the philosophical discourse that surrounds the 'way' we do things. This discourse centres on environmental design and its relationship to human behavior incessantly, but at some stage infrastructural provision needs to yield to modified behavior via the social contract. The alternative is a deterministic world of regulated behaviors and divided activities that take away peoples basic right to do the wrong thing, and therefore their inherent need to act in the interests of others, which is clearly not a seriously valid way forward either.
Anyway, i still dont know what ANY of this really means, but now i just slow r i g h t d o w n ... and hug my son.
I was riding along the pathway that runs along Southbank one Thursday afternoon about 5pm on my way to drinks in WestEnd. It was a great day, not too hot, i was dressed in good clothes heading for a night out, so felt no rush whatsoever as i poodled along on the fixed gear enjoying the whole southbank experience. There was the usual mixed crowd of commuters, tourists and the general throng out enjoying themselves. There were also many 'sideways ramblers' amongst the ped population. Given my fame of mind, i was more than happy to wind in and out, wait for gaps to appear etc. I really did default to a ped focus, as it seemed to suit the conditions. If ever there was a place peds should be able to 'amble' not necessarily in a straight line, perhaps this is it.
I started to compare this to many other 'dedicated' trips id made either late for work, or on my way home... the speeds i would normally do through there, and my thoughts were with my latest design classes project which had just finished which was analysing and redesigning a few of the hot conflict spots around the CBD. I also had noticed though that there was still a goodly proportion of cyclists pushing hard in the commutes home.
As i approached the William Jolly Bridge underpass, where it gets a little confusing because the path divides into ped and cycle, i saw two young women walking with a small boy of about 4-5yrs old. I rang the bell with plenty of time as i was still just poodling. They both looked around and moved to the right hand side of the bike path. All cool i thought. At this speed i could account for just about any unlikely circumstances, and ive never been too bent out of shape when people dont do what you may first expect them to do.
As i lazily passed them, out of the corner of my eye, i saw the young chap, who hadnt originally turned around, suddenly dart to his left towards me. No time to slow, or swerve.... i could only hope that our trajectories passed with no impact. But collide he did, at about the crank level, and even though i couldn't have been doing more than say 10-12km/hour, the sound was sickening. He bounced back in direction he was coming from, and let out such a blood curdling scream i thought id killed him. I immediately stopped and dropped the bike onto the grass and ran back the few paces. Thankfully he had only taken skin of his lower leg in a pretty wide shallow graze, so no deeper cuts or impact damage. The two women he was with embarrassingly withdrew him up the hill under the bridge. Despite me saying repeatedly that the water i had would take the sting away, and my apologies, they apologised to me, seemed very embarrassed and just wanted to get away. To be honest, if it had have been an adult, i would have felt bad that they were hurt, but that they were at fault, so tough t1tties.
Several people stopped and said they had seen it, and i was definitely not to blame, but that is no comfort whatsoever when your bike has just sconed a small boy. I have a lad about the same age, and all i could think about on the way home was both of them.
I am really on the look out for places of potential conflict on paths now. I used to ride as quickly as i could to and from work. I would speed by peds, and see them more as chicanes than people. I now see bikes hooting along bike paths in the CBD and it makes me ill, especially some of the ridiculous speeds along the Kangaroo Point stretch, Coronation Drive pat there ( cant remember the name) and most places in and around the city. I guess im not moralising as much as i am wincing when i see it.
That line between ok and not ok is far narrower now, i know, especially after a number of incidents ive had on both my road and fixed gear bikes, and i know its hypocritical of me to say, because i have always pushed it, but i see so many cyclists pushing the same boundaries with speed around peds, that it scares the !! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !! out of me.
So, its not a case of being spooked by speed, as i still hook in on the roads, but i dont want a dead-ped on my hands on the paths, and thought i may have chalked up my first on that Thursday evening.
Back to Southbank: Its the place out of all places around the CBD that i detect a sense of entitlement by cyclists, and its probably the silliest place to have that feeling given the ped predominace of this piece of infrastructure.
As a urban design professional, i am involved in not only the analysis and design of urban places, but also in the philosophical discourse that surrounds the 'way' we do things. This discourse centres on environmental design and its relationship to human behavior incessantly, but at some stage infrastructural provision needs to yield to modified behavior via the social contract. The alternative is a deterministic world of regulated behaviors and divided activities that take away peoples basic right to do the wrong thing, and therefore their inherent need to act in the interests of others, which is clearly not a seriously valid way forward either.
Anyway, i still dont know what ANY of this really means, but now i just slow r i g h t d o w n ... and hug my son.