Hazard - rice alert.

[cp123]

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-new ... 2fhuv.html

[Ross]

When I saw the title I was imagining fully sik Hyundais with 20" chrome wheels and doof doof stereos...

[twizzle]

At the same time... you would have to be lacking in smarts to be riding so fast you can't see or stop. I'm always on the lookout for dirt/gravel/sand. Rice is novel. But I wouldn't have tried to ride through it at speed. I would have just about stopped.

[Marx]

I would have thought sand would be just as bad?
Interesting.

[cp123]

i would've stopped too. it would grab like wet sand would surely.

[Mulger bill]

Dirty trick, as bad as ball bearings on a road would be.

Yes he should have backed off but that in no way makes this act right. Wonder if the spreader would be dumb enough to facebook this?

[ColinOldnCranky]

Deleted - 'cos Twizzle (following post) is right and it only takes a bit of mischief to hijack a serious thread.

[twizzle]

Methinks you are posting in the wrong thread.

A valid comment... But don't make it here.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[il padrone]

The usual appalling comments follow on from it too. Of course it was all the cyclist's fault

[twizzle]

Comment from the news story... interesting.

Well my husband & I have each had a 1kg bag of rice thrown out a car window at us while cycling along in the bike lane near EPIC. Intentially. For some reason the 2 young male twits in the car thought it was funny as they almost caused another accident laughing so hard. On another day we had a full 2 L bottle of Coke thrown out a car window at us. Luckily they missed both times or we could have been seriously injured.
Both times we were in the cycle lane minding our own business not bothering anyone.
And yes, we have 2 cars at home in the garage which we pay our fair share of rego on but most days they sit in the garage as they are only used a couple of days a week to do shopping, etc.

[Cruiserman]

I was going the other way and found the rice, it is on a concrete part of the path just before the underpass under Drakeford Drive as Athillon drive becomes the tuggeranong lake path. Initially it looked like a newly concreted bit where several people had ridden through it prior to it setting properly. From the direction the unfortunate bloke that got hurt hit it it is downhill and virtually impossible to see. A real dog act. To the people that were suggesting that he should have slowed down - get a life by the time he would have seen it it would have been too late to wash off any speed. I ride through there every day, there is plenty of debris on the path leading to the tunnel as there are a lot of trees there. It is a very dangerous section of the ride without people with only a few brain cells to rub together causing deliberate endangerment of life and property. The path slopes towards the guard railing that he hit anyway, the bridge is usually full of dumb pigeons that fly up at you at the last moment. Definitely a big exhale once you get through that particular spot.

[sogood]

Whilst these crimes need to be communicated, they also lead to copy-cat episodes. Terrible situation!

[twizzle]

I was going the other way and found the rice...

O.K., doesn't look like it was on the concrete from the photo. That would pose a challenge to see.

Sent from my iThingy...

[Cruiserman]

I dont think you could take a worse photo if you were trying. I had forgotten about it by the time I went home, thankfully it was no longer there as I was moving pretty well when I went through there again. A fair bit slower this afternoon after a memory jog in the paper.

[Ross]

Comment from the news story... interesting.

Well my husband & I have each had a 1kg bag of rice thrown out a car window at us while cycling along in the bike lane near EPIC. Intentially. For some reason the 2 young male twits in the car thought it was funny as they almost caused another accident laughing so hard. On another day we had a full 2 L bottle of Coke thrown out a car window at us. Luckily they missed both times or we could have been seriously injured.
Both times we were in the cycle lane minding our own business not bothering anyone.
And yes, we have 2 cars at home in the garage which we pay our fair share of rego on but most days they sit in the garage as they are only used a couple of days a week to do shopping, etc.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-new ... z2MnJva58x

[skull]

Of course the cyclist was at fault. He didn't pay rego. So that is automatic fault.

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[AndrewBurns]

Ugh why do I read online newspaper comments. There's a saying going around at work that 80% of the population are idiots, seems to hold up to scrutiny if you take the online community as an example...

Love the comments about cyclists getting off the road when the sun is low on the horizon or it's foggy because motorists are more likely to not see and hit them, do the people commenting not realise that they're admitting they are incapable of driving to the conditions and are reckless dangers to other road users?

[twizzle]

... do the people commenting not realise that they're admitting they are incapable of driving to the conditions and are reckless dangers to other road users?

That would require them to think. Given they can't do that, it's probably not bad advice. I certainly avoid riding into the rising/setting sun. The same people who overtake on blind corners/crests are probably coming up behind me!

[Summernight]

... do the people commenting not realise that they're admitting they are incapable of driving to the conditions and are reckless dangers to other road users?

That would require them to think. Given they can't do that, it's probably not bad advice. I certainly avoid riding into the rising/setting sun. The same people who overtake on blind corners/crests are probably coming up behind me!

Point proven re sunglare and really bad driving in this pic:



Taken by one of my friends who saw it happen. As she said in her caption on the photo:

Whoopsie. The guy didn't see the truck parked because of the sun. Hit full force no braking.

And

... It pushed the truck forward which pushed over a tree. He did a good job of it

[Sydguy]

Go easy on the driver - it is a large white truck and probably came out of nowhere.

The rice is a very low act, too much to ask for a (real) leader somewhere in the community to say something on the issue? V8 driver/Footie player anyone who commands a bit of pull with these inbreds.

Unfortunately too many half wits will think this is funny ad either copy it or worse. I would be so furious if I was in hospital getting operated on because of someones 'joke' - It is starting to look like so called 'poofter bashing' is now cycling bashing. Completely abhorrent but yet at the time it was kept quiet, not fully understood and frankly not many people cared.

This stupidity leads to full hospital beds - there have been plenty of cases where legitimate patients are turned away from hospitals that are full of patients who drnk, smoked, did not exercise, assault victims, car accidents (list goes on) who are al victims of circumstances that never needed to occur.

If we declared war on ignorance, stupidity and education instead of drugs, cyclists and terrorism we would elevate our standard of living immeasurably.

JM

[Summernight]

Go easy on the driver - it is a large white truck and probably came out of nowhere.

I'm assuming this was sarcasm.

If not (and please ignore if it was a sarcastic comment):
The truck was parked... Stationary. On the side of a street. There are no excuses for not slowing down if you cannot see where you are driving. And no point going easy on stupidity as it could kill someone else, including a cyclist or a pedestrian.

(Bit off-topic. Sorry)

The rice is a novel concept. A very terrible novel concept. I hope it isn't repeated.

[Sydguy]

It was sarcasm - I could not help it. Reminds me of the two garbage trucks that recently collided in Lidcombe NSW, both are brightly coloured, flashing orange lights, large signs that say 'frequently' stopping but despite all the safety gear if you are not looking where you are driving you may hit something.

As pointed out earlier sun glare, bad visibility, wet roads or flying kittens are no excuse for hitting anything. Insurance companies should mandate driver retraining when they make payouts on claims. You hit a parked truck you really need to get more driver training & education.

JM

[Summernight]

The wonders of internet and the lack of tone in posts. Faith in humanity restored...

Well, not really restored if one goes by the comments on that rice article though. I don't know why I bother reading the comments on news articles. They usually depress me with the sheer amount of trolls (I hope they're trolls) or people who really actually hold these opinions.

Now, where did I put my tinfoil hat?

[Howzat]

The comment cavalry arrived after Ross's post. Good to let these bogans - like the guy threatening "action" against cyclists who annoy him - know that they are freak outliers.

[biker jk]

The comment cavalry arrived after Ross's post. Good to let these bogans - like the guy threatening "action" against cyclists who annoy him - know that they are freak outliers.

Never underestimate the stupidity of the average citizen.