Moron Motorists #3

[am50em]

Agreed but hopefully the rule change will make it clear to motorist that this is safest option for cyclists,

[bychosis]

Agreed but hopefully the rule change will make it clear to motorist that this is safest option for cyclists,

Rule change may help, but given how lax we are at trainng in new road rules I don't hold much hope. Id guess more than half of drivers still don't know the 1m passing rules.

[Duck!]

This is why we need mandatory retesting for every licence renewal!

[Anrai]

This is why we need mandatory retesting for every licence renewal!

You know, as someone who's done the Tasmanian theory test about 5 times now (moved out of a region where it's a necessity but I renew the L's as ID) I'm not sure I've ever been given the question about how much room you need to give cyclists. Not sure what that says about our driving standards that you only really need "good enough" rules knowledge.

[Duck!]

There is a second element to the problem - licensing authorities who appear to have little thought to the finer details of road rules as they are amended.

[elantra]

There is a second element to the problem - licensing authorities who appear to have little thought to the finer details of road rules as they are amended.

Well a lot of the problem is that driver’s Licensing and Car registration in Australia is controlled by the State Governments
So we lack uniform standards and law-enforcement connectivity.
The best solution to this problem (and many other fundamental problems in Australia) would be to abolish most of the powers of the State Governments.
I think that for heavy vehicles this has partially and gradually happened over the years.
I think that there is a “National Heavy Vehicle Regulatory Authority” (NHVRA or something like that)

Not that heavy vehicles are always a great role model for driving standards but licensing and registration differences between the States is a dog’s breakfast

[DavidS]

For South Australia

CYCLISTS CAN CLAIM THE LANE IN A ROUNDABOUT (RULES 111, 129)

This rule allows cyclists to ‘claim the lane’ when approaching and riding in a single lane roundabout.
This means they will be exempt from the requirement to ride as near as practicable to the far left side of the road in such situations.

https://glamadelaide.com.au/detailed-ex ... this-week/

I claim the lane in roundabouts regardless of any roundabout-specific road rules, because as far as I'm concerned "as near as practicable to the left side of the road" in a roundabout is me claiming the lane. I NEED to do that for my own safety, therefore it's NOT practicable for me to stay near the left side of the lane in a roundabout.

This!

Only way to stay alive.

DS

[elantra]

Pretty scary stuff.
If she had stolen a Mini-moke instead of an Amorok there would have been much less trauma and mayhem in the subsequent events.

https://lismoreapp.com.au/NewsStory/pol ... dc0b1e#top

The headline is a bit misleading, technically speaking this is no accident !

[bychosis]

They really need to change to reporting "crashes" rather than "accidents"

[Cyclophiliac]

They really need to change to reporting "crashes" rather than "accidents"

I've always thought "incidents" should be used. Accidents are actually extremely rare, because it requires some very random event to occur, e.g. a tree branch falling just as a car passes below, that would be an accident. For almost all incidents, at least 1 person did something wrong to cause it.

[bychosis]

They really need to change to reporting "crashes" rather than "accidents"

I've always thought "incidents" should be used. Accidents are actually extremely rare, because it requires some very random event to occur, e.g. a tree branch falling just as a car passes below, that would be an accident. For almost all incidents, at least 1 person did something wrong to cause it.

While agree they are incidents, that is a somewhat sanitised word used in WHS reports and often an incident is recorded without damage. The word 'crash' is pretty blunt and IMO implies a level of damage/injury.

[nezumi]

Hot Fuzz is never not relevant here:

[g-boaf]

Wigram Street Harris Park has its decent share of motorists who just park themselves in middle of the road waiting for a parking spot to free up, no care given to the line up of traffic stuck behind them, like today. Me and the car in front were pretty annoyed with that Kluger driver.

[mikesbytes]

Hot Fuzz is never not relevant here:

I prefer to say Motorist rather than Car as it is showing that there is a person to blame for the collision rather than the vehicle

There was a collision between 2 motorists

[find_bruce]

Had a MM close shave me as he pulled up at the lights. I moved around in front of him so he didn't clip me as he pulled off. Predictable response as he gunned it down the quiet suburban street only to slam on the brakes - no he wasn't brake checking me, but just saw the cop car going the other way. Barely kept in front of me going down Lilyfield Rd

[antigee]

Wigram Street Harris Park has its decent share of motorists who just park themselves in middle of the road waiting for a parking spot to free up, no care given to the line up of traffic stuck behind them, like today. Me and the car in front were pretty annoyed with that Kluger driver.

in the polite leafy suburbs of (inner) SE Melbourne I'm always surprised how generous drivers are about being delayed by other drivers waiting for a space to actually become free...I've put it down to driver to driver empathy...they can easily put themselves in the other drivers position and sympathise...unlike having to wait to pass a cyclist running wide of parked cars

incidentally moved to Aus' from UK around 10years ago and I noticed drivers blocking the road waiting for parks (or in UK English parking spots) and it took me about 2 months to realise most of the shopping strips had car parks behind and many shops had rear access

[g-boaf]

Wigram Street Harris Park has its decent share of motorists who just park themselves in middle of the road waiting for a parking spot to free up, no care given to the line up of traffic stuck behind them, like today. Me and the car in front were pretty annoyed with that Kluger driver.

in the polite leafy suburbs of (inner) SE Melbourne I'm always surprised how generous drivers are about being delayed by other drivers waiting for a space to actually become free...I've put it down to driver to driver empathy...they can easily put themselves in the other drivers position and sympathise...unlike having to wait to pass a cyclist running wide of parked cars

incidentally moved to Aus' from UK around 10years ago and I noticed drivers blocking the road waiting for parks (or in UK English parking spots) and it took me about 2 months to realise most of the shopping strips had car parks behind and many shops had rear access

No care given in Harris Park, must get that parking spot out the front of preferred local Indian restaurant (the street is full of them).z

It is also one of the major ways out of Parramatta as well so it gets rather a lot of traffic.

[am50em]

A driver using her phone to access social media in the lead-up to a crash with a bike rider has been imprisoned.

Twenty-three-year-old Wodonga nurse Abby Sturgess was sentenced to one year and four months in jail with a minimum non-parole period of six months.

Sturgess pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death over the collision with Anthony Reekman, 59, of Narong, who was riding on the Springhurst–Rutherglen Road on 27 January 2023, when he was hit from behind. He died at the scene.

She was sending and receiving Snapchat messages on her phone in the period immediately before the crash and Instagram was open on the driver's phone at the moment of the crash, according to Victoria Police.

There was no evidence of braking or steering. She travelled a further 70m before turning back to the crash scene and calling 000.

Mr Reeckman's Pinarello bicycle carried a flashing taillight that was operating at the time of the crash.

Sturgess denied to police and to a psychologist that she was using her phone and claimed the sun had been in her eyes.

The crash was in January 2023 but she did not plead guilty until a year later.

https://bicyclenetwork.com.au/newsroom/ ... ead%20more

[Andy01]

Wow, so you can kill someone with a car while breaking the law and only spend 6 months in jail - that is pretty sad.

[vbplease]

Wow, so you can kill someone with a car while breaking the law and only spend 6 months in jail - that is pretty sad.

I'm actually surprise she got jail time.. perhaps because she didn't plead guilty straight away. She probably would have got off scot free if she pleaded guilty straight away.

[CmdrBiggles]

Wow, so you can kill someone with a car while breaking the law and only spend 6 months in jail - that is pretty sad.

Frankly, it is appalling.
Equally appalling, perhaps much worse, is the continued debacle of Victorian bail laws giving repeat offending young miscreants free regain to engage in criminal activity, knowing full well the only "punishment" they will get is another dose of bail, and out the door to start it all over again. I have a very real fear that somebody by way of being on the spot is going to catch one of these little terror tots and take matters into their own hands. Other States have fixed bail laws, but Victoria seems to think it is a Federal Government matter. The usual "pass the buck" from Spring Street. Too funny.

[Andy01]

Wow, so you can kill someone with a car while breaking the law and only spend 6 months in jail - that is pretty sad.

Other States have fixed bail laws,

QLD hasn't - we are possibly worse off than you guys. Less than half of the hardened (their words, not mine) repeat (and I mean multiple repeat) juvenile offenders have been locked up - the rest are roaming freely and continuing to terrorise and injure innocent people.

Just this week, two career crims in their 20s attacked a 66yo man in his home with an axe and he fought back, fatally stabbing one of them, and the dead man's family is crying foul, because there relative was taken away from them. The 66yo victim is in GC hospital where doctors are trying to save his arm that was almost completely severed with the axe. Police are investigating whether his response was appropriate to the level of threat he faced before charging him (like seriously Say What ?)

It really is a sad state of affairs.

[vbplease]

Just this week, two career crims in their 20s attacked a 66yo man in his home with an axe and he fought back, fatally stabbing one of them, and the dead man's family is crying foul, because there relative was taken away from them. The 66yo victim is in GC hospital where doctors are trying to save his arm that was almost completely severed with the axe. Police are investigating whether his response was appropriate to the level of threat he faced before charging him (like seriously Say What ?)

It really is a sad state of affairs.

Yes.. one shouldn't be so reckless as to carry out 'disproportionate response', with a knife, when somebody breaks into your house and threatens you with an axe..
If only the crims would break into judges homes..

[g-boaf]

Wow, so you can kill someone with a car while breaking the law and only spend 6 months in jail - that is pretty sad.

Other States have fixed bail laws,

QLD hasn't - we are possibly worse off than you guys. Less than half of the hardened (their words, not mine) repeat (and I mean multiple repeat) juvenile offenders have been locked up - the rest are roaming freely and continuing to terrorise and injure innocent people.

Just this week, two career crims in their 20s attacked a 66yo man in his home with an axe and he fought back, fatally stabbing one of them, and the dead man's family is crying foul, because there relative was taken away from them. The 66yo victim is in GC hospital where doctors are trying to save his arm that was almost completely severed with the axe. Police are investigating whether his response was appropriate to the level of threat he faced before charging him (like seriously Say What ?)

It really is a sad state of affairs.

Heck, when a rider is fatally hurt or threatened by a car driver, the offenders get let off will little or no action at all because the usual mainstream conservative right considers this behaviour totally acceptable, the victim is only a cockroach on wheels right, oh, maybe woke or a leftie, or even a commie...

If it were up to me, that wouldn't happen.

[Mr Purple]

The V1 veloway has a pedestrian crossing controlled by lights at Birdwood Road.

Had a green bike/pedestrian light when I crossed it in heavy traffic conditions this morning - there were cars queued on either side. Some genius in a Honda Civic who was stationary when I got there decided he was perfectly fine to accelerate through the red light while I was directly in front of him, and seemed upset that I was crossing.

I can't even compehend the level of stupidity that has you decide to run a through a pedestrian crossing against a red light when you were already stopped there in the first place and then get angry at someone on the pedestrian crossing. It's like he forgot entirely what 'red' means.