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So to give you a little of my history, I am from England but have moved to Auckland, New Zealand indefinitely. When I was younger I remember peoples attitudes towards cycling in England was pretty poor, you got regular abuse, things thrown at you, not enough space given etc etc.
However since being away for about 5 years I cannot believe the transformation, drivers in the main are far more respectful, give you more space and generally give cyclists reasonable consideration. It by no means perfect but it is changing for the better.
Meanwhile in New Zealand things are worse than I remember even when comparing Auckland with Central London. In the past two weeks I have had one guy in a 4x4 actively try to run me off the road (pull up beside me and swerve into my path), and a drink driver swerve to the other side of the road to knock me off.
This is not unusual behaviour here, this is the norm. From discussions at work peoples attitude is that you shouldn't even be on the road, and what is worse the police do nothing. Even with incidents where the driver is clearly at fault for a cyclists death there have been no prosecutions.
One off duty police officer used their car to knock off a cyclist because he would not give her his name and address as he was cycling without his helmet. He rode off and the police officer rammed him off the road breaking his arm and hip. It went to court and the cyclist was deemed in the wrong......
So my question is, as one person what can I do to change things? I know they have to change as cars as we know them wont be around for much longer, but meanwhile can I take any meaningful steps to make the roads safer for cyclists here?
Be patient and try to be forgiving of people's wreckless endangerment of your life.
have a rich person or famous person take someone to court preferably the police or other government branch.
Any media links about that story about the copper? That's disgusting.
Do the blokes still have mullets in NZ?
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I didn't know NZ had a helmet law for bikes, interestinng method of enforcement there...
TBH organized pressure from a group is most likely to get you somewhere. So as an individual the best thing you can do is either find an existing group with the goal of improving NZ cyclists road safety and respect from drivers to join or start one with a clear set of aims for yourself...
Give it 20 years and you might start to see some change.
it's not perfect in the U.K. But you have to wait for those people who grew up in the 'car is king'' culture to start to die off before you get any real change. Bikes are still seen as the transport of the poor and a 3series BMW that you drive in a spirited manner the socially acceptable way of showing others you are a success in life despite it costing a years salary and is purchased with finance.
Move to France/Belgium/Netherlands if you want more respect from other road users.
Work to get rid of helmet laws for a start. They discourage cycling and the best way to make things better for cyclists is to have more cyclists.
This is key. Someone is less likely to discriminate against cyclists if they know cyclists, if their friends cycle, if their mum rides a bike to the shops, if their kids go to school on their bikes.
Suggest bikes as a way of getting about, not as a sport. They're fundamentally a mode of transport, not a past time. Encourage the use of bikes in schools, encourage them for shopping on. The more people see bikes being used for every day activities, the more they will consider using them themselves. If people complain about the traffic, let them know that bikes are the answer.
This story was brilliant.
[url] http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/weekend-gridlock-rivals-weekday-peakhour-crush/story-fni0fit3-1226929301262 [/url]
Poor Glen complains that it takes her more than 15 minutes to drive to the gym on weekends, absolutely and utterly without irony I might point out. The answer is so obvious it's embarassing pointing it out.
Interesting actually, googling the history of the NZ helmet law you turn up an example of a single individual changing NZ society, a lady called Rebecca Oaten near enough single handedly brought the law about, apparently she was so effective that the transport minister of the day brought in the law without a parliamentary debate...
[url= https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3792/14284578373_e374eb7a1d.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3792/14284578373_e374eb7a1d.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/nLhcu2 ]10349873_10201966013733391_936067591881179529_n[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/38306431@N05/ ]mike mcdermid[/url], on Flickr
mick thats awesome, I have a friend who is a tour guide for cycle america and he carries a gun....
He was telling me one time these two guys in a UTE (pickup) stopped and got out on a highway in the middle of nowhere with a baseball bat. He pulled out his gun and fired a shot in the air, and said "I've got one more bullet, who wants it?!"
Samuri : I read your link thinking it was in the style of a Huffington post parody but was gobsmacked when it appeared to be a serious article……..driving 1.5km to the gym now takes simone an extra 15 minutes - what a tragedy!.
I think that in certain communities where there are entrenched behaviours the only way you can alter those is to start wielding a big stick. Nearly 20 years ago I used to be part of the Critical Mass in London when there'd be maybe 30 people turning up on those Friday nights and watched it become a large unwieldy behemoth. On my commute to work most days I wouldn't see a single other cyclist and now in 5 miles I normally see more than a dozen. There are behavioural changes but to a certain extent they've occurred due to external influences - the austerity, bike2work, the bradleyeffect, congestion charge, increases in public transport costs or loss of privileges to drive.
For these morons in NZ as far as I can see the only way to get them to see sense is to punish them financially - much as happened to the pseudo Christian laws in Arizona and recently in Mississippi.
Cyclists, certainly in the uk tend to be of above average income with significant elements of that disposable. Just get the morons to realise that there'd be lots of money coming into their communities if only they'd stop being such shits. But as they won't they're missing out on that money. Why would I spend, say £5,000 of my hard earned money to go on holiday in NZ - which looks like an attractive country- when I know that one of the things I want to do there (cycling) means that I get physically attacked by the locals? As far as I'm concerned **** the kiwis, I'll spend my money in areas, and products from those countries where they respect what I do and demonstrate that they want me to visit and enjoy that visit.
I'll never visit NZ in its current state, their loss not mine.
samuri - MemberWork to get rid of helmet laws for a start. They discourage cycling and the best way to make things better for cyclists is to have more cyclists.
wish this was law in the UK - not wearing a helmet is as dumb as it gets
Have a watch of this:
http://blog.ted.com/2013/10/08/better-roads-for-bikes-and-walkers-what-cities-inspire-janette-sadik-khan/
The New York Transport Commissioner talking about how they changed NY within 5-6 years. Really positive.
wish this was law in the UK - not wearing a helmet is as dumb as it gets
A small thermonuclear reaction was seen in Edinburgh as this was posted.
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got this on Fb, just now.