http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/socie...ot-lycra-louts-20091028-hkwr.html?autostart=1
It seems like it is all out war on Sydney streets these days & cyclists are not welcome. Well that is what our senationalist media would have you think. Between lead stories on the news, rubbish Currant Affairs shows & disgraceful one sided tabloid journalism, the media in Sydney (& Australia) are doing their best to cause total kaos on our streets. Thank god for Cadel.
It was an unfortunate incident (see above link) that led to this spate of sensationalism & definately not behaviour that I would condone but at this stage we still only have the version of events from the bus driver. As a daily rider down Oxford St in the heart of Sydney, we have been targettted by a Sydney bus driver who decided to use his 20m plus bus as a lethal weapon & ran us off the road not once but twice. We complained through the correct channels & was told the driver would be councelled. I don't think this made the news though!
I'm not saying the bus driver in the above incident did this but I'm sure that for the cyclist to act like he did, there was more than just a friendly honk of the horn. Sydney busses are normally seen as the 'bad guys' by all in Sydney so have grabbed with both hands this chance to bring themselves off the bottom rung at the expense of Cyclists!
As far as motorists go, there are thousands of car v car road rage incidents daily but the media don't highlight these as they can draw much higher ratings from Car V bike or bus v bike.
Lets all (bike riders, car drivers, bus drivers) take a step back, take a deap breath & realise that an extra few seconds to go around a bike rider, stop at a set of lights or crossing isn't the end of the world & generally won't take you any longer to get where your going.
We all need to be far more tolerant of each other!
It seems like it is all out war on Sydney streets these days & cyclists are not welcome. Well that is what our senationalist media would have you think. Between lead stories on the news, rubbish Currant Affairs shows & disgraceful one sided tabloid journalism, the media in Sydney (& Australia) are doing their best to cause total kaos on our streets. Thank god for Cadel.
It was an unfortunate incident (see above link) that led to this spate of sensationalism & definately not behaviour that I would condone but at this stage we still only have the version of events from the bus driver. As a daily rider down Oxford St in the heart of Sydney, we have been targettted by a Sydney bus driver who decided to use his 20m plus bus as a lethal weapon & ran us off the road not once but twice. We complained through the correct channels & was told the driver would be councelled. I don't think this made the news though!
I'm not saying the bus driver in the above incident did this but I'm sure that for the cyclist to act like he did, there was more than just a friendly honk of the horn. Sydney busses are normally seen as the 'bad guys' by all in Sydney so have grabbed with both hands this chance to bring themselves off the bottom rung at the expense of Cyclists!
As far as motorists go, there are thousands of car v car road rage incidents daily but the media don't highlight these as they can draw much higher ratings from Car V bike or bus v bike.
Lets all (bike riders, car drivers, bus drivers) take a step back, take a deap breath & realise that an extra few seconds to go around a bike rider, stop at a set of lights or crossing isn't the end of the world & generally won't take you any longer to get where your going.
We all need to be far more tolerant of each other!