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Police target South Australian cyclists
Police have 'launched a safety 'blitz'' (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...09/2134767.htm) on cyclists failing to obey road rules, using the number of cyclists killed in accidents deemed the responsiblity of someone driving a motor vehicle as a bizarre justification for the 'crackdown'. -- deejbah |
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Police target South Australian cyclists
deejbah Wrote: Police have 'launched a safety 'blitz'' (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...09/2134767.htm) on cyclists failing to obey road rules, using the number of cyclists killed in accidents deemed the responsiblity of someone driving a motor vehicle as a bizarre justification for the 'crackdown'. Nice level playing field in SA, as obviously SAPOL hasn't remembered a few things that occured in the last four years. http://www.woj.com.au/?s=Eugene+McGee&submit=search -- cfsmtb |
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Police target South Australian cyclists
deejbah wrote:
Police have 'launched a safety 'blitz'' (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...09/2134767.htm) on cyclists failing to obey road rules, using the number of cyclists killed in accidents deemed the responsiblity of someone driving a motor vehicle as a bizarre justification for the 'crackdown'. Fair point. However, doesn't it make it much more difficult for our various cycling lobby groups to claim the tactically valuable Moral High Ground when car commuters get to see cyclists brazenly breaking road rules every day? I know that the red light runners irritate me. BTH |
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Police target South Australian cyclists
In aus.bicycle on Wed, 9 Jan 2008 23:32:15 -0800 (PST)
BT Humble wrote: Fair point. However, doesn't it make it much more difficult for our various cycling lobby groups to claim the tactically valuable Moral High Ground when car commuters get to see cyclists brazenly breaking road rules every day? I know that the red light runners irritate me. And a lot of cyclists too. Cyclists do it because they can. There are various ways of justifying it, all of which are flimsy at best, but people will do the most amazing things to justify their own selfishness. Problem is... well it is herding cats isn't it? How can it be stopped? The only way is to make the risk not worth the reward. And that means identifying cyclists so they can be caught in the same way registered vehicles are. Which is rather a difficult job. Not just working out how to fit a registration label that can be read by both machines and people, but what to do about a bicycle that doesn't have one. Hard to chase, hard to catch. Public campaigns won't work because those who run red lights are quite certain they are perfectly justified to do so. Whether they use the "no harm" excuse or the "sustainable transport should have different rules" excuse or the "safer than being in traffic" excuse, they are certain that their convenience is more important than any rule. So a campaign saying they shouldn't is going to have as much effect as a campaign saying speeding drivers have small dicks if that campaign isn't backed up by cameras and fines. Work out how to register cyclists, work out how to catch unregistered ones that do a runner, work out how to manage child cyclists in that regime, then bicycles will become part of the transport network. (I wonder if RFID chips could work, with cops and parking cops equipped with hand held scanners, and a backpack full of locks. A bike without a chip gets locked up and the truck comes by later to impound it. Plainclothes spotters at intersections with readers walk out, scan the bike, and slash the tyres to stop the owner riding off then lock the bike... Only cost each rider a couple of hundred a year to fund, surely!) Zebee |
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Police target South Australian cyclists
BT Humble writes:
deejbah wrote: Police have 'launched a safety 'blitz'' (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...09/2134767.htm) on cyclists failing to obey road rules, using the number of cyclists killed in accidents deemed the responsiblity of someone driving a motor vehicle as a bizarre justification for the 'crackdown'. Fair point. However, doesn't it make it much more difficult for our various cycling lobby groups to claim the tactically valuable Moral High Ground when car commuters get to see cyclists brazenly breaking road rules every day? Car commuters see cyclists "brazenly" breaking road rules every day yet fail to far larger numbers of car commuters breaking road rules every day. An unfortunate fact of life for any minority, your faults get seen and you have to be squeaky clean. People always see members of the "other tribe" do the wrong thing and overlook members of their tribe doing the exact same thing. I know that the red light runners irritate me. They irritate me too, I see about a dozen a day at one intersection in particular. Oh, they're all people driving cars, trucks and buses. I'm lucky if I see two bikes a day in my ride to work. BTH Adrian |
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Police target South Australian cyclists
Adrian wrote:
BT Humble writes: deejbah wrote: Police have 'launched a safety 'blitz'' (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...09/2134767.htm) on cyclists failing to obey road rules, using the number of cyclists killed in accidents deemed the responsiblity of someone driving a motor vehicle as a bizarre justification for the 'crackdown'. Fair point. However, doesn't it make it much more difficult for our various cycling lobby groups to claim the tactically valuable Moral High Ground when car commuters get to see cyclists brazenly breaking road rules every day? Car commuters see cyclists "brazenly" breaking road rules every day yet fail to far larger numbers of car commuters breaking road rules every day. "Car commuters"? Which ones? Aren't you stereotyping car drivers? Is it every car driver or just a very small minority? You're basing your opinions on car commuters with the same generalization that you accuse "car commuters" of making. If you have a thousand cars go past you and then have a two "near misses" do you say all car commuters are bad drivers or just the "very small minority", the 1/500th. If you want to be righteous then first you have to be right, otherwise you end up like George Bush, using torture and illegal imprisonment to fight people that do exactly the same thing. Elmo An unfortunate fact of life for any minority, your faults get seen and you have to be squeaky clean. People always see members of the "other tribe" do the wrong thing and overlook members of their tribe doing the exact same thing. I know that the red light runners irritate me. They irritate me too, I see about a dozen a day at one intersection in particular. Oh, they're all people driving cars, trucks and buses. I'm lucky if I see two bikes a day in my ride to work. BTH Adrian |
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Police target South Australian cyclists
Elmo wrote:
...If you want to be righteous then first you have to be right, otherwise you end up like George Bush, using torture and illegal imprisonment to fight people that do exactly the same thing. Is that a version of Godwin's Law[1] for the new millenium? ;-) BTH [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law |
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Police target South Australian cyclists
BT Humble wrote:
Elmo wrote: ...If you want to be righteous then first you have to be right, otherwise you end up like George Bush, using torture and illegal imprisonment to fight people that do exactly the same thing. Is that a version of Godwin's Law[1] for the new millenium? ;-) BTH [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law Err.. Sort of. Reading your Wiki link gives me the impression that things like swear words should be saved for special occasions, otherwise if you hit your thumb with a hammer you won't have any especially bad words to exclaim, the swear words have been debased. The point I was making in my posting was that you can't fight stereotyping with stereotyping if you want to keep the high moral ground. |
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Police target South Australian cyclists
Elmo Wrote: "Car commuters"? Which ones? Aren't you stereotyping car drivers? Is it every car driver or just a very small minority? You're basing your Riding home 11:30 Monday night on Brighton Road, an alwighty thwack on on my lower leght back. The Car turned off right, then I turned off left and then paralleled the main road. Thwack. Lower right back. The driver had circled back. Not all drivers but this driver and mates thought my being on a bicycle gave them a license. Adelaide. South Australia. -- aeek |
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Police target South Australian cyclists
Zebee Johnstone wrote:
Work out how to register cyclists, work out how to catch unregistered ones that do a runner, work out how to manage child cyclists in that regime, then bicycles will become part of the transport network. (I wonder if RFID chips could work, with cops and parking cops equipped with hand held scanners, and a backpack full of locks. A bike without a chip gets locked up and the truck comes by later to impound it. Plainclothes spotters at intersections with readers walk out, scan the bike, and slash the tyres to stop the owner riding off then lock the bike... Only cost each rider a couple of hundred a year to fund, surely!) Are you serious? (I suspect not). I can think of at least a dozen social ills, any one of which could be attacked by similar zero tolerance overkill and with a better payoff. Red light runners irritate me too, but the actual real harm they do is only likely to be to themselves. -- beerwolf |
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