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What's up with cycling in Ausseland
I been reading some comments about locals who live in the land of Aus, and
their bad encounters with drivers while riding their bikes. It kind of of reminded me of California back in the 70's when I got pulled over by a cop who told me bikes don't belong on the roads, and he was just bascially mad at me, because I had the balls to ride a bike on a public highway, something that is legal, as long as its not Interstate of Freeways. Two lane Highways have always been legal to ride bikes in the USA as far as I know. I read about the guy who stopped in front of that group of cyclists and that sounds more like the childish pranks that occasionally happened in those days here, but today drivers are much more mature and tolerant of cyclists over here in the states, at least in California they are. The big beefs or flareups come from stuff like Critical Mass and such, but I haven't been hassled on my bike in 20 years time on dozens of roads and highways after riding 100,000 miles or more. As long as you stay on the edge of the pavement, its extremely rare for drivers to try dirty tricks. In fact many times drivers actually look out for your well being like the one time a driver used his head lights to guide me home once after dark. Or even other times on hot days when strangers slow down and ask if you need water, of how about all those thumbs up from people who really admire someone who takes the time to not only ride a bike, but really suffers out there in the hot sun. It sounds like in Aus, instead of the thumbs up, you get the middle finger? What is it with the Ausses on this business? I am not a consistent reader of the Aus newsgroup here, so I haven't read your thoughts, but how is this so since Ausseland only has what, 22 million people, yet hosts the two largest cycling websites in the world for men and women, Cyclingnews originally from Aus land, and womenscycling.net. The USA has 300 million people and controls half the worlds industialized wealth so I have read, yet they have only Velonews as the original forerunner for cycling, and yet Ausseland produces a large number of both male and female pros, has a seemingly healthy stock of talent for pro cycling and after Amy Gillette, you might think people there would be more tolerate of cyclists. Some kind of disconnect going on down under? What causes this mentality? Is it something to do with the old colonialists of Ausse, and is it the new generation of Ausses are more tolerent now, and this is just the old rednecks, or is this a much more complicated equation in Aus? I remember watching Alby Mangals once when he dog Sam got shot as a random shooting, and that seems a bit odd like the time someone also pushed his trailor over the cliff, but now I am having second thoughts about moving to Ausseland. I thought the snakes and spiders were bad enough, but its the drivers too! Will global warming and saving gas by riding bikes do anything to quell the anti-cycling crowd? I hope so! Sheeeezzzee, I thought Ausse would be a great place to live and ride a bike! The USA is huge place with plenty of roads and the extra room for cyclists, and you would think in a place as big as Ausse, there would be plenty of room as well! I understand a lot of people are leaving England and moving to Aus, and Alby Mangals and Steve Irwin kind of put Aus on the map for me, as did Crocodile Dundee, at least as the media version, but I have always been fascinated with the vast expanses of the outback, and this seems like a great place to ride mountain bikes too, besides the coastal areas. The Dutch cycling community is a great example of how they integrated two wheel and 4 wheel transports so beautifully into their way of life. Maybe I should move to Holland instead! One in 300 Million |
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#2
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What's up with cycling in Ausseland
0ne in 300 Million wrote: I been reading some comments about locals who live in the land of Aus, and their bad encounters with drivers while riding their bikes. It kind of of reminded me of California back in the 70's when I got pulled over by a cop who told me bikes don't belong on the roads, and he was just bascially mad at me, because I had the balls to ride a bike on a public highway, something that is legal, as long as its not Interstate of Freeways. Two lane Highways have always been legal to ride bikes in the USA as far as I know. I read about the guy who stopped in front of that group of cyclists and that sounds more like the childish pranks that occasionally happened in those days here, but today drivers are much more mature and tolerant of cyclists over here in the states, at least in California they are. The big beefs or flareups come from stuff like Critical Mass and such, but I haven't been hassled on my bike in 20 years time on dozens of roads and highways after riding 100,000 miles or more. As long as you stay on the edge of the pavement, its extremely rare for drivers to try dirty tricks. In fact many times drivers actually look out for your well being like the one time a driver used his head lights to guide me home once after dark. Or even other times on hot days when strangers slow down and ask if you need water, of how about all those thumbs up from people who really admire someone who takes the time to not only ride a bike, but really suffers out there in the hot sun. It sounds like in Aus, instead of the thumbs up, you get the middle finger? What is it with the Ausses on this business? I am not a consistent reader of the Aus newsgroup here, so I haven't read your thoughts, but how is this so since Ausseland only has what, 22 million people, yet hosts the two largest cycling websites in the world for men and women, Cyclingnews originally from Aus land, and womenscycling.net. The USA has 300 million people and controls half the worlds industialized wealth so I have read, yet they have only Velonews as the original forerunner for cycling, and yet Ausseland produces a large number of both male and female pros, has a seemingly healthy stock of talent for pro cycling and after Amy Gillette, you might think people there would be more tolerate of cyclists. Some kind of disconnect going on down under? What causes this mentality? Is it something to do with the old colonialists of Ausse, and is it the new generation of Ausses are more tolerent now, and this is just the old rednecks, or is this a much more complicated equation in Aus? I remember watching Alby Mangals once when he dog Sam got shot as a random shooting, and that seems a bit odd like the time someone also pushed his trailor over the cliff, but now I am having second thoughts about moving to Ausseland. I thought the snakes and spiders were bad enough, but its the drivers too! Will global warming and saving gas by riding bikes do anything to quell the anti-cycling crowd? I hope so! Sheeeezzzee, I thought Ausse would be a great place to live and ride a bike! The USA is huge place with plenty of roads and the extra room for cyclists, and you would think in a place as big as Ausse, there would be plenty of room as well! I understand a lot of people are leaving England and moving to Aus, and Alby Mangals and Steve Irwin kind of put Aus on the map for me, as did Crocodile Dundee, at least as the media version, but I have always been fascinated with the vast expanses of the outback, and this seems like a great place to ride mountain bikes too, besides the coastal areas. The Dutch cycling community is a great example of how they integrated two wheel and 4 wheel transports so beautifully into their way of life. Maybe I should move to Holland instead! One in 300 Million You have never tried to cycle in Canberra, the nation's capitol city where there are hundreds of kilometres of cycle paths so that one can ride quite long distances to work or just for health without being on a road with cars. There are many cycle lanes on roads. Cycling roads in the outer suburbs is dreamy because so few cars use the roads. When I am on a road, most car driver behaviour is considerate and kindly, and the same whether I am in my car or on my bike. The mountain bike scene here is also very big. Every country has ppl who hate cyclists, and cyclists who hate everyone else. It'd be stupid to believe it possible that no risk exists when using roads. The US has a huge prison population, but it doesn't mean all US pp are bad. Patrick Turner. |
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