1. So the other day I was riding my bike home. I came across a bunch of young guys walking in the middle of the road. Seconds before I approached them, they turned around and noticed me. Without a second noticed one guy tried to push me off my bike. I let this go assuming they were just after a quick laugh
2. Then the next day a car drove past me and beeped at me. At first I was confused because I was on a designated bike path and was sure I was not obstructing traffic in anyway. My assumption that they were beeping at me dropped as they continually tooted at their horn down the rode. 5 minutes on. I noticed that the car had turned around. Now they were driving directly at me! Beeping and screaming “Get off the road! No bikes on the road!” .. they drove past
3. Upset at the couple of experiences this week. I was happy to take a breather at the lights. Then a motor bike came zooming up the road. He stopped at the lights next to me and acknowledged me. Acknowledgement is quite rare in Sydney. So you can imagine my surprise when he spoke to me to organise which directions we were going when the light went Green and to then gesture me to go first.
4. I can break these couples of experiences down to the fact that some people may try to push someone off a bike for a quick laugh, that some people are rude enough to express their opinions in an aggressive fashion and that with those people there are also people who are polite and considerate. It did bring up questions for me however as to whether these events are a reflection of bad bike education or social ethics?
5. Anyone else have a story?
3 responses so far ↓
1 Anja - Berlin // Apr 23, 2009 at 4:01 am
Hey Rosy, great story! You wouldn´t believe how much I can relate to this – I got yelled at numerous times when cycling around in sydney. A few people had a point maybe (I wasn´t wearing a helmet…), but then again with most of them were just trying to get rid of some anger (unrelated to me) by yelling about me being on the street with my bike.
So from that angle I believe it´s just about social ethics.
However I think with Sydney in particular, the car drivers most of the time just didn´t seem to expect cyclists on the street and therefore didn´t pay enough attention in the first place. That goes especially for bus drivers, although I guess those act the same way to car drivers.
However even though obviously anyone who has a license should be aware of others on the street, no matter wether that someone is on 2 or 4 wheels, I guess there´s also just so very few cyclists around in the first place, that maybe sometimes it´s not too hard to forget about them.
That of course doesn´t make it right if someone cuts you off or opens the door without looking. Let alone the being rude part.
But I have the direct comparison now here in Berlin – where there´s cyclists everywhere – on some roads it feels like there´s more bikes then cars – and it just seems like the car drivers are way more aware of cyclists and of sharing the road with them.
So maybe, if the number of people cycling around increases, so will the good bike education. *fingers crossed*
2 TD // Apr 23, 2009 at 8:14 pm
If you live in a country that has a prominent car culture (dominant I guess is what I mean to say), you’re going to get harassed for riding a bike. It sucks, but its the truth.
3 Rosy Girl // Apr 24, 2009 at 9:05 am
Thanks for your posts people! However in your opinion do we just except this or urge the government to spend more money on educating drivers? I don’t plan to stop riding but it gets so frustrating that I have to share the road with car drivers that make unconscious decisions that nearly wipe me off the road. Remember Sydney doesn’t have bike infrustracture.
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