Don’t hate cyclists just because we wear Lycra
CYCLISTS, especially those in Lycra, attract a lot of hate from other road users but they’re no worse, or better, than anyone else, writes Matthew Keenan.
Opinion
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MARK Webber, Steve Waugh, Will Davison, Mick Doohan, Danny Frawley, Wayne Schwass, Daniel Ricardo and Adam Goodes are all Australian sporting heroes.
They’re also all Lycra-wearing cyclists.
The “bikes versus cars” battle on our roads is mainly a product of a clickbait drive and a grab for outraged talkback callers.
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The reality is cyclists and motorists follow the road rules and break the road rules in equal proportions.
Likewise, the majority of motorists do the right thing and the majority of cyclists do the right thing.
As for cyclists being aggressive, there’s no shortage of aggressive motorists either.
Again, I’d suggest the proportion of aggressive cyclists and motorists is about the same.
It’s simply either people in cars or on bikes.
And people are imperfect, regardless of their mode of transport.
There’s just more outrage when a cyclist does the wrong thing.
This century, in Victoria, there has been one death of a pedestrian caused by a cyclist, which is one too many.
There have been no deaths of motorists caused by a cyclist.
Last year eight cyclists were killed.
They were among 291 deaths on Victorian roads.
TAC figures show cyclists are 34 times more likely to be seriously injured than vehicle occupants, and 4.5 times more likely to be killed in a crash.
Yet there seem to be so many claims about how dangerous cyclists are.
We are a minority group, which makes us easy to hate.
When you see a motorist on their mobile phone — and you’ll see plenty every time you drive — all motorists aren’t labelled “mobile morons”.
How about the amount of times you’re doing the speed limit and you are overtaken.
That motorist is clearly breaking the law, but it doesn’t result in headlines labelling all motorists “stupid speedsters”.
Yet when a cyclist, or group of cyclists, do the wrong thing, every cyclist is tarred with the same brush and labelled a “Lycra lout”.
It’s the classic stereotyping of a minority group: “I’m not part of that group, I don’t know those people, so they’re all the same”.
The negative perceptions that creates are real.
I sense a much greater level of aggression towards me when riding in Lycra than I do when riding my flat bar town bike in casual clothes.
I’m the same person doing the same thing, but I’m treated slightly differently.
Because of the feeling that we are all tarred with the same brush, cyclists get more annoyed than anyone else at seeing another cyclist do the wrong thing.
But we’re not one homogenous group.
Just like not all footballers, cricketers, tennis players, basketballers, golfers or motorists are the same, not all cyclists are the same.
In the cars and bikes debate, registration is always a hot topic.
By not having a registration plate, the only law enforcement a cyclist can potentially avoid is red light and speed cameras.
Be honest with yourself: how many times have you taken down the rego of a driver on their mobile phone or breaking the speed limit and reported it to the police?
I’ve never done it and I see it daily.
The only thing bike registration will achieve is a reduction in the number of new cyclists and the potential drop off of some who have recently taken up riding.
It would simply put more people back in their cars, increasing congestion, or back on an already stretched public transport system.
Another thing cyclists often are blamed for is slowing down traffic.
I haven’t see any cyclists on the Monash or Eastern Freeway at peak hour and that traffic doesn’t seem to flow too well.
To test out the real impact of cyclists on overall traffic flow, we should have a national drive to work day, the day after ride to work day, with each person who normally rides driving with their bike on their car.
According to the 2016 Census, 8000 people commute into the Melbourne CBD by bike, with Bicycle Network figures showing 38,000 people commute by bike throughout greater Melbourne and its suburbs.
An extra 8000 cars driving into the city each day, instead of cycling — that would really impact traffic flow.
Every day thousands of motorists are held up by other motorists.
It makes no sense to me that they take out their accumulated stress and frustration on cyclists, who are actually helping to alleviate the problem.
Granted, cycling is not the panacea to all our traffic problems, but it is part of the solution, particularly with the right infrastructure investment.
When a car, bus or truck passes me close enough to give me a real scare, the one question I’d like to ask them is this: would you have driven past your child, wife, husband, mum, dad, sister or brother that closely?
We all make mistakes on the road — cyclists and motorists.
I’ve made my fair share using both modes of transport but no one deserves to be killed as a result.
Matthew Keenan is a Tour de France commentator and contributor to the Herald Sun’s cyclist podcast The 3 Domestiques
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