Wendy Tuohy: Melbourne, be ashamed of how we treat cyclists

MELBOURNE, get out of your own way, and get behind cyclists. They’re steering the way to a healthy future, writes Wendy Tuohy.

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MELBOURNE, the way you treat a community doing the best thing for public health and the environment — our cyclists — is so appalling you should be ashamed.

Statistics reveal that even as cycling numbers and the motorist road toll declines, major road trauma to cyclists has doubled in the last nine years.

This shows contempt for the safety of people most comparable cities go out of their way to support.

It shows we put our own, lazy, motoring imperatives ahead of a group doing the right thing by our traffic flow, air quality and tax-funded, long-term health budget.

Monash University’s road trauma analysis found overall traffic deaths dropped by 4 per cent a year, but major trauma to cyclists rose by 8 per cent a year.

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Cyclists weave through traffic as they exit Flinders Street Station. Picture: Mark Dadswell

The “disability burden” (years lost to disability or early death) decreased for all road accident victims but cyclists, for whom there was a 56 per cent rise.

Irony of ironies, something that should be reducing the health cost burden is ramping it up due to the dreadfully poor level of support for cyclists in our mostly flat, riding-friendly town.

It’s most certainly true that some testy speed-warriors taint the image of the rest of the cycling community, and their poor behaviour towards drivers, walkers and even other cyclists increases anti-bike sentiment.

But hearing punters calling talkback radio to trash cyclists in general and say drivers can’t be blamed if they do have a crash with a bike — a “look what you made me do” attitude — has reflected even worse on Melbourne’s motorists.

We are so wedded to our cars and the ridiculous desire to park them on the busiest inner-city streets — making adequately separated lanes for cyclists impossible without the risk of dooring — that we are becoming an international embarrassment.

As the rest of the world’s big cities bend over backwards to make life safer and easier for bicycle commuting, and see the traffic and health benefits, we insist on clinging to the one-person, one-car door-to-desk driving model and kick back at every attempt to change roads to support cycling.

Cyclists on Footscray Road Docklands heading into the city. Picture: Mark Wilson

Even when VicRoads or councils propose really constructive plans that would boost safety and not even reduce car lanes, such as the “Copenhagen-style” protected lanes proposed for St Kilda Road by Port Phillip Council or the centre-road bike lane shift proposal by the roads authority, the Premier realises it would be such a vote killer his reaction is “there won’t be any of that”.

Australia is in the midst of an obesity crisis so severe it threatens to bankrupt the health system in decades to come, and we are choking in traffic and furious about it.

But even so we’re so selfishly bound to car travel we’d punish any party perceived to impede it.

Melbourne, get out of your own way, please, and get behind cyclists. Rogue, testosterone tyrants aside, they’re steering the way to a healthy future.

— Follow Wendy Tuohy on Facebook and Twitter @wtuohy.