Comments, opinions and an occasional ramble
Share the road? Sure, but learn the rules first.
The quote by avid cyclist and Safe Cyclist Task Force (SCTF) member Leo Tan in this newspaper report kind of irked me. According to the report, he supposedly said the new signs that are going to be put up to alert drivers to cyclists ‘stand as symbolic recognition by the state that motorists must share the roads with cyclists‘.
He seems to imply that motorists do not want to share the roads with cyclists and therefore the state has to give symbolic recognition that cyclists do have a right to cycle on the roads. I don’t have a problem sharing the road with cyclists. But, I have a big problem with cyclists on the road because from my experience, many of them do not follow traffic rules.
I have lost count of the number of times I’ve had to jam the brakes in order to avoid hitting cyclists who beat the red light. I’ve also seen a number of cyclists on the road who cycle and talk on their mobile phone at the same time. And, some cyclists are obviously inexperienced and swerve left and right when cycling but they insist on cycling on the roads anyway.
Seriously, if we want to allow cyclists on the roads, they need to learn AND obey traffic rules. Cyclists who do not obey the rules not only endanger themselves, they endanger other road users. Cyclists are not covered by motor insurance (at least to my knowledge). If they cause accidents, they inconvenience other people because the motorist cannot make claims against them. And if cyclists do get into an accident, the probability of serious injury is higher because many of them don’t seem to want to wear helmets.
I think cycling is a good alternative mode of transport but until there is a proper mechanism to regulate cycling behaviour on the roads, for their own safety and for the sanity of motorists, please take the cyclists off the road. I’ve had enough scares from nonchalant cyclists who think that they are exempt from traffic regulations.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Aaron Ng on 15/08/2008 at 10:05 am, and is filed under Ramblings. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 2 years ago
FYI, there are is a very broad definition of cyclists. People cycle for a broad range of reasons, exercise, recreation, transport etc. What you are hitting at, IMO, seems likely to be the foreign worker, Ah Tiongs, short commutes. For those serious cyclist, there are definitely black sheeps around, i do not deny that. Being a serious cyclist myself, I had my fair share of road bullies who seems very intend on inflicting pain n suffering on cyclist The common reason seems that be that cyclist do not pay road tax, so they deserved to be ran off the road.I do not know why they want to decimate another road user but in any accident, intentional or not, it is the cyclist who will suffer from the ego of the reckless motorist. Yes, there are bad cyclist, and also bad drivers/taxi drivers/truck drivers/cement mixers/buses/trailers etc. That’s what we face almost everytime we want to pursue a healthy lifestyle. So, let’s give and take, educate and show some consideration to each other, be it cyclist/pedestrians/drivers. If other countries can do this, why not us?
about 2 years ago
Totally agree with you Dan.
I’m a driver and a cyclist too, so i got my fair share of experiences from both sides.
IMO, we need more education and mutual understanding. And yes, tolerance!
about 2 years ago
“…So, let’s give and take, educate and show some consideration to each other, be it cyclist/pedestrians/drivers….” (Dan, 15 Aug)
Fully agree. It seems that we are so “boxed-in” on the concept of rules that sometimes we forget about good common sense and co-operations. We need regulations to guide our lives, we need someone with authority to state our rights when most of the time, we can simply exercise our God (in a very generic sense)-given-rights as a human to be compassionate and considerate to our fellow humans.
about 2 years ago
Yup, I concur with what Dan said; in the end, it all boils down to “give and take”…
I understand your concerns about reckless cyclists but there are also motorists who do not obey, if not totally disregard, traffic regulations so going by your logic, are we to stop all motorists from driving on the roads until all motorists learn to properly obey traffic regulations? Would this be fair to those motorists who already are obeying the rules?
So while it is true that some form of regulation mechanism for cyclists should be looked into, perhaps some form of regulation mechanism for motorists who treat cyclists as “second class citizens” on the roads should be devised? A better and stronger regulation mechanism for reckless motorists is perhaps also in order…
about 2 years ago
I have absolutely no qualms about sharing the road but I do think that cyclists in general are a danger to other road users because it is not mandatory for them to know what are the rules of the road because you don’t need a license to cycle on the road. Licensed road users have no excuse for behaving recklessly and causing danger to others but unlicensed road users may unwittingly cause problems for other people and I think it’s not fair that to anyone to cause problems out of ignorance.
For the record, I’m always extra careful when I see a cyclist in front of me. I believe in giving and taking but perhaps I’ve have a couple of bad scares to make want to have cyclists off the road, at least until there’s some system in place to educate cyclists on traffic rules.
As for stronger regulation against reckless motorists, that’s another topic but I would say that current penalties for reckless driving isn’t harsh enough. I am sick and tired of these people as well. The government should make it such that 24 demerit points or causing serious accidents means you are banned from driving for life. I’m not usually a hawk but on this, I’m a big hawk. I dislike being a law abiding citizen and being taken advantage of by others who disobey the law.