Thread: Cameras, cars and cyclists

Originally Posted by 460cixy

Here we have the best off road cycle paths going but where do they all want to ride in the mornings?

yeah but do they actually go where a cyclist needs to go? its just like the bus and train network I have never worked were public transport would be a viable option

are the paths shared with walker or separate

are the paths designed to do 30km/hr on them

For the most part they go where there needed I used to use them a lot years ago. As for speed wouldn't be a problem even if you were doing 60 on most of them. There shared with walkers but no one here really walks. I always shake my head here when I see one on the road and 10 meters away there's a bike path parallel with the road

Originally Posted by weeds

yeah but do they actually go where a cyclist needs to go? its just like the bus and train network I have never worked were public transport would be a viable option

The public transport issue is interesting. I can take public transport to work, but I have to get a bus to the train station, then take a train to town, then walk across town to work. It costs $10 a day and takes over an hour each way. Riding the bike is quicker, even though I add over 10kms each way to avoid most of the traffic and take a shower when I get to work.

For a long time I rode a pretty good bike that I bought used for $700. Even allowing for some maintenance, the bike paid for itself in under 6 months. After that, every day I rode contributed $10 to the cost of rego and insurance for my three cars, which only really go out on weekends anyway.

It also saves me having to join a gym or pay a personal trainer to yell at me. Apparently I'm statistically obese, but my blood pressure is excellent and I'm in pretty good shape for a desk jockey in his late forties. So there's probably some health savings as well.

I can't understand why more people don't ride bikes. It just adds up in so many ways. The reality is that it's nowhere near as dangerous as the media hype makes out and they are so versatile. Some people take their dogs for a ride in a trailer, grandparents ride with grandkids, people fit baskets and racks and take them shopping and I'm about to go and ride around Cuba on holiday.

And unlike taking the train, you never have to stand on a urine stained floor, jammed between a bloke who hasn't had a shower in three days and another who's coughing up chunks of phlegm while two women behind you have a loud conversation about something so mind bendingly pointless that you want to puncture your own eardrums.

Originally Posted by Dave_S

The public transport issue is interesting. I can take public transport to work, but I have to get a bus to the train station, then take a train to town, then walk across town to work. It costs $10 a day and takes over an hour each way. Riding the bike is quicker, even though I add over 10kms each way to avoid most of the traffic and take a shower when I get to work.

For a long time I rode a pretty good bike that I bought used for $700. Even allowing for some maintenance, the bike paid for itself in under 6 months. After that, every day I rode contributed $10 to the cost of rego and insurance for my three cars, which only really go out on weekends anyway.

It also saves me having to join a gym or pay a personal trainer to yell at me. Apparently I'm statistically obese, but my blood pressure is excellent and I'm in pretty good shape for a desk jockey in his late forties. So there's probably some health savings as well.

I can't understand why more people don't ride bikes. It just adds up in so many ways. The reality is that it's nowhere near as dangerous as the media hype makes out and they are so versatile. Some people take their dogs for a ride in a trailer, grandparents ride with grandkids, people fit baskets and racks and take them shopping and I'm about to go and ride around Cuba on holiday.

And unlike taking the train, you never have to stand on a urine stained floor, jammed between a bloke who hasn't had a shower in three days and another who's coughing up chunks of phlegm while two women behind you have a loud conversation about something so mind bendingly pointless that you want to puncture your own eardrums.

Sounds like here but with out the trains

Originally Posted by 460cixy

For the most part they go where there needed I used to use them a lot years ago. As for speed wouldn't be a problem even if you were doing 60 on most of them. There shared with walkers but no one here really walks. I always shake my head here when I see one on the road and 10 meters away there's a bike path parallel with the road

I could use a bike path for 70% of my journey.......however average speed is slower, its shared (walkers/runners with headphones in), water pools for days after rain, heavily shaded so mould grows in cool months etc etc)

as a rule I don't use bike paths.........if you ride on the road than road rules apply, if I ride on a bike path next to the road I now have to stop at every intersection

either way there is no real solution, i'm comfortable with the road rules and happy with the level of risk on the routes I take......I followed the road rules (except for one turn right where most days I have to run a red arrow), only come across the odd dickhead driver

Most cyclists here are ok for the most part only had one real run in with a bloke that was all over the road on a back road going down hill. he was even on the wrong side of the road at one point. Then at the bottom of the hill where it was safe i passed and he gave me the bird. so I pulled over he rode up and called me every name under the sun made sure he stuck his head in the cab to get me on his go pro I think he was hoping I would thump him and get me on the go pro .

Originally Posted by 460cixy

Here we have the best off road cycle paths going but where do they all want to ride in the mornings?

We do not have any cycle paths in Canberra - they are recreational paths for the use of walkers, runners, dog walkers, cyclists - anyone who wants to use them though cyclists think they are only for cyclists and no one else should be using them.

Yeah I sort of agree. Some walkers really get the ****s with cyclists and vice versa. I keep out of it I don't walk and don't ride