Why does the rider need to be visible? Surely if the bike is visible that is enough. Part of why my bike has bright lights on it. You can’t see me? Sure, but you can see the bike, avoid that and everything is fine.
But what if the rider gets off the bike? Then he could suddenly become invisible!
Then you just become a pedestrian, it is illegal to run them over too.
Germany made blinking bike lights illegal because studies show that drunk motorists target fixate on them :/
Y’all are missing the key point, if the headline and my understanding are to be believed. They’re proposing making it a CRIMINAL offense, not a fine you misdemeanor, but a can put you in jail criminal offense (felony for you yanks), that’s way over the top.
They want to heavily disincentivice any cycling.
Also worth noting not are people on a bicycle are “cyclists”, just like not all people in a car are “race car drivers”.
There’s various types of bicycle, such as riding for pleasure, casual riding, entertainment, or racing. Not to mention the various ages of bicyclists. These distinctions are important, just as much as safe well designed infrastructure for all roadway users, weather they are on foot, or a bicycle, or in a car.
A example of “cyclists”
A example of causal bicyclists
The word cyclist if perfectly fine to describe someone who rides a bicycle without any conotations about racing.
I do think it’s fine, though I do want to point out the word “cyclist” does carry some “weight” to it especially in North America.
For example a individual like Forester would disagree, this dudes “studies” are essentially what all North American city planners follow regrettably. Link to a summary of this topic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRPduRHBhHI
Its also why its so hard to explain why dedicated separate bike infrastructure is so important. Most city planners for some reason forget that children and older individuals cycle.
This is fucked and no way something like this should pass.
Also if a cyclist is expected to wear a helmet and high reflection vest then car drivers should be required to do the same, windows should also be completely down with no music playing what so ever. If you go a cellphone or you are eating a burger or snack bar straight to jail for attempted manslaughter.
Their cars and lorries also need high-vis striping, no less than 7 stripes front to back, and 3 wrapped around the body. The stripes must also be painted into the base coat, they may not be part of a wrap.
Require cars to have a governor that limits speed, either geofenced to anywhere cyclists/ pedestrians are common, or high density, (like within a town) or make them have self driving car like ‘AI’ cameras, that limit speed when peds/ cyclists are within sight, and either alarm/ brake whenever one comes within 10’.
If they’re going to do that, they should also go back to requiring motor cars to be preceded by an attendant on foot, waving a red flag.
You know, for safety.
This one actually makes sense as cars and automobiles are technically heavy machinery. Thus so, they should technically at all times be operated with a spotter outside of the vehicle at all times.
As an Australian who has lived with compulsory helmets for decades I think wearing a helmet and high vis is probably bare minimum if you have to share with cars and not nearly enough if you have to use door lanes and deal with Ford Rangers and garbage trucks.
Unfortunately once you go down this route cycling partipation drops and its a net fail for public health.
Sedate cycling on seperated pathways and through parks gets lumped in with high risk road cycling. It ends up being completely inappropriate for the type of cycling most people would like to do (not high risk vehicular cycling).
Why bother building expensive dedicated safe infrastructure when people have a magical inch of styrofoam on their noggins and a yellow shirt to protect them from 2 tonnes of murder machine.
“high risk” is relative. cycling is safe.
Highest risk cycling is motor vehicles not following the rules. If cyclists safety is the priority, educate other drivers, and enforce penalties.
And then there’s downhill mountain biking which I like to call “Cycling, with injuries”.
They should create a law that makes it legal for civilians to assassinate the drivers of vehicles who veer into bike lanes.
Ninja rocks, in minecraft
This is how I go pickup milk in the mornings. /s
Aka if a driver hits you and you aren’t in uniform you get injury and a fine and some complementary salt to pour in any open wounds.
I want good headlights (actually already have that, but everyone should too IMO) and blinkers.
We used to wear helmets whenever we rode after witnessing a fatality on the Great Victorian Bike Ride when we were teenagers.
Dude had his helmet hanging on his handlebars, came off at speed and skidded on his head. When the Ambos came (they weren’t called Paramedics back then), he was still alive, but his brain was exposed.
We never wore our high-vis vests though, they were loose and would droop off our shoulders and we would get tangled.
There was also the story about the dad so was fooling around with his kids bike without a helmet in the back yard; fell over, cracked his head and died instantly; (plausible, but unproven).
I’d be dead a few times if it wasn’t for my bike helmet.
