• 3 Posts
  • 57 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • I wasn’t saying you were excusing the behaviour. I was saying that many, including the media do.

    So what practical measures do you suggest to stop this from happening again?

    Every accident I have been to (and I’ve been to a lot), was either caused by driver impatience (driving faster than the conditions, drink driving, fiddling with phone, etc) or deliberate intent (suicide). The former is a driver education and training problem. We need to train young drivers to accept delays as OK. As a former motorcycle rider, I taught my kids the importance of patience and driving as if the rest of the world was out to kill you. Every driver should have to do (and pass) a defensive driving course. Also, too many bad habits are passed from parent to child, so every driver should have to spend a prescribed amount of time with registered driving instructors. In Germany, you cannot get your drivers licence without spending time with registered driving instructors, and if you fail your test it costs 400-500 euros to repeat, so there’s a good incentive to learn the skills correctly the first time.

    This was an organised event with signage etc… There are many things that could be done, but better driver education to overcome the “bikes shouldn’t be on roads” mentality would be a good start. Dedicated cycle lanes and a loosening of the ridiculous restrictions on e-bikes in NSW are some other things that would help imho.