http://www.australiancyclist.com.au/
The Law Forgets About Cyclists
Evan Evans letter (AC May-June 2010) about law-breaking cyclists and registration plates needs further discussion.
Law-breaking among cyclists is ubiquitous and almost unavoidable - for instance every time you ride up to a bike rack placed on a footpath, you break the law. Our road rules seek to limit the danger posed by motorized transport by prescribing a coherent patter of behaviour for drivers, and our success (at lobbyists) at gaining legislative parity with motorists has resulted in us being in the same category as the driver of a Hummer or a truck. But is this valid?
Cyclists, because they do not pose the same sorts of risks as motorists, often ignore those rules that they feel do not apply to them The best example I know of is turning left (on the red) at a set of traffic lights. Rarely is this legal, but commonly, for cyclists, it can be a perfectly safe maneuver. Stopping at a stop sign is another. Stopping is not necessary for a cyclist to ascertain the prudence of proceeding, but stop you must. The law does not recognize that, as the most vulnerable road user, cyclists employ a precautionary principle in their road use (and their law-breaking) that dictates what they will do based on safety.
Recently my council has deiced to make my quiet street (a crescent) one way. But 75% of my cycle journeys will now involve me cycling the wrong way down the street to get to [where I need to go].  Why must a law-abiding cyclist set off in the wrong direction just because that’s where a car needs to go?
Cyclists are so often the unfortunate by-catch of legislation designed to control cars that they lose faith in the laws themselves. Stupid delays at traffic lights that turn red even when no-one is coming, timing intervals that go from green to amber to red before a cyclist can get through an intersection, inadvertent exclusions in suburban traffic schemes, eccentric edge and surface treatments that play havoc with your line…
Until cyclists and their unique requirements and abilities are recognized and accommodated in the law, cyclists will continue to selectively ignore those laws they see as irrelevant. If the law can elucidate these qualities, then compliance will follow as a natural progression. But compliance without relevance will not occur.
And rego plates? Forget it. Doesn’t even work with cars (just try reporting one…)
Paul Anderson, Bowden SA