Seems to be a case of low speed limits are good for other people but not him, which I do find a little amusing. Overly low speed limits are a bugbear of mine so I do sympathise with the feeling but since he’s a ‘huge advocate’ for 30km/h zones in a car it’s pretty ironic. After all the same reasons for 30km/h zones (e.g. people might be on the road and slower moving vehicles means less risk of injury) do also apply to riding a bike over a busy bridge where there’s basically guaranteed to be people in the way. I do like the mention of bicycles being designed to travel at higher speeds considering that’s a common sentiment for those of us in cars and motorbikes as well.
I kind of like the idea of reducing fines based on mass though, us motorbike riders would support that…
Seems to be a case of low speed limits are good for other people but not him
Umm, did we watch the same video? He literally spends a significant amount of time pointing out that the government’s own guidelines explain why the speed limits are inappropriate. Their data says going under 11 km/h can be unstable, and that the comfortable minimum speed should be 16 km/h. And their own guidelines say that enforcement of speed limits is not a viable option.
What I found amusing was the bringing up of these ideas:
- Breaking the speed limit is different to exceeding a safe speed for the conditions.
- My self assessment of a particular area and my skill limit indicates there should be a higher speed limit.
- My vehicle is designed to operate safely at higher speeds than the limit.
- My vehicle is designed in a way that makes sticking to the lowest speed limits awkward.
- Police are fining people huge amounts of money for exceeding a speed limit myself and many others think is too low.
These are all very familiar to me as a driver and motorbike rider so that’s where the irony comes in - despite being a proponent of low speed limits he’s complaining about a low speed limit using similar arguments as everyone else now it affects him.
For what it’s worth I agree with him that the speed limit there is too low (as it is on many roads), but I think the better response should be to raise it to something sensible (for what is apparently a busy shared path 20km/h seems a more reasonable limit) rather than either removing the limits or saying you can’t fine riders for exceeding them.
The first two and last bullet points might apply to motor vehicles, but the third and fourth certainly do not. Anyone claiming that it’s not safe to operate a car at 30 km/h is just lying. There’s just no way to make that argument without deliberately saying something that you yourself know to be completely untrue.
for what is apparently a busy shared path 20km/h seems a more reasonable limit) rather than either removing the limits or saying you can’t fine riders for exceeding them
The thing is, the Goodwill Bridge, at the other end of Southbank, is 20 km/h. But it’s very notable that this is still inappropriate there. While 20 km/h is a reasonable speed for someone on an upright dutch-style bike riding on the flat, the Goodwill Bridge has rather steep inclines—and, more pertinently, declines. Staying under 20 km/h on a road bike on a fairly steep downhill is not much less ridiculous than the 10 km/h limit of the Kurilpa Bridge.
But then it comes back to the simple matter of logistics. Cyclists aren’t required to have speedometers, and while some sports cyclists have them anyway, they usually rely on GPS which is much less accurate, especially around the inner city, than the direct-drive speedometers of a car. It doesn’t make any sense to enforce a rule where it’s impossible for the culprit to know they are in violation.
The fact that this conversation is even taking place is a sign of some pretty severe car-brain on the part of people who support the speed limits. Speed limits aren’t in place for cars arbitrarily. They were created because cars are really, really dangerous. Cars kill hundreds of people per year in this country alone. Speed limits make sense, because they’re one of many tools to help keep that number from getting even higher. No evidence exists to support the need for speed limits on bikes. The only argument that is ever made essentially boils down to “cars have them, so bikes should too.”
We don’t want the same rights. We don’t want to be allowed on highways. Cyclists take up much less space when parking, too, so parking in an incorrect spot is not such an issue.
Also I don’t mind paying $10 in road tax if motorists pay their fair share too:
Easy enough to calculate yourself. A quick Google says that an average motorbike might be as much as 700 pounds, and if we use the same “fat man” as the bike (300 lb), that’s a total of 1000 lb. The formula for comparative damage is (W1/W2)4, so plug that in and we get (1000/350)4, or motorbikes doing 66× the damage of the bike, or 0.00396.
If a cyclist had to pay a $10 fee, as @ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de suggests, motorbikes would pay $660, while the average car driver pays a whopping $1,100,000, if you were trying to accurately account for damage done.
Whenever there’s any sort of bike vs car debate, the “don’t pay road tax” argument always comes up. It’s such a strange argument. While I’m sure they exist, I don’t know any cyclists who don’t also have a car / driver’s license.
When I commute to work on the bike, there’s a car sitting in the garage that I’m paying road taxes for that is not creating more traffic/pollution. It is not taking up a parking space in the city.
I’m also lucky enough to live in a city where I have a dedicated bike lane for all but the first and last few hundred meters of my commute. So I don’t buy the ‘traffic jams’ argument either. I’m actually faster than cars in the CBD, they slow me down.
I don’t necessarily think the title was click-baity, to be honest. It’s a pretty honest assessment of the content of the video.
It’s a bit inflammatory perhaps, but only because the facts are so far out of step with the beliefs of the car-brained way most Australians have been brought up to think.
That aside, thanks for trying to keep the tone here better. Some of the low-effort comments here were quite disappointing to read.
