gogo@

This here is little boy. Not sure how well either one fits in a Yaris ...but I digress. You're right about a cure for the nerves - now can you tell me a cure for insanity?

Fat man?? What's wrong with him?

Once off application needed here:

Thank you. But this I'm not sure I'd call cycling... you like it? And to be honest, the Joes around here who do this opt for pushing me out into the road. I've yet to meet one who gets off their bike. And I don't look pretty when they look deep into my eyes as they pass by. One day I think I'll turn around (with the traffic) and follow a Joe and see just how you guys do this. I really can't get my head around how you handle intersections, cars turning across your path or entering from side roads and so on, and how you survive. Could you do this with a gopro so we can see??

No. Yes. It's the same. But more. NEXT ONE CYCLING TOWARDS ME GETS MY CYCLING PUMP IN THEIR FACE. (OK, relax, I don't have a pump, I carry bombs)

You... do... think?? You give way? What does that mean, you push me into the traffic, or you go in head-first?? How about your own little club, with a nice white jacket?? Last question: are there a bunch of Niner clones out there, or do we really have this many around?

It's not a festive season issue, for sure -- what causes road fatalities isn't going to go away and come back for the summer holidays. BUT HAVE YOU LOOKED AT THESE STATS???? We have: User Group: Drivers, Passengers, Pedestrians. There is no record (no category to record) of cycling fatalities! Please tell me I'm blind. How sick is that?

That's a great article - would like to see the same for SA. I found this of interest: Of the 122 deaths, 106 are known to have taken place due to a collision with a motor vehicle, while a number of the remaining deaths are still being investigated. In 61 of the fatalities, a car was involved. Lorries and HGVs were involved in 25 deaths, vans in ten deaths, coaches or buses in five deaths, taxis in three deaths, and two fatalities occured after a collision with a motorbike. (One of these 122 deaths was a murder.) How many cyclists killed in SA last year? It's not been mentioned in any of the articles I've read.

1300 people killed on the roads in December. 40 people killed every day. If this were a disease (it isn't??) then people would be pressuring government to start a national treatment programme. Why isn't that happening?

I think they're trying, but why not do something about it before someone's life is put at risk?? Like getting off your fat butts and confronting drunk drivers? Court is too late, this is traffic police and SAPS. I've never seen as much drunk driving and J(& B )-walking as I have this Christmas.

Thanks for this update. Drunk and apparently unlicensed. Were there proper policing, this might not have happened. I have a special beef with SAPS because of personal experience that they do nothing about drunk drivers. From the Dispatch: A 55-YEAR-OLD East London cyclist was killed in a collision with a vehicle allegedly driven by an unlicensed and visibly drunken driver. The unidentified cyclist died on the scene in Jan Smuts Avenue near Greenfields on Saturday afternoon. Police arrested the 41-year-old driver at the scene. He has been charged with murder. The suspect is due to appear in the East London Magistrate’s Court this morning. East London police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Mtati Tana said the incident happened just after 1pm. He said at the time of the accident the deceased and two other cyclists had been on a training session. “The driver of an Opel Cadet vehicle is alleged to have struck the deceased head-on,” he said. Tana said when police asked the driver to produce a driver’s licence the evidently intoxicated driver failed to do so. He said police were still establishing whether the cyclist was a recreational or a professional cyclist. It has been a bad week for cycling in South Africa following the death of Olympic mountainbiker Burry Stander in KwaZulu-Natal last week. A 22-year-old female cyclist was also reported to be in a critical condition after being struck by a vehicle in Richard’s Bay yesterday morning. Paramedics in the area are reported to have said the woman was riding with other cyclists when the accident occurred. She was found several metres away from the point of impact . The driver of the vehicle was taken in for questioning by police. East Cape Cycling president Antoinette Harding said the provincial roads were unfortunately not cyclist friendly. “It is tragic to hear of more accidents in which cyclists are involved. As a cyclist myself I know most of us who go out onto the roads try and be as careful as humanly possible,” Harding said. She said at times motorists failed to realise they had to be on the lookout for runners, pedestrians and cyclists. “I have often seen motorists talking on their cellphones. A driver cannot fiddle with a radio or anything else while driving as this distracts them and they don’t drive in a straight line,” she said. While the Eastern Cape province is expected to release its official festive season fatality figures this week, the latest death tolls on the nation’s roads stands at 1300. Road Traffic Management Corporation spokesman Ashref Ismail said at the moment 40 people were dying on South African roads a day. Excessive speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol and drunk pedestrians were being blamed for these alarming figures. The accidents were costing the economy R300-billion a year, Ismail said. —zwangam@dispatch.co.za

To the OP, Molifi, I hope what most people are saying here has convinced you. It might seem like a good idea when you start out, especially if you come from a road running background but really, it's the scariest and most dangerous way to cycle if you face the on-coming traffic! It's not just that you're breaking a law, but that, if you try it enough, you'll see why it's law. By then most likely it will be too late for you. Join a club or find a friend (with experience) to ride with or just stick to very quiet roads until you become more confident and used to it. Just a few pointers that might help: Don't cycle too close to the gutter, don't ride too far out in the road. Keep your ears and eyes open, watch out for car doors cos people like to park off, lurking, waiting for you to come past and at that moment open the door in front of you (!) so keep about a metre away. Watch what's going on in parked cars as you pass, you'll see if someone is about to get out or pull out into the road. Watching the driver's side front wheel to see if it turns also helps. Don't focus on just the car next to you, be aware of the rest around you. You'll develop a good sense of what's going on behind you without looking just by the sound of tyres, gear changes, that kind of thing. Don't rely on people indicating, and if you see a car swing a bit to the left, don't always expect it to go left. People often do that just before turning right for some bizarre reason. Others can add if they want, these are a few of the things I can think of that I do straight off. From some of the reactions here I'm sure guys who are cycling a about f are doing this just because they are scared. There's reason to be cautious, but not scared, UNLESS you are riding into the on-coming traffic.

Sigh... To me it's the big picture that needs looking at. Hope this is what the Burry Stander Foundation tackles - with the help of every other foundation/body that can. Changing attitudes of course matters, but it's getting the practical details like road-use planning, infrastructure development and maintenance, education, management and policing that makes it all work. Can't just say "let's have a cycle lane/path" (shared, of course, with grannies, runners, kids on tricycles) and think that will magic all problems away. Keen to see the Foundation up and running but why the hell do we have to go through (keep going through) all this? My view, what "really happened", is that we just keep putting sticking plasters on pot holes in this country and hope all our problems will go away. THAT's what happened to Burry, like to so many other people in so many other places. So I hope that it's the case there will be a foundation that can tackle the real underlying issues, but it won't be able to do it on its own.

Exactly. What stats does government have? What do they analyse? My brother-in-law worked for Transport for London in a unit specifically focused on "traffic calming". Collecting stats, analysing accidents and working out solutions. Most of that was about changing traffic flow, removing hotspots, but also creating alternatives. His section focused on cycling-specific issues and I think most in that section commuted by bike to work. He did. Their biggest problem was bike-theft, not getting mowed down by vehicles. Where's that happening here? If you don't know what the problem is, how can you solve it? (... so, how useful are these cycle lane "plans" going to be that government is supposed to have up its left sleeve, which I hear Fikile Mbalula's spokesman chuntering on about? where are they? what are they?)

Had an awesome ride this morning, up the steepest 3kms we have round here. Almost the granny of granny's gear. Approaching a hairpin bend, at one of the steepest points, I hear a 10ton monster coming up behind. I'm doing about 4.5km/hr... but the driver slows down and sits behind me for as long as it takes till it's safe to pass. Even though I upped the speed, don't think we got much faster than 7. Thanks dude!! I got to check my max heart rate, while we were at it - nothing like being paced by a monster truck! Relevance to discussion? Don't discount that there ARE many intelligent, courteous and sensible drivers out there. I've had similar experiences with vehicles so quiet I don't know they're there, with farmers trucks, furniture vans and a large dairy tanker. So this is not a once-off. Every time you ride against traffic, you're jumping to the conclusion that the only ones you'll meet are the idiots. Puts you at greater risk 100% of the time for the small percentage of drivers who you need to worry about. Riding on the wrong side of the road is never going to protect you. And, if it really is that dangerous that you can't ride with the traffic, don't ride there!!

Ouch. Hope 6006 works! (maybe start by saying you have a pizza delivery for them, can you bring it up? then see if they stay on the line!)

What number are you calling? 011 961 6000? Had no problem with them recently...

Look, no one is shouting, and no one is shouting "RULES" like we're at school and it's all arbitrary. Me, I'm just concerned about people who don't have much cycling experience and are nervous. I understand that. I started running on the road last year and found it terrifying, running into oncoming traffic, even though I know that's the right, sensible thing to do... so it's also what you're used to, what you've learned to do. Just limit your craziness to yourself. And I think we agree that a big part of the problem is there's no policing of crazy behavior (but you won't like this) including cyclists who break the law. Friend, I really hope you can look after yourself on a bicycle. For the sake of whoever you are putting at risk of hitting you, never mind your family. Otherwise you really should not ride anywhere near the road, if it's that unsafe. It's not about rules, it's your life.

Sorry, but so far, after more years than most on the Hub have been breathing, these rules HAVE kept me alive. The threat always comes from those who break them. Do you really, seriously, cycle head-on towards 14 wheelers??? Where do you cycle? What roads?

Road Accident Fund claims require assessment of liability, so, if you break the law, the fault is yours. If both parties break the law, liability is shared. Affects the value of your claim. Not sure about insurance but it wouldn't surprise me if the same applies. Medical aid? Fine, but enjoy the pain! My main issue with what you're saying is that there's a law for you and a law for me, which makes rubbish of trying to organize ourselves for any kind of common good. We're talking about the most basic road rules here: that we cycle with traffic, because we are traffic. Why is it so difficult to accept this?

It really helps to be confident but cautious. Not guaranteed, but in most cases I find it best to give myself a good bit of space to the left, stick with it as you hear a car approach, even moving slightly out, before moving over to the left as cars overtake. Does two things: makes the motorist see that you are ON the road (i.e. traffic) but also that you are respecting that they are faster than you and are prepared to let them pass. Means the yellow line keeps me company a lot. I will not do this, however, where it's dangerous, or when approaching an intersection where I'm at traffic speed and going to turn right or stop at a traffic light. Point is to be polite, sensible and visible. Where I know there's hectic traffic, I avoid, or walk round. It really helps to cycle with someone with experience who you trust if you're not sure. Still, there are drunk, stupid, distracted, incompetent people out there... and there are times where I also misjudge the situation. Accidents happen, but there are ways to 'manage' traffic.

I've said this before. This is the quickest, dumbest way to your death. There IS a law against this, for good reason. You walk at what, 5km/hr? You run at what, 12km/hr (or 7, if you're me)? And you cycle at what??? If you're happy tootling at 12km/hr, you MAY survive. Have you, as a driver, ever encountered a cyclist coming at you at anything over 20km/hr?? And if you cycle towards the traffic, how the hell do you negotiate corners and what do you do when you see a car coming? Jump off the road??? Please folks, don't encourage this - it really is stupid dangerous.

exactly

Notify/get permission from traffic authorities for a mass ride. Get an escort, cops & think bike. It should be visible, draw public attention and be as inclusive as possible. Everyone of us has been touched by road carnage - runners, pedestrians, cyclists, motorists. Do it in Burry's name, but for us all. Make sure your local paper knows about it. Have some kind of petition with points of action that you want to see implemented, like officers dealing with moving violations not just ticketing. Hand this over to local authorities - cops, traffic cops, mayor, the lot. Everyone do this at the same time, same day, wherever you are. Let's see how much attention that will draw - but attention with a purpose, which means a plan and not just a once-off expression of anger. Anyone from Grahamstown joining, contact me please. Let's see if we can get involved.