cradle route

[Cradleresident]

[MarkU]

What a load of "Tosser's" you lot have to deal with!! So glad i live in DBN.... Is it completely necessary to ride this "Cradle" area? Is there no other options? Something away from this "Hot" zone.

 

The residents sound like self absorbed prat's. Buy a mountainbike, leave these selfish fools to kill each other on their precious roads and mount their community safety initiatives, and head for the bush, its safer.

 

 

[Andyr249]

MarkU, there is actually very other place to ride where there are long, uninterupted strectches of road with not robot or stop street every few hundred metres.

Cradleresident, CSA will probably be a waste of time. There is so much politics and issues going on with CSA at the moment. Why not try and involve other parties such as the clubs (Cyclelab and Club 100 come to mind) who use the area as well as places who offer cyclists a place to park? Maybe they could give out flyers or put up boards with mutually agreed upon appeals or "code of conduct" type of things. While there are some cyclists who are at fault, there are also some cradle residents who are at fault. The roads in the cradle are not as busy as some roads in more built up areas and I doubt that there would be bumper to bumper traffic. So waiting behind a few cyclists in order to pass safely would only take a few extra seconds. Do the cradle residents get as upset about getting stuck behind a truck going at a slow speed as they do about going slowly behind cyclists at slow speed? Cyclists pose less of a threat to cradle residents than the very real criminal elements that our country faces. As far as I understand it, from the posts by your "Mr. Ples", you have a whole civil protection thing set up. Are you not focussing on the wrong people? It is like the USA watching the UK while Old Osama goes in he back door and causes havoc. Surely more attention should be focused on that rather than cyclists? Shouldn't we all be more tolerant about our differences and accept them?

[Slowbee]

 

..... bla bla  Shouldn't we all be more tolerant about our differences and accept them? bla bla

 

and we have about as much chance of that happening as me becoming CEO of CSA and getting you a pool.

 

I really would like something good to happen. My faith in humanity is moving to a bit of a low I have to say.

 

[Cradleresident]

One more thing Mark and all other cyclysts who had problems here. We insist you report these incidents to the Muldersdrift policestation,Krugersdorp Police station and Mogale metro. This will force the authorities to get involved and start charging road users who break the law, both sides.

[Guest Agteros]

 

One more thing Mark and all other cyclysts who had problems here. We insist you report these incidents to the Muldersdrift policestation' date='Krugersdorp Police station and Mogale metro. This will force the authorities to get involved and start charging road users who break the law, both sides.

[/quote']

 

This sounds great, because speedsters(residents & bikers) pose a far greater threat to road safety(ALL road users, including cyclists and pedestrians) in the area than having an impatient motorist waiting to safely overtake a few cyclists as the law dictates.

 

[Wyatt Earp]

 

and bringing the cycle lane in the Cradle upto acceptable standards.

 

 

 

 

Let's get real here phuleeeze.

 

What cycle lane ?

 

It all boils down to respect for one another, we as cyclists have a right to be on the road, do we have a right to hog the road NO, are we entitled to ride our bicycles on a public road, YES as long as it's not a national highway.

 

When I am not a cyclist I am a motorist, it's my responsibility to respect all those around me when I am in my car the onus is one me to become more aware of my surroundings and the safety of others, whether they are jay walking across the freeway, on a motorcycle, in a car or riding a bicycle.

 

There is nothing to try and bring up to standard and there is no need for a white flag.

 

It simply takes a bit of respect and tolerance from both parties, and for those cyclists that ride in a huge bunch and take over three quarters of a public road, well I personally detest this sort of behavior.

 

The motorist that deliberately puts a cyclists life at risk by acting like a chop, this I detest too, but just remember one thing brave little hooting tooting motorist, these "law breaking " cyclist as you would see them are a hell of a lot more vulnerable to serious injury than yourself.

 

Summit Cycles2010-01-15 00:28:41

[mr ples]

Not sure what Adolf has to do with this, the same could be said for Nelson whilst in jail his organisation put tyres over 600 of his own peoples heads and burnt them alive! whilst we have the highest crime rate in the world and since a democratic SA over 3000 farmers have been murdered. Farmers - those guys who live in rural areas and produce food, which all consume. It is a special breed that live out on farms, now due to farm murders the UN has declared farming in SA the most dangerous profession in the world. Look north at Zim, when the farmer goes - you pretty much stuffed! I work hard every day to keep the farmer on his land, which you benefit directly from.

 

 

 

I added this little paragraph above just to proof how quick we can get side tracked.

 

 

 

If we all want to enjoy the rural experience, common decency and respect is required. Lets stay focussed and work at resolving the issues.Regards

[chucky]

Cycle lab has been involved with the residents for a while now and have had meetings with them,in fact Andrew m has been to several meetings,so get your facts before you post your comments.

Cycle lab had a meeting again last night with all its marshalls to discuss safty and cradle route.

[chucky]

Strange Garth i remember having a meeting with you and Ian at Design square and as a result of that meetings were made at Teak place,I did not attend due to health reason.

We were 3 riders and not riding 3 a breast,and were not on a blind rise but in fact going down hill,and i really dont care if i was riding in the middle of the road which we were not,it does not give this maniac the right to try and ride us over,as we argued on the phone.

Its a shame that our (me and you)understanding of the situation has turned sour.

[Andyr249]

Not sure what Adolf has to do with this' date=' the same could be said for Nelson whilst in jail his organisation put tyres over 600 of his own peoples heads and burnt them alive! whilst we have the highest crime rate in the world and since a democratic SA over 3000 farmers have been murdered. Farmers - those guys who live in rural areas and produce food, which all consume. It is a special breed that live out on farms, now due to farm murders the UN has declared farming in SA the most dangerous profession in the world. Look north at Zim, when the farmer goes - you pretty much stuffed! I work hard every day to keep the farmer on his land, which you benefit directly from.

I added this little paragraph above just to proof how quick we can get side tracked.

If we all want to enjoy the rural experience, common decency and respect is required. Lets stay focussed and work at resolving the issues.Regards[/quote']

 

Thank you for that information. In light of the extremely dangerous situation that we as South Africans face with the criminal elements in our society, are you and the Civil Protection you mentioned earlier not watching the wrong people and trying to "protect" yourself from the wrong people? Cyclists posed a negligable threat to the cradle residents. Should you not focus your efforts on trying to rid the area of the Farm Murderers? We appreciate your efforts to keep the farmers on their land from which we will benefit from but it appears as if you are trying to rid everybody from the area, including cyclists? Does resolving the issues including "buzzing" cyclists? no, it escalates the issue as we have seen. Is "buzzing" cyclists common decency and respect?

[kosmonooit]

jeez bring on die veurkleer!

[mr ples]

I think you need to come up to speed. I have never tried to rid anyone from the area (except criminals and those intent on destroying our rural lifestyle), quiet the opposite, I am in favour of tourist/cyclists etc. I am also in favour of agriculture for, and conserving the area. Please advise if you could concur with these principles. It was the Cradle Community that requested the authorities to put in cycle lanes, long before the area was declared a world heritage site.

 

 

 

Creating safe environments and saving a life is top priority. Preventing Farm murders is at the top of the agenda. Please, lets get to solving the road user issues, so not to drag everyone down, and I can spend all my time and positive energy on preventing 'farm murders and rhino poaching'.

 

 

 

On the lighter side, seeing I (Mr Ples) am the oldest resident in the area, I have seen much come and go, have some respect for my advice as I have a vast and intimate knowledge of the humanity in general. Regards Trevor

[Edge_Design]

I think you need to come up to speed. I have never tried to rid anyone from the area (except criminals and those intent on destroying our rural lifestyle)' date=' quiet the opposite, I am in favour of tourist/cyclists etc. I am also in favour of agriculture for, and conserving the area. Please advise if you could concur with these principles. It was the Cradle Community that requested the authorities to put in cycle lanes, long before the area was declared a world heritage site.

Creating safe environments and saving a life is top priority. Preventing Farm murders is at the top of the agenda. Please, lets get to solving the road user issues, so not to drag everyone down, and I can spend all my time and positive energy on preventing 'farm murders and rhino poaching'.

On the lighter side, seeing I (Mr Ples) am the oldest resident in the area, I have seen much come and go, have some respect for my advice as I have a vast and intimate knowledge of the humanity in general. Regards Trevor[/quote']

 

Not to be rude, but can we stick to the topic... What is your opinion on residents in the area hooting at cyclists and - as far as I can make out - admitting to having intentionally endangered their lives? If they were cycling 3 abreast - which they have denied, but who really knows the truth without having been there - do you feel that gives someone the right to potentially endanger their lives? Yes it is wrong, but there are "correct" ways of dealing with things and then their are scarily mental ways of dealing with things... Not looking for any philosophy into who pays what and does what and who's a great guy, just the above questions which was the point of this post in the first place.

[Lotus]

This thread has been an interesting one to follow.  The OP came online to let the cycling community know what had befallen him and his friends, and many others (including the residents) have, unsurprisingly, responded with (some) acrimonious justifications for their thoughts and actions.

 

Sadly, though, the thread has evolved in a direction that will not yield any real and lasting benefits unless we

make a conscious effort right now to change things. We have heard that meetings have been held, but as yet there is no improvement to the situation. I, for one, would like to thank everyone involved for at least making the effort to organise and attend those meetings.

 

What I would like to suggest is the following - can everyone interested in seeing a resolution make at least 1 constructive suggestion to help resolve the dispute over road use in the Cradle? Perhaps input from this can be used by the good people at the meetings to drive a plan using contributions from the cyclists and residents.

 

Here's my thought - can Central Gauteng Cycling make the Cradle issue a priority for cycling advocacy, and assist in turning it into a win-win for cyclists and residents alike? How? Set cycling safety and advocacy as a high priority. Engage proactively with the community, cyclists and law enforcement to ensure that road safety is practiced by all parties, and transgressors are educated. More signage and visible safety patrols (CGC marshals?).

 

Now, before the flamers get going and criticize CGC for other unrelated issues, or me for saying that they're not involved - the idea here is to demonstrate cycling advocacy. I've looked at the CGC website (Vision, Mission etc) and there's no mention of safety or advocacy. I find that quite disconcerting, and I wonder why I have to give them R75 every year if they can't act on my behalf to keep my recreational riding safe.

 

Please try and make some suggestions that can perhaps assist the folks at these meetings, and show some good faith in resolving the impasse. Keep it clean (slagging off just goes nowhere, but humour is always welcome!).

 

 

 

 

 

[HappyMartin]

I must be stupid but try as I might I cannot see the connection between farm murders and running cyclists off the road. Other than that they are both obviously criminal acts.

 

 

 

Cycling like an idiot and in the middle of a road is not a criminal act however, it is a road offence and a different thing. You do not acquire a criminal record when doing 20km h over the speed limit for example.

 

 

 

I am not saying, Bruce, that you were riding like an idiot or in the middle of the road. I am just trying to put across the point that we do not have the moral or legal right to resort to crime when someone annoys or inconveniences us.