Motorist's Mindsets in South Africa

Eldron

Here's an article from a local news website - gotta love the mindset of motorists as well as mindset of red light jumping cyclists. Will the eternal cyclist/motorist debate EVER subside?

From: http://www.news24.com/News24/MyNews...2333846,00.html

Dear Editor,

Another cyclist has been knocked over and killed in Durban. To make matters worse the motorist sped off from the scene. This is totally unacceptable and I hope the guilty motorist is caught and faces the full force of the law.

However, let's look at this incident from another point of view. Our roads are the most dangerous in the world and to try and safely ride a bicycle on them is madness. Cyclists are also to blame for these cycle accidents; not only do they ignore the road rules but they also become aggressive and rude when a motorist points this out to them.

How often do we see cyclists riding three or four abreast? How often do we see them ride through red robots? How often do we see them ride up on the pavements at intersections so as to avoid the red robot?

A case in point: last Sunday I was driving along Manning road, approaching the intersection of Manning and Macdonald. The robot was green in my favour. The next minute about seven cyclists came from the opposite direction and went straight through the red robot. I hooted at them and in return was sworn at and given the middle finger.

Gents, if you are reading this, you were in the wrong. If I had not suddenly applied my brakes a number of you would now be dead or seriously injured. And me? I would have been labelled by the cycling fraternity as another senseless motorist who has no care for cyclists on the road.

Wake up guys and girls! Riding on public roads is dangerous and let's be honest, roads are for cars, not bicycles.

Dave Puttick


Eldron's point of view - South Africa does have terrible road conduct - but I have only ever had one minor accident involving a car (yup - his fault) - I have never seen a group of cyclists 3 or 4 abreast. I have seen many, many, many cyclists jumps red lights...

The two years I spent in the UK were much better - stick to the B/C roads and drivers are pretty patient. I had no problems whatsoever - I was in southern cheshire though.

What's it like elsewhere in the world?