If I recall her group, (including hubby), were being passed by a truck and she turned to take a look and the cycle wobbled into the truck and it took her out ? Seems cyclists have less brain cells than normal road users. Everyone else BY LAW must have a mirror. It's simple really - why the hell wouldn't you have a mirror ? Would have stopped her from wobbling into a truck and gettin killed.
henderson_guy,
Sep 21, 12:39pm
That's the gist of it, yes.
3tomany,
Sep 21, 12:55pm
I would like to see roads closed for cycle racing as cars and cycling fast and tired are not a good mix together. Routes would need to be chosen that make it possible but they do it for rallying here every year so why not cycling? If i were a cyclist, racing on a closed road would seriously appeal to me.
kazbanz,
Sep 21, 1:05pm
good question --My guess is that the local councils wont close 90km of road at any one time.
3tomany,
Sep 21, 1:10pm
Yea some races would need replanning completely and some purists will hate losing long standing events, however the traffic in this country is becoming intense so change is inevitable eventually.
kazbanz,
Sep 21, 1:11pm
Phil why should the cyclists slow down? I don't mean that question in a bolshy way -What I mean is that they are MOST LIKELY riding along at 25-40km/h so how much slower you reckon they should go?
philltauranga,
Sep 21, 1:47pm
Ever driven a heavy vehicle? they dont have much acceleration! If they had slowed from 40ish, the bus could have passed them *safely* before the end of that short straight! If they didnt slow I would guess that bus would need the entire lenth of the straight to pass safely. no good if a car comes the other, way like it did if you look at all 13 photos in the series. A fully loaded truck would be worse you would need more room than that to accelerate up to speed and pass them doing 40. Not to sound arrogant but, I thought that would be pretty obvious, the straight is not that long and visibility not very good in that picture.
Im my opinion these cycle races should be held on motor racing circiuts, you know where racing usually happens, Taupo has a track. I can imiagine the response I would get saying that to a road cyclist tho.
henderson_guy,
Sep 21, 1:49pm
But they'd have to pay to use a track. Streets are free
philltauranga,
Sep 21, 2:30pm
The cost of using a racetrack for big events? Whats the cost of life? All our roads are fairly busy nowdays, heaps of people have cars and travel alot, its not the olden days, times change, we should probably reassess weather they should be allowed to race on main roads.
If the car ute and car in that series of photos were going to crash, where would the ute go, to avoid collision? my guess would be into the bikes! Hes clearly been agrovated by them to the point hes willing to risk that move he made. The group of racers on the bikes clearly aggrovated alot of people, judging by the number of risky moves by motorists mentioned in the article. My guess is if people were angry enough, they would be likely to swerve towards the bikes to avoid a head on crash. or. if the 2 vehicles did crash the bikes would wear it anyway. I think, keep these races off the MAIN highways. Back roads, closed roads or the race track. just my opinion feel free to disagree.
henderson_guy,
Sep 21, 2:50pm
As you well know, in the construction sector we are now required to complete a risk assessment for every task. If, on a construction site, I suggested I was going to be within 1.5m of tonnes of steel moving at a great speed, with no physical barriers, no hi Vis, and with only a polystyrene helmet as protection, I'd get laughed out of the permit office. Yet, the guy issuing the permits on one job I was on, failed to see the irony when jumping on his bicycle and heading out on a narrow, busy road.
stevo2,
Sep 21, 3:22pm
Disagree with part of that, namely the closed roads part. Its bad enough having to follow them at 30kph for 10 minutes but Im not keen on having to detour 20km so they can race (or just practice)
philltauranga,
Sep 21, 3:24pm
Hahaha yep, exactly right. you forgot to mention. insufficently trained persons in control of those vehicles.
philltauranga,
Sep 21, 3:27pm
Hahaha. ok then, how about: "closed back roads" happy now?
kazbanz,
Sep 21, 3:41pm
Glad we are disagreeing without poo being thrown mate ;-) Ok Taupo track for the day costs $5000 and is about 4.0km long. The two races we are referring to at taupo cycle challenge -170km and Ironman which is 180km sounds easy right? except there are about 3000 entries how do you reckon you are going to fit 3000 bikes on a track 4.0km long with paces from 5.0hrs/180 to 8 hours for 180km. Instead I agree lets close the roads. 170km of roads around taupo being closed I'd say wouldn't go down well.
db.price,
Sep 21, 4:24pm
Kinda like that ute driver huh?
purplegoat,
Sep 21, 4:28pm
Can you not read properly ? I did not say the ute driver wasn't driving dangerously so stop being a pillick and twisting things round
philltauranga,
Sep 21, 5:01pm
Ok Kaz, good point about the round the lake events with huge numbers like that. but there seems to be a number of other smaller events, not just in Taupo like I referred to earlier, which I think could be "relocated" but Im not a road cyclist so I wont profess to knowing which ones they are. Im not anti-cylcist like my posts may imply, I just think we need to change with the times. theres more traffic on the road, so we should reassess what "legal events" we should allow to take place on them.
kazbanz,
Sep 21, 5:12pm
well phi one solution is to improve the rail network system and pull more trucks off the road. heck aunti Helens trainset has to be usefull for something.
philltauranga,
Sep 21, 5:35pm
I would support any gummymint that will increase the ammount of passing lanes and slow vehicle bays in the regions, the roads of national significane are all good but the cost of them. seems now all our rural roads dont get much in the way of quality repairs or improvments, I havnt seen many new passing lanes go in but there have been a number removed FFS. Would go a long way to easing the pressure our truckies are under, I hate having a long que behind me but safe places to allow people to pass are few and far between, especially in heay traffic.
henderson_guy,
Sep 21, 6:17pm
However, you did say the 4x4 drivers were a major catalyst, just as the cyclists were in this (and many other) incident
henderson_guy,
Sep 21, 6:19pm
Absolutely, and the new inland port under construction in Hamilton, fed by rail from Port of Tauranga, is an excellent start. However, it's still only a stay, and there will always be a heavy reliance on road transport in NZ
purplegoat,
Sep 21, 6:30pm
Nope I made no such comment so stop reading things that aren't there What i said was the 4WD's were driving inconsiderately
henderson_guy,
Sep 21, 6:32pm
Same same
trogedon,
Sep 21, 6:32pm
Winston Peter’s idea of having imported vehicles arrive at the Northland “port†and be distributed around the North Island would surely help to take many more trucks off the roads.
trogedon,
Sep 21, 6:40pm
Get the TARGA NZ off the road likewise running races that use the road.
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