A Metre Matters ....

Every time I see, hear or read a story about someone being knocked off their bike by motor vehicle it provides a reality check that any one of us who rides on the road is a vulnerable road user.  Every time I'm passed closely by a car while cycling my instinctive reaction is to check how much space there was between the car and the line on the road and the distance is usually about a metre.  Whether I'm behind the wheel or behind the handle bars, I believe in the old adage that I need to treat everyone else on the road like they're idiots. Therefore I need to go on the selfrighteouscyclist self-protective  defensive and take on the mindset that I'm invisible to other road users. I put my flashing lights on, wear bright colours and constantly remind myself to be hyper aware of what's going on around me.  However the sobering national road toll statistics from 2013 (see Figure 1 below) remind us that the number of cyclist deaths on roads rose from 33 to 50 or a 51% change.  So what’s happening out there to make cycling safer?

To mark the beginning of the Tour Down Under our rising star Richie Porte was the first person to put his signature to a campaign being run by the Amy Gillett foundation promoting road safety with the message a metre matters. 


The metre matters link will take you off to a petition form you can download and pass it around your fellow riders to sign and forward onto a federal politician.  Check out the merchandise link and you can even send a self addressed envelope and they'll send you this sticker or even buy a few for friends and family. The message is focused on unified federal road laws for
  •        drivers allow a minimum of one metre when overtaking bicycle riders in speed zones up to 60km/hr
  •      drivers allow a minimum of 1.5 metres when overtaking bicycle riders in speed zones over 60km/hr

 It's a simple message that hopefully sticks with us all whether we're in our cars or on our bikes.   You’ve got till the 30th April, so here’s your chance to support a great cause.



Cyclist's safety is a serious topic and humour is a great way to engage an audience as exemplified by these couple of advertisements out of Scotland. 

Nice Way Code Horse
  


Nice Way Code Name


And now if you have 5 minutes to spare some reflections on cycling safety from 5 pro cyclists in the US, a few of whom have come off second best.





Finally a few thoughts to leave you with
·      Take half a second to look over your shoulder to see what's coming
·      Be predictable and show other road users what your intentions are
·     Make eye contact with other road users around you 
·     Stop at the lights rather than running the dark orange
·      Avoid riding through shopping strips with high volumes of motorists getting in and out of their cars
·      Plan your ride to avoid having to mix it with the traffic where you can
·  Be pro-active about cycling safety and download the petition form for a Metre Matters campaign

So what will you do to ensure your next ride is a safe one?

Figure 1. Sourced from http://statistics.infrastructure.gov.au/


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