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news
Driver on NSW cycle path (via CARMAFIA on Facebook).PNGVideo: New South Wales motorist films himself driving along bike path ... to overtake cyclists (includes swearing - lots of it)
A video filmed by a motorist in Australia – illegally, using a handheld mobile phone – that shows him taking to a bike path to overtake two cyclists using the road has gone viral, attracting 2 million views on just one Facebook group since being posted there earlier today.
In the 10-plus years road.cc has been going, it’s fair to say that in the Anglophone world at least, the country has stood out above all others when it comes to hatred of cyclists by motorists.
And within Australia, New South Wales stands out as a state where the issue appears particularly acute – as one member of the road.cc team who used to live there often reminds us.
The video – which includes a lot of swearing – was apparently filmed on Swamp Road, between Dunmore and Jamberoo on the southern New South Wales coast.
As he passed the cyclists, the driver shouted: “'What's the point of us spending this money if you're not going to use it, you f*cking d*ckheads?”
One of the cyclists replied, “Pull over, so I can have a chat,” but was met with the response, “F*ck off, f*cking idiot... use the bike track!”
Credited to one Thomas Harris, the video seems to have been posted originally to a closed Facebook group called Australia’s Toughest Cars.
It’s since been posted to an open group, also from Australia, called Car Mafia, where within 12 hours it has been viewed around 2 million times and tens of thousands of comments – the vast majority of which are anti-cyclist.
Special rules applying to cyclists in New South Wales allow them to ride two abreast as long as there is no more than 1.5 metres between the riders.
The New South Wales government’s Road Users' Handbook stipulates: “When a bicycle lane is marked on the road, cyclists must use it.”
It adds: “These lanes may only be used by bicycles, but you may drive in these lanes for not more than 50 metres to enter or leave the road at a driveway or intersection.”
Of course, the bike path here is entirely separate from the main carriageway rather than being a bicycle lane. It’s unclear what the specific law is regarding whether cyclists are obliged to use it or not, but we’re sure that motorists shouldn’t - and he certainly travels a lot more than 50 metres.
Furthermore, the Road Users Handbook also says: “Unrestricted [ie comparable to a full UK] licence holders may use a mobile phone for voice calls and audio playing functions only.
“The phone must either be secured in a mounting or if it is not secured in a mounting, be used without touching any part of the phone, such as via Bluetooth. Touching a phone to use other functions such as text, video calling, internet or email is against the law.”
So that's handheld filming that's against the law, too.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- james-o 4 min 54 sec ago
That would make sense if you lived somewhere so rough it was reasonable to expect being shot or stabbed on any given day.
- wycombewheeler 20 min 2 sec ago
just trying to increase the size of the market for road traffic defences he defends
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Agreed, You can't prove the cloned plate owner drove the vehicle at the time of an incident....
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I'm tempted by these only because of the nifty magnetic mounting system onto the Bontrager helmet I recently purchased. But I currently have a...
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Was Yvette Caster's conversion from yet another anti-cycling journo to sense on the road to Damascus?
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I imagine it will be the Ultegra C36 carbon wheels and a Deda Superzero bars/stem like in Europe. Personally I would probably pick the standard RCR...
- GREGJONES 2 hours 46 min ago
The most effective method would be to levy a charge on parking spaces per annum on locations you want to make better use of, for example city...
- Paul J 3 hours 32 min ago
Hmm, I don't know of any country myself that has hard-to-produce plates.
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I'll obviously want to spend a minute to inflate a helmet every time I get on my bike, so like 2 to 5 times on a typical shopping trip....
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33 comments
*chuckle* the two cyclists ARE police officers.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/nsw/cop-that-d-head-cyclists-in-viral...
well it turns out the 2 cyclists were off duty police officers
driver has been charged with a number of offences
pay walled article but headline is cheering
Capture cyclists are cops headline.jpg
Is it too cynical of me to wonder whether this little fact had anything to do with the police actually doing something...?
Kiama Independent
The actual path in question starts in another suburb from the direction these guys were riding from, so there was no path from the direction they had come from. This section of path goes for about 2kms before it joins the exact road they are riding on. The entry of this path is often covered in gravel that is stired up from cars that seem to park near there. But again it only goes for a short distance. It is a shared path, it not illegal to ride on the road or a requirement if there is a shared path. All he needed to do was approach the riders, wait for them to move over or give them a quick toot, there is no need to carry on like this and this video just spreads hate and makes the situation between road users and cyclists worse. The road is generally pretty quiet and these guys were riding in the morning when there is even less traffic.
A quick toot in the UK is illegal in the UK, not there then?
I think cocaine is illegal everywhere...
So if he honks his horn, he can drive straight through them?
Maybe they had annoyed him earlier down the road or maybe he was having a rough morning?
Maybe he is just a rather unfortunate man with a sweary vocabulary and poor mental health?
Just like another day on the commute round where I live!
More strange to me, is that it looks that the shared path / cycle way thing has proper road markings and the road doesn't!
Hi again some back ground infromation of why the path was build where it is. Probley one of the cause for such conflicts to occur.
https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/2000899/anger-over-jamberoo-cy...
another artical
https://www.kiamaindependent.com.au/story/2370504/cycleway-stage-open/
Thank you for this, and for your previous post.
This is very similar to the UK, where an obvious route is sunk by vested interests, which may or may not have a valid case. Certainly in the UK, the reasons people oppose such schemes are barely rational, like a route through Blaise Castle, near me, which was opposed by the rabid Friends of Blaise Castle because it would be like having a six lane motorway through the site. But they won.
Also familiar is the caving in by the authorities, settling for a bad compromise that no-one wants.
Don't forget the proposal to put a cycle lane through Victoria Park. Locals compained that they didn't want lycra clad racers coming through there disturbing good British picnics. And anyway there were perfectly decent (congested rat runs) roads around the park so why couldn't cyclists just use them instead? https://bristolcycling.org.uk/victoria-park-a-missed-opportunity-or-is-something-better-than-nothing/
I hadn't forgotten, it's just that this could be a very long list!
Without being able to ask the cyclists, we can't know why they weren't on the cycle track
A simple option would be that they aren't familiar with the area and missed the only opportunity to join the track cleanly. After which, they have to go over the grass verge, which isn't impossible, but might not have seemed necessary on what looks like a quiet road (until the trouble started).
Being an Australian, there is a lot of misunderstanding about what constitutes a bike path here. The overwhelming majority of paths here are called "Shared Paths" and can be used by both pedestrians and cyclist alike. However cyclist cop a similar problem with pedestrians as they do with motorists.
All state of Australian have guidelines in regards to what makes a "Shared Path" here a couple from NSW and Victoria;
https://roadsafety.transport.nsw.gov.au/stayingsafe/bicycle-riders/share...
https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/safety-and-road-rules/pedestrian-safety/...
I live in Melbourne and there are only a number of path which could be call "bike paths" having a guess probably only a couple of kilometres in length combined. The rest are shared, some being purpose built, some just being renamed pedestrian paths and some being dirt tracks. None of which takes you to your place of work, so you must chop and change.
As for those so call lanes painted on the roads, there next to useless. While a motorist is only permitted to drive in them no more the 50m there is no law preventing them from parking on top of them. So you see you have a piece of infrastructure that is often covered in cars which forces the cyclist to position him/herself in the lane of traffic while trying avoid the dooring zone. These so called lanes always disappear when you arrive at an intersection as VicRoad deem cars to have priority. This is were most car on bike crashes occur. I should know I ended up with a broken neck thanks to some dick in a car. Remember we have MHL so everything is OK.
As for the chap in the video, he is what known as a "Bogon" Bogan is Australian and New Zealand slang for a person whose speech, clothing, attitude and behaviour are considered unrefined or unsophisticated. You see because of his lack of intelligence he was unaware that he was driving on a possible shared path which would have put pedestrians in danger if they had been there.
This brings me to Australia motor vehicle license system, I like to call it a Wheat-bix system that is you can pick up your license from any packet of cereal regardless of your intelligence.
Cheers
Tell me about it, I was on Caroline Springs boulevard before 7am, sod all traffic and some bellend decided to drive in the cycle lane so I couldn't pass. So I just sprinted pass on the right instead lol.
Their poetry is terrible and their destructor fleets even worse.
I would like to point out there isn't enough video to come to any meaningful conclusions because the video is only 16 seconds long. All we can really do with this is speculate and speculation isn't productive. After witnessing the recent m.a.g.a scandel (the smirking kid with the red hat) it is important we don't jump to conclusions without knowing the full story.
What speculation?
People have asked questions.
We can conclude the driver committed at least 2 driving offences, no doubt swearing in public is mandatory in Australia
OK I’m going by Open Street Map here so it might not be completely up-to-date - but…. What’s the point in building a path if it connects a very small town (Kiama Downs) to a road 2 km in the middle of the countryside and then, that’s it - stops? Well, I guess pootlers from the town might enjoy it going there and back but it’s pretty much useless for longer distance cycling. So what’s the point in the riders, who look like they have come from a bit further afield than 2 km away - detouring to get on the path for 2 km and then be chucked onto a road with no path 5 minutes or so later? If it were by a road carrying 20k+ motor vehicles per day, it might be worth using, but this looks like a fairly quiet country lane, so for them likely isn’t.
Driver has a point.
No he doesn't.
......but why are they not using the path. Seems to me the cyclists are being selfish. Are they trying to antagonise motorists? Its not as if the path is covered in potholes, glass or pedestrians like the ones in the UK.
This is an interesting comment in that it likely reflects the thinking of a lot of motorists. Like the cyclist in the clip, I would love to explain to them the reasons why I am not using the path. We don't know what the cyclist in the clip would have said but, from the video, we cannot rule out potholes, glass or pedestrians (could have easily been there before the video starts). It could also be that they know that the bike path will come to an end in a few hundred meters, or that they are about to take a right turn, or that they missed the entry point to the bike path. Typical reasons for me also include losing priority at junctions if you are on the bike path rather than on the road, cars driving out from driveways onto the path, cars parked on the path, dustbins/rubbish/debris on the path, the path taking a less direct route than the road.
To most of us all these reasons will sound familiar, and there are many more. Unfortunately the driver, and many like him, are not interested in hearing the reasons.
And, judging by his command of English, if the explanation involved any words of more than one syllable, he wouldn't understand it anyway.
Would have been helpful to add a paragraph as to why it was considered that the path was not suitable.
Well they very politely asked the driver to pull over so they could explain...and were met with a torrent of abuse
Yes I watched the clip and read the article but what is the answer to my question, because this is the sort of clip that the anti cycle brigade love.
I've never been to NSW, and have no intention of going, but if their cycle paths are based on the British model, they're probably unrideable at anything over walking pace.
Well yes, but it doesn't look anything like a UK poorly maintained and surfaced one with driveways and junctions everywhere.
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