When I lived in Australia I’d hear people complain about Asian drivers. In my whole time living in Japan I’ve yet to figure out why they believe Asians are bad drivers.
I once tried to ride to work in Australia and got honked off the road by huge 4WDs. Who needs a 4WD to go to work in in a city? I have never had a car honk at me in Japan and with many elderly people riding bicycles motorists here are used to and expect to be held up by cyclists.

Why are people in cars in such a hurry?

Here is a report on the ignorance there in today’s Sydney Morning Herald.
Rachel Browne
August 14, 2009
Cars and bicycles get on reasonably well in some European cities — but that’s far from the case here.

Picture yourself driving to work during the morning rush hour. Ahead of you in the clearway of a main arterial road is a cyclist travelling in the centre of the lane at 15km/h less than the traffic flow.

Do you: a) recognise the right of the rider to occupy a whole lane and praise their contribution to reducing carbon emissions; b) shrug your shoulders and change lanes to get past; or c) squeeze past in the same lane while fantasising about opening your car door?

If you fall in the last camp, now might be a good time to start those yoga lessons.

Australia is in the grip of a bicycle boom that will increasingly see cyclists and motorists crossing paths. Whether the two can happily co-exist is a matter of debate and something of a social experiment.

First, the facts. Bicycle commuting is on the rise and bike sales are outstripping those of cars. NSW residents bought about 430,000 new bicycles in 2007, exceeding motor vehicle registrations by 75,000.

In Sydney, bicycle use has increased by 23 per cent on weekdays and 58 per cent on weekends since 2001. This year, the number of bicycle trips in the city is nudging 200,000 a day.

The statistics are straight-out worrying to the lobby group the National Motorists Association Australia, which believes cyclists cannot safely integrate with fast-moving vehicles on busy roads.

“Motor vehicles and bicycles are fundamentally incompatible,” spokesman Michael Lane says.

“Cars are fast and heavy. Bikes are slow and flimsy. The two do not mix. It’s dangerous and it’s not fair to either cyclists or the motorists.”

The group’s concerns are borne-out by figures from the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority, which show the number of cyclists killed on the road doubled in 2007, rising from three to six. The number of injuries increased from 672 to 694.

Take an incident that occurred on a sunny autumn morning last year – a group of cyclists was riding down South Dowling Street near Sydney Airport. To the riders’ surprise, a car braked suddenly in front of them, causing a 20-bike pile-up.

The male driver stopped briefly to give the injured cyclists, what one witness described as, a “smart alec look” before leaving the scene. One of the injured, Olympic cyclist Ben Kersten, recalled other drivers were just as unsympathetic to their plight, hurling insults such as “sucked in” and “go get a car, you tight arses” as they passed the bruised and bleeding riders.

While many motorists take the view that the road is no place for bikes, cyclists maintain that their rights should be respected.

“We’re all road users whether we are pedestrians, cyclists or drivers and everyone has their own perspective depending on which mode of transport they’re using,” says the Bicycle Federation of Australia executive director, Peter Strang.

“As a pedestrian, you expect drivers and cyclists to give way to you. A driver will have another point of view and a cyclist will see things differently again. It’s an attitude which can lead to a lot of antipathy.”

For a role model of how things might be, cyclists often point to European cities such as Stockholm, where cycling is a viable and accepted form of commuting. Cars and bikes get on reasonably well.

They argue, too, that while the number of cycling injuries and deaths has increased, the proportion of accidents has decreased. Research conducted by the South Australian Government has shown that the more people took up cycling, the safer it became.

NRMA president Wendy Machin says safety is the primary issue for all road users, whether they be on two wheels or four.

“No one wants to be involved in an accident,” she says. “Safety and traffic efficiency are the key things in this debate.”

One solution to easing tensions between cyclists and motorists is a form of apartheid. Local and state governments are increasingly investing in dedicated bike lanes.

The City of Sydney has allocated $70 million over the next four years to build a cycle network and is working with 14 other inner-city councils to create 245 kilometres of cycle lanes. The council has also started courses on bike safety.

For their part, many urban cyclists say they feel threatened on the roads, according to the chief executive of Bicycle NSW, Alex Unwin. “The key feedback we get from our members is they don’t feel safe sharing busy roads with motorists,” he says. “They are worried about getting killed.”

Associate professor of public health at the University of Sydney, Chris Rissel, says the cyclists may be right to feel worried. He researched the attitudes of motorists towards cyclists and found many were ignorant of the rules of the road.

Almost 40 per cent of motorists did not know that cyclists were entitled to use a whole lane, 69 per cent did not realise they were allowed to overtake on the left of cars and 81 per cent did not know that cyclists could ride two abreast. Indeed, 13 per cent did not realise that cyclists were even allowed to use the roads.

“The RTA encourages fast traffic flow and that is a hostile environment for cyclists because they are a lot slower than cars,” Rissel says. “From the cyclist’s point of view, it may seem that drivers are behaving dangerously because they are driving fast. And drivers get irritated because they expect to be travelling at the speed limit but that’s just not realistic if you are behind a cyclist who cannot physically ride at 60- or 80km/h.”

Ignorance, frustration and time-poor lifestyles are a volatile mix in heavy traffic, according to Macquarie University psychology lecturer, Dr Julia Irwin.

“Speed seems to have become a cultural imperative that dominates urban life,” she says.

“We now not only travel more than ever before but we live in a culture where we expect that travel to be unimpeded. Any situations that thwart this expectation are frustrating and frustration gives rise to aggressive driving behaviour.”

It’s a feeling that the National Motorists Association’s Michael Lane has experienced. “It is irritating if you are driving behind a group of cyclists and there is no safe way of overtaking them,” he says. “You just get stuck. You can feel your hackles rising.”

And the aggression isn’t just one way. “I have seen a cyclist kick a car door at the toll booths on the M2,” Lane says. “I have seen cyclists yell abuse at motorists at the traffic lights, using the type of language which would make a wharfie blush.”

So how could things be improved?

Lane says bikes should be registered in the same way as cars and carry number plates for easy identification in the case of an altercation. He also says a little bit of consideration would go a long way.

Bicycle NSW’s Unwin agrees. “The vast majority of people who ride a bike also drive a car. It’s not about cars versus bikes. The two are not mutually exclusive.”

Who has the most to learn, motorists or cyclists?

Vote at drive.com.au/vote

Ease anxiety with two-way golden rule: respect

The cyclist. Dave Musgrave has nerves of steel and calf muscles to match.

Every day the 25-year-old pedals his road bike between his Seaforth home and the city, where he works at Clarence Street Cyclery.

The half-hour journey over the Spit Bridge and down Military Road is not for the faint-hearted.

While he says most drivers are considerate, he is wary of buses and people in 4WDs.

“I look forward to holidays, when I don’t have to worry about school buses or people in four-wheel-drives dropping their kids off,” he says.

Musgrave has cycled for more than 20 years and has never had an accident on Sydney’s streets.

However, he has copped plenty of flak from drivers in that time.

“There are quite a few angry motorists out there,” he says. “They have a lot of hatred towards cyclists. You get cut off and pushed towards the gutter, with people honking their horns and shouting abuse. That said, I think most drivers are pretty good. There is just an angry minority who can make what should be a good ride to work a pretty negative experience.”

The motorist. Drive’s national motoring editor Toby Hagon writes: According to the RTA cyclists are required to “obey road rules, including stopping at red lights or stop signs, giving way as indicated by signage and giving hand signals when changing direction”.

Yet you don’t have to travel far in Sydney traffic to spot a cyclist flouting the law.

It’s easy to understand the frustration of motorists, who are in effect trying to achieve the same result as cyclists — getting to their destination quickly and safely. I’ve spoken to many cyclists who claim never to run red lights, which is great. Others say they only do it occasionally, which is a bit like saying you don’t smoke because you only light up on weekends. Yet those who only obey the law when it suits them are often more passionate and vocal on bikers’ rights.

To me, the cyclist-versus-car debate comes down to respect. Cyclists can’t expect to be treated with the same rights of other vehicles while not behaving like other road users. Motorists must also realise that to garner the respect of cyclists, they must show some in the other direction.