by Lady Wulfrun

Cycling has featured in the Australia media a few times this month. Primarily because of the harsh new laws introduced in Melbourne to stop menacing cyclists and ironically two stories featuring drivers colliding with cyclists and driving off.

One of course being the elderly William Spence who I wrote about and the other a “mediterranean or middle eastern man” who stopped, told the cyclists he was going to get an ambulance and then drove off. Presumably he’s still at large.

Whether we’re a menace or not on the roads is another matter entirely but given the media coverage it’s no doubt something that lurks in the back of our minds as we cycle around from day to day.

Last weekend I was doing a shopping run into the city on Friday before my Laser eye surgery later that afternoon. It was a normal lazy ride into the city on my Long Haul Trucker in my jeans and tshirt just plodding along.

Well, it was a normal ride until I found myself engaged in a rather annoying game with another cyclist.

It’s a game I’m sure some of you other cyclist will have played before and it goes like this:

You pull up a red traffic light and like all the other traffic patiently wait for the light to change.

Then from behind you comes Mr or Mrs. ‘NANANA I’M INVISIBLE YOU CAN’T SEE ME LOL!’ on their bicycle and they simply cruise through the lights. Often without even glancing left or right.

Once the lights change you continue on your way and invariably overtake the invisible cyclist before stopping at another red light down the road somewhere. Sure enough when stealth on wheels catches up again once again you’re forced to stand there and grimace your teeth as this arse clown again runs the light.

This went on for about four or five lights and finally I had enough.

When my light changed I pushed off and reached my normal cruising speed of 20-25km/h. It didn’t take long to catch up to the rogue cyclist (he was probably only doing about 15 or so) and when I did I merged into the car lane and as I passed turned my head and shouted ‘HAY YOU KNOW WHAT A RED LIGHT IS RIGHT?’ as I overtook.

At the next red light a few km’s up I stopped once again. A few seconds later I smiled a little inside when I heard the faintest squeak of a misaligned brake block against a rim pull up behind me.

Whether the cyclist didn’t run any more lights into the city because he thought I was a ranting lunatic or because he felt guilty is irrelevant. The fact of the matter is cyclists behaving like idiots give the rest of us a bad name on the roads.

When drivers whinge about it it’s easy to dismiss them as petrol drinking road hogs. ‘Nyer nyer nyer the road is for SHARING!’ is the common catch cry of the cyclist being abused by a motorist for whatever reason. Even when they’re breaking the rules.

On the other hand I imagine it’s a little uncomfortable having a fellow cyclist have a go at you for running reds or doing something equally as stupid. This uncomfortableness is why I believe it’s much more effective then any driver awareness campaign or crime crackdown is ever going to be.

Mind you I’m not saying you need to scream and shout either. Nobody is likely going to take any notice at the ranting form a condom shaped lycra clad warrior either. Just make it obvious.

‘You saw the red light back there right?’ or ‘Are your brakes not working? You didn’t stop back there.’ will do the job without sounding too confrontational.

Obviously you need to use your better judgement too. If the offending cyclist is an 8ft lyrca clad steroid injecting tree trunk who looks like he’d pull a clublock out of his nicks and start wailing into you if you so much as pulled up next to him at the lights, (unless your bike cost more then his remember YOU ARE NOT WORTHY!), then proceed with caution.

I find a good alternative in these situations is secretly hoping a bus comes out of nowhere and knocks them out of the saddle.

If other cyclists let law breakers know it’s unacceptable to just do whatever the hell you want on the roads then slowly I believe we’ll stamp out the culture. Thankfully nearly all the cyclists I see are doing the right thing but there’s still plenty that aren’t.

I know I’ll certainly be piping up the next time someone runs a red from behind when I’m out and about. What about you?

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