NSW [Australia] considering plan to halve power and top speed of ebikes as rider dies in collision with garbage truck

My tomtom American voice called them Roto-rarees.
The single most mind boggling event happened at 5am September 3rd 1967, when Sweden swapped over to driving on the right from the left.

Traffic accidents actually dropped.
 
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I would gladly drive on the left provided that the clutch is on the right and the petrol on the left with the shift in the middle left, but only as long as I am also upside down. All the bike advocates in my town want roundabouts, the recalcitrant car drivers hate them.
 
PedalUma said:
I would gladly drive on the left provided that the clutch is on the right and the petrol on the left with the shift in the middle left, but only as long as I am also upside down. All the bike advocates in my town want roundabouts, the recalcitrant car drivers hate them.
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Interesting comment about the roundabouts. They are not welcome here from a cyclists point of view. They are quite dangerous for a couple of rasons: motor vehicle operators like to fail to give away to vehicles in the roundabout (bicycles are vehicles) so near misses and worse are quite common and secondly there seems to be a belief that as a motor vehicle operator you must get to the roundabout first only to slow the person riding a bicycle down because they are faster. Claiming the lane does not seem to have much effect on the need to be first.

The third issue is dual lane roundabouts where bicycle riders continuing around the roundabout have to give way to vehicle on the inside lane exiting the roundabout while the rider is continuing. Not fun at all.

RACWA (Motorists organisaton) has a pretty good explainer on roundabouts.
 
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PedalUma said:
I would gladly drive on the left provided that the clutch is on the right and the petrol on the left with the shift in the middle left, but only as long as I am also upside down. All the bike advocates in my town want roundabouts, the recalcitrant car drivers hate them.
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The only issue I had was making turns. In Ireland, most of the time, for whatever reasons, we made turns so rarely that I was able to just focus and always wind up in the left lane after completing the turn.

In Australia, I had more trouble, maybe because we were deep in Kakadu, there were no landmarks. Fortunately, my friend from London was with me, and whenever I finished a turn in the right lane-- which was 73% of the time-- he'd just whack me on the shoulder.

At first, he'd say, "Left lane!" but I chose the right lane so frequently that it was easier for him to just hit me so he didn't have to break the flow of conversation.

Aushiker said:
Interesting comment about the roundabouts. They are not welcome here from a cyclists point of view. They are quite dangerous for a couple of rasons: motor vehicle operators like to fail to give away to vehicles in the roundabout (bicycles are vehicles) so near misses and worse are quite common and secondly there seems to be a belief that as a motor vehicle operator you must get to the roundabout first only to slow the person riding a bicycle down because they are faster. Claiming the lane does not seem to have much effect on the need to be first.

The third issue is dual lane roundabouts where bicycle riders continuing around the roundabout have to give way to vehicle on the inside lane exiting the roundabout while the rider is continuing. Not fun at all.

RACWA (Motorists organisaton) has a pretty good explainer on roundabouts.
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I have mixed feelings about them... meaning some roundabouts seem easy, others are way more difficult, and that's probably not a good thing.

I was REALLY proud of myself in Portugal, when I landed in Lisbon at 5:00 in the morning and drove to my hotel in Portimao (about 3 hours) through about a dozen roundabouts and didn't make a single wrong turn.

However, this gave me a false sense of confidence. Around town, and on my return trip, I often got trapped on the inside-- I really tried to do the right thing and dive for the inner lane if I was going past 12:00-- or couldn't get to the inside and locals honked at me... though very gently, because it was Portugal, after all, and people are amazingly cool there.

They installed a roundabout in my neighborhood at a place where we didn't even have a stop sign in 1997-- and didn't need one then, either. I was outraged, and was sure it would result in more accidents. However, I have to admit, it has decreased stress generally at that intersection, though only 10-15%.
 
What I can't fathom is, in the 1950's and early 60's, NJ, and other states as well, spent millions to remove "traffic circles" as they were called at the time. Traffic congestion and high accident rates were the main reasons.

Now, they are spending many millions more to put them back in, and renaming them "Roundabouts". What's changed??

To make it worse, the traffic engineers, at least here in PA, don't seem to know how to design them properly. This one for example at a major interchange for the local airport uses 3 of them.

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In the 2 years since they were installed, traffic congestion got much worse and the accident rate skyrocketed. The diameters of the circles are too small for tractor trailers to negotiate without driving through the center, or cutting off vehicles in the adjacent lane.

The funny part is, the DOT thinks it's a marvelous feat of engineering while the drivers who use them think they are a disaster.
 
What's next, emergency brakes and speed limits on baby carriages? :rolleyes:
 
6zfshdb said:
Would be a different story if we were talking about pedestrian collisions.
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And if you wind up married to her, the cost could be exponentially staggering compared to just wrecking your nice bike and having to buy another.

You have a most excellent point, something should be done about bumping into people like that.
 
Ken M said:
That slower than most decent athletes can run. It's not that fast.
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But...but...he stated it in an alternative way so that it sounds scary.

Pollsters wanting to see how dumb and reactionary people are have collected thousands of signatures to ban "Dihydrogen Monoxide" after informing them of all the ways that it can kill and the millions killed in misadventures with this terribly dangerous substance every year and the billions in property damage and need to increase efforts to stop it. My favorite? It is a necessary chemical to make heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and a host of other dangerous drugs, and is in fact the only chemical necessary to them all. Banning Dihydrogen Monoxide would stop drug production dead in its tracks. You even have to have it to grow weed. Yes, people want to ban water because they were too dumb to grasp what the pollsters wanted to get rid of even though it was named and perfectly described. "In some places, it is hoarded to the extent that many have literally drowned in it..." "So much of it has escaped into the atmosphere it is even found in rain..."
 
the modern roundabouts( recent ones here) work great,going to local shopping and eateries if not for them traffic would be backed up into the main through fares,they have installed so many lights its better to try to bypass the town roads because some genius thought "smart lights" would be better,the trouble with smart lights is it will hold traffic at times when there is nothing in the lane,properly constructed and implemented timed lights are better( hell of a lot better for trucks-in Salem ,VA( a town with pride) you could hit a green light and drive all the way through town without stopping -running the speed limit,these freakin"smart lights" will stop a virtual train of traffic,because one car has crept into the intersection,(screw traffic-walk or bike) and the "stroads" will make it almost impossible for pedestrians to cross the intersection the only real answer is less traffic and driver actual training helps if someone is caught driving distracted there should be real penalties cars are way too fast these days( so are trucks-one thing we need dedicated truck roads)
David42000 said:
But...but...he stated it in an alternative way so that it sounds scary.

Pollsters wanting to see how dumb and reactionary people are have collected thousands of signatures to ban "Dihydrogen Monoxide" after informing them of all the ways that it can kill and the millions killed in misadventures with this terribly dangerous substance every year and the billions in property damage and need to increase efforts to stop it. My favorite? It is a necessary chemical to make heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and a host of other dangerous drugs, and is in fact the only chemical necessary to them all. Banning Dihydrogen Monoxide would stop drug production dead in its tracks. You even have to have it to grow weed. Yes, people want to ban water because they were too dumb to grasp what the pollsters wanted to get rid of even though it was named and perfectly described. "In some places, it is hoarded to the extent that many have literally drowned in it..." "So much of it has escaped into the atmosphere it is even found in rain..."
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David42000 said:
But...but...he stated it in an alternative way so that it sounds scary.

Pollsters wanting to see how dumb and reactionary people are have collected thousands of signatures to ban "Dihydrogen Monoxide" after informing them of all the ways that it can kill and the millions killed in misadventures with this terribly dangerous substance every year and the billions in property damage and need to increase efforts to stop it. My favorite? It is a necessary chemical to make heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and a host of other dangerous drugs, and is in fact the only chemical necessary to them all. Banning Dihydrogen Monoxide would stop drug production dead in its tracks. You even have to have it to grow weed. Yes, people want to ban water because they were too dumb to grasp what the pollsters wanted to get rid of even though it was named and perfectly described. "In some places, it is hoarded to the extent that many have literally drowned in it..." "So much of it has escaped into the atmosphere it is even found in rain..."
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I found it hard to believe people were that stupid!
 
kevinmccune said:
I found it hard to believe people were that stupid!
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It's utterly true. It's actually been a chemistry nerd prank since the 50s at least, it went around my college in the mid 80s, then someone did it online and ruined it for everyone. I did it for a while. It was hard to keep a straight face as they looked shocked and couldn't believe the government would let something like that run wild.

As to your other comment about the roundabout. I like them when they're set up right, hate them when they're every block. When it comes to smart sysytems if you think that smart is smart for you, you're pretty dumb. These are tools to rob you of your agency. I don't want much to do with all this specialized internet of smart things. I'll stick to my computer and laptop for connectivity.
 
thanks,they will change everything within 10 yrs my former employers noted the fact that all the visibility and safety barriers and such was obsolete every few years requiring the purchase of new things,a pretty good expense every few years( things like material used.reflective tape widths, the beat goes on,the flaggers have to wear those complete hot ass high visibility monkey suits and no one legged stool to rest your feet and back either,plus those good awful metal stop signs you have to hold,people look at the traffic control workers and think they are just "standing there" no you are not just standing there,its hard on your feet ,ankles,lower back,etc and it rarely ever pays a decent wage,finally they would give you a 2 way radio if you were lucky( one time I was in a dark deep depression and had to stand in cold ass rain( water running down the back of my raincoat and the boss came by and told me to put the cheap ,ass little radio under my rain jacket so it wouldn't get wet mind you this was when I had an undiagnosed broken vertabra,by midday I was in agony-will never do that s*it again ,you see a "flagman" you respect them they are there to keep you safe-at least now they are starting to require traffic lights and traffic control remote barriers,never had them in my day.
 
kevinmccune said:
thanks,they will change everything within 10 yrs my former employers noted the fact that all the visibility and safety barriers and such was obsolete every few years requiring the purchase of new things,a pretty good expense every few years( things like material used.reflective tape widths, the beat goes on,the flaggers have to wear those complete hot ass high visibility monkey suits and no one legged stool to rest your feet and back either,plus those good awful metal stop signs you have to hold,people look at the traffic control workers and think they are just "standing there" no you are not just standing there,its hard on your feet ,ankles,lower back,etc and it rarely ever pays a decent wage,finally they would give you a 2 way radio if you were lucky( one time I was in a dark deep depression and had to stand in cold ass rain( water running down the back of my raincoat and the boss came by and told me to put the cheap ,ass little radio under my rain jacket so it wouldn't get wet mind you this was when I had an undiagnosed broken vertabra,by midday I was in agony-will never do that s*it again ,you see a "flagman" you respect them they are there to keep you safe-at least now they are starting to require traffic lights and traffic control remote barriers,never had them in my day.
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I know exactly what you mean. I had the same job holding the sign for about two months. I begged them to at least rotate us becasue it is very hard work not to move. I quit after a couple months when I found a better job.
 
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