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Thread ID: 124344	2012-04-21 00:40:00	Revenue gathering on the roads Really???	coldfront (15814)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1271032	2012-04-22 23:40:00	They would have pictures of over 97% of the cyclists using the intersection ;) Unfortunately cyclists don't have traceable registration any more often than they have licences. Ah yes, the old 'License the cyclists because they use the road!' argument, this one comes up a lot. I saw a letter in the local paper last week along the same lines... Interestingly, a couple of places in California (say no more!!!): LA and San Diego - tried this (for a little while) until they realised the cost of the administration process outweighed the benefits. I believe this idea was canned way back in 2009. I'm not aware of anywhere in the world that currently requires a cyclist to be registered and/or carry a licence to ride their bike - although I would be happy to be proven wrong.	johcar (6283)
1271033	2012-04-22 23:51:00	Ah yes, the old 'License the cyclists because they use the road!' argument, this one comes up a lot. I saw a letter in the local paper last week along the same lines... Interestingly, a couple of places in California (say no more!!!): LA and San Diego - tried this (for a little while) until they realised the cost of the administration process outweighed the benefits. I believe this idea was canned way back in 2009. I'm not aware of anywhere in the world that currently requires a cyclist to be registered and/or carry a licence to ride their bike - although I would be happy to be proven wrong. I think you may have jumped to the wrong conclusion there Johcar. He was really only stating how many cyclists do run the red light and stop signs.	mikebartnz (21)
1271034	2012-04-23 00:01:00	I'd agree that many stop signs could be giveways without any negative impact... NZ drivers in general are just too stupid or arrogant for this to be true. In Ak CBD at a few intersections they actaully trialed the rule 'free left turn on red light if no traffic coming' They had to stop the trial as local drivers just didnt have a clue . Want to really get some revenue. Put camera's on EVERY traffic light in the CBD. Every phase has at least 1 driver blatantly running the red at peak times. Want to bring down the road toll: - compulsory resit of license every 5 years - minor traffic infringements mean a compulsory resit of the license (that would stop a lot of bad driving) - roll cage & crash helmets compulsory in cars, seriously. This would save more lives than anything else .	1101 (13337)
1271035	2012-04-23 01:06:00	I think you may have jumped to the wrong conclusion there Johcar. He was really only stating how many cyclists do run the red light and stop signs. ... and how difficult it is to enforce good behaviour on cyclists because of the lack of traceability due to a lack of registration. When it comes down to it, police are too busy doing other, higher priority stuff. When a cyclist runs a red, the only person they will hurt is themselves (not that I condone this type of behaviour at all - quite the opposite!!) - or, potentially, a pedestrian. It seems the only time the Police will chase/ticket a cyclist is if the cyclist does something blatantly wrong in front of the cop (and he's not on the way to another incident) or if the cop has been specifically tasked to target cyclists for a specific misbehaviour in a particular area.	johcar (6283)
1271036	2012-04-23 01:35:00	For those who are motorists in Auckland here's the latest from AK Council on how they're going to spend your tax dollars on their next anti motorist binge. www.nzherald.co.nz	paulw (1826)
1271037	2012-04-23 02:09:00	One thing that gets me is how badly timed some of the lights are. For instance leaving Wellington for the Wairarapa or Upper Hutt you would think that the lights would be timed so that driving at the speed limit the lights would be turning green as you approached the next set.	mikebartnz (21)
1271038	2012-04-23 02:13:00	For those who are motorists in Auckland here's the latest from AK Council on how they're going to spend your tax dollars on their next anti motorist binge. www.nzherald.co.nz So long as that works the other way as well - no pedestrians equals a shorter wait!! Anything would be an improvement on the 'clockwork' system in place at most intersections now. Same phase timings no matter what time of the day or night and no consistency of phasing between sets of consecutive lights. And if they improve things for cyclists too, that may bring down the number of cyclists running reds and pissing off motorists and pedestrians.... (It's very difficult to trigger traffic lights via the ferrous metal sensors embedded in the roads when you're riding a carbon fibre bike with alloy fittings - there's probably no more than a couple of kilos of ferrous metal in a modern bike)	johcar (6283)
1271039	2012-04-23 02:14:00	... and how difficult it is to enforce good behaviour on cyclists because of the lack of traceability due to a lack of registration. When it comes down to it, police are too busy doing other, higher priority stuff. When a cyclist runs a red, the only person they will hurt is themselves (not that I condone this type of behaviour at all - quite the opposite!!) - or, potentially, a pedestrian. It seems the only time the Police will chase/ticket a cyclist is if the cyclist does something blatantly wrong in front of the cop (and he's not on the way to another incident) or if the cop has been specifically tasked to target cyclists for a specific misbehaviour in a particular area. I don't know if they still do it but when I was at school the cops would come around once or twice a year and inspect bikes and talk to the kids. It wouldn't surprise me if some of the bad habbits learnt while riding bikes as a younster is carried through to bad driving habbits.	mikebartnz (21)
1271040	2012-04-23 03:35:00	I'm not a cyclist theses days, my several years old bike still looks brand new, but I used to be. What Johcar posted is true, bikes have never really triggered the lights, I can remember sitting at a red light at 2am for several minutes without seeing another car until I eventually rode through it. Other times I would hop onto the footpath and go around intersections rather than risk taking on the traffic. Personally I think we should cut cyclists some slack, providing they aren't endangering anyone or doing anything blatantly stupid. Sure the road rules apply to them too and they should obey them but who does it really hurt if they take a left turn without actually entering the car lane or use the footpath briefly. They are a lot more exposed than motorists and take a big risk just riding in traffic, roundabouts seem custom designed to kill cyclists if they attempt to obey the rules in busy times for example, you can't keep to the left because cars will cut you off and if you ride in the centre of the lane you are surrounded by cars and are holding people up. Motorists are impatient and intolerent of everyone else on the road but themselves. If you constantly find yourself fuming at what goes on around you maybe the problem is just as much with you. Just chill out, relax, and follow the road rules as best you can. Getting wound up at the stupidity of others does nothing for you. Sometimes I catch myself doing stuff I get annoyed at others for and realise it looks different from the other side.	dugimodo (138)
1271041	2012-04-23 03:40:00	I don't know if they still do it but when I was at school the cops would come around once or twice a year and inspect bikes and talk to the kids. It wouldn't surprise me if some of the bad habbits learnt while riding bikes as a younster is carried through to bad driving habbits. I'm not sure whether the Police still do these visits to schools - I think they do, possibly on an on-request basis - but I think it's more likely that the LACK of kids riding bikes to school and after school, means that teenagers have less 'road-sense' when they actually get behind a wheel. The hugely increased load of enforcement that Police are expected to these days, means they have to prioritise what actually gets enforced, which has the effect that some things are sidelined. This workload means they have to pick on something that is obvious/blatant rather than the harder-to-quantify benefits of targetting badly parked cars, expired WoFs, failing to stop at Stop signs etc.	johcar (6283)
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