Posted by trish on Apr 26, 2012 in Blog | 3 comments
(I wrote this a few months ago then parked it on my Desktop. It started to grow mould so I thought I’d post it today.)
The other morning I got stuck in a bit of traffic. And it really, really bothered me.
I think most of the frustration that people experience behind the wheel of their car on their morning commute comes from being stuck. Think about it: you are stuck in your car, you can’t abandon it there in the middle of the road and get out and walk the last 100 metres, you have to just sit and wait for the light to turn green and for the people in front of you to get out of your way. You have no choice but to wait, even if you are running late for a meeting. How can anyone be expected to be feeling anything but stressed and a little claustrophobic?
Certainly that’s what I feel.
We recently moved from Upper Downer to O’Connor but our kids still go to school on the other side of Northbourne Avenue. Three or four days a week, because of my job and our teenager’s cello, I have no choice but to drive them to school and our route takes us through the back streets of O’Connor – through the streets of my suburb – and I have to contend with a hundred other commuters who are trying to get into the city by avoiding the gridlock on Northbourne Avenue.
But do you know what annoys me even more than being stuck amongst all these cars?
Seeing some smug little so-and-so on their bike, cruising down the bike path, no doubt arriving at their destination before I have even reached the dreaded Northbourne lights.
It makes me so mad to see them, flying past at 20km an hour whilst I’m stuck on 5. Sometimes, at the traffic lights, all four lanes of cars have to stop and let these cyclists cross at the pedestrian crossing. Other times, they choose to ride on the road with the cars and so they get to go through the green lights with us! The cheek! It makes me so cranky that they have these options.
Some of them break the road rules occasionally. That REALLY does my head in. How dare they use the road if they’re not going to obey the rules! The audacity! It’s like people who jay-walk. Or always drive 10kms over the limit. Or who steal pens from the stationery cupboard at work. Or park for half an hour in the 5-minute-only free parking spaces around town. Or who don’t fess up when the cashier didn’t realise you had a 48-pack of toilet rolls under your trolley. Or double-park to jump out and post a letter. Or who don’t tell their waitress that she forgot to charge them for the milkshake. Or fail to move over so other cars can enter from slip-lanes. Or who tell white lies about visiting in-laws to get out of volunteering at the school fete. Or who stop their cars on the pedestrian crossings as they turn left at traffic lights. Or who speed through 40km zones. Or who put their hazard lights on so they can park illegally when picking their kids up from school. Or who drift across from one lane to another without indicating. Or who run red lights. Or who park in No Stopping zones. Or who stop their cars across the Keep Clear markings on the road… Oh, wait… I guess everyone breaks the rules from time to time. The cheek!
But on the days I don’t have to drive the kids to school, we ride our bikes. Yes, a few days a week we become smug little so-and-sos.
This time last year I had the opportunity to travel to Norway and Denmark. While I was there, I saw people commuting on bikes. They weren’t riding expensive 21-speed racing bikes and wearing lycra. They weren’t riding mountain bikes with scary, fat wheels and enormous suspension springs. They were riding the kind of bike my grandmother used to ride to school, and they were wearing their regular clothes. And they looked fabulous, and relaxed, and… happy!
Why didn’t anybody tell me you could ride a regular bike, wearing regular clothes??
In the year since I’ve been back from that trip, my husband and I have both bought new bikes. We still had our old 10-speeds from our teenage years, but they hadn’t been ridden since Paul Keating was PM. We needed to upgrade. Inspired by what I saw in Europe, we bought two Dutch-style bikes, perfect for our daily commute.
Anyway, back to the rant.
I ride with my children because no matter what route we take, there are times we have to ride on footpaths that are interrupted by busy driveways, through neighbourhoods that are congested with the hustle and bustle of the morning traffic, and along roads that are shared with buses and trucks and the occasional cranky morning commuter. I need to ride with them to make sure they get there in one piece. But I also need to ride with them to give myself a little reminder of what it’s like to be a cyclist in Canberra.
If everyone in Canberra was made to ride a bike to work, just once or twice, I reckon we could solve this ongoing battle between the four-wheelers and the pedal-pushers. One morning on a bike, riding past the traffic rather than being stuck in it, will give you a perspective that everyone who has something to say about the cars vs bikes debate should have. You need to experience it from both sides.
I understand that it’s frustrating, when you’re sitting behind the wheel of a car and stuck in the traffic, to see cyclists whizzing right past. It’s like joining the shortest queue at the supermarket but standing still while everyone in the really long queue gets served before you make it to the front. It’s annoying, and it feels terribly unfair. Why does she get to go when I have to sit here? It’s awful to get stuck in traffic.
I saw a photograph of a billboard on Flickr that said:
You’re not stuck in traffic. You ARE traffic.
If you ride a bike in Canberra you are going to have to contend with a few inevitable problems. First, the bicycle paths have an annoying habit of ending abruptly before tossing you out onto the street or onto a dirt track strewn with broken beer bottles.
Second, the traffic lights at many of the major intersections have algorithms that seem deliberately tweaked to make you wait as long as possible to cross and if you attempt to dash across an empty intersection against a Do Not Walk sign you run the risk of getting shouted at by someone who needs to vent their frustration at being stuck behind a steering wheel. (On Northbourne Avenue, for example, you may need to wait one full rotation to get half way, then another full rotation to get right across. This might have the unpleasant effect of doubling your commuting time).
Third, a lot of people in cars are going to be really annoyed at having to share the road with you. Some of these people will express this anger verbally. Others will do it with their horn. Still others will do it by trying to drive as close as possible to you without knocking you off (THAT’S a fun game!)
But if you ride a bike in Canberra you might also have to contend with a few wonderful things. First, a lot of people in cars will smile at you and wave you across the intersection in front of you just out of the sheer goodness of their hearts and because they know that it’s not your fault they’re stuck in traffic. Second, a lot of people in cars will smile at you and say “Hey! Cute bike!” (it helps if you’re riding a European-style sit-upright-bike with wicker-basket panniers and you’re wearing a red dress… just sayin’) and they’ll secretly wish that they, like you, weren’t stuck in traffic. Third, a lot of people in cars will understand, deep down, that it’s really not that big a deal if you dash across the intersection against a Do Not Walk sign because they know they’d do exactly the same thing if they weren’t stuck in traffic.
I’m relatively new to cycling in Canberra, and I am still getting used to riding my bike around town. I think this whole city is constantly trying to get used to having cyclists sharing the roads. I often wonder, if the American Walter Burley Griffin hadn’t won the design competition but a bike-riding architect from Amsterdam had, what our city would look like today. I like to think that there would be far better infrastructure for commuters who travel by bike, and therefore far more acceptance of their presence on the road. If you listen to ABC 666’s Traffic Talkback program, you’ll hear a lot of people calling up to complain about cyclists who break the road rules in their efforts to get into the city each day. The tone of these calls is often quite nasty, as though every time a cyclist dashes across against a Don’t Walk sign, a fairy loses its wings. I would argue that the people who call up to complain about the cyclists who do this have a) never ridden a bike before and so don’t understand just how frustrating and difficult it is to negotiate the city streets b) found themselves stuck in traffic every day of their working lives and need someone to vent to. I used to be one of those drivers who got cranky at cyclists, but now I don’t. And do you know what? When I get stuck in traffic, and some smug little so-and-so whizzes past me, I don’t get cranky. I just smile and wave at them, and then arrive at my destination feeling happy rather than stressed.
Over to you…