King of the Road

For some reason Australians are car nuts ... but not in a good way.

Everyone seems to think that they own the road and everyone else should get out of their way. Bigger is better, might is right and stuff like that seems to be the mental rule of the road for these dopes.

Perhaps the most annoying group of all is the "drop the kids off to school" mums. You've only got to try to get past the local state school at the drop off or pick up time and witness the mayhem. Ask any teacher or school principle.

Worse, everyone seems to think its the "other person" who is always wrong. Australians also seem to be a bit crazy on banning things lately too ... (like bottled water) so when this is combined with the car mania it gets out of hand.

I ride a bicycle, I rode one to school when I was a kid, and ride to work now that I'm doing that. I try to use the bike ways wherever possible now for fear of the loonys in tin tops who will seemingly stop at nothing to run you off the road or toss something at you.

But its all different when they're on the other side of the fence

For instance I found that the school mums don't like being pushed around by the 4wd crowd and have petitioned that they should be banned from being around schools "concerns at the negative environmental impacts and effects of the excessive amount of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the use of four-wheel drive vehicles" and " four-wheel drives were also a physical danger to pedestrians and smaller vehicles in the event of collision"

Right

Well mums and dads, if yeel anxious in your Toyota Camry when there is a Pajero or Landcrusier beside you then how do you think us bicycle riders feel when you drive around us?

With Queensland having targets for sustainable transport development, perhaps its a good idea to extend the petition to ALL motor vehicles except school buses. How's that feel?

I think its safe to say that cars are the main reason why its not safe for kids to ride their bicyles from home to school in the first place (both tiddly cars and 4wd's). Perhaps we should take a leaf out of Hollands or Japans book and start making our streets safer for bicycles. That is if you're the least bit interested in the claimed environmental impacts and effects of the excessive amount of air pollution