crunchysteve

We have our share of bad "roadies" here, too, and yes, their image is cited everytime the subject comes up, but actual club member sports cyclists account for between 3 and 7 percent of average cycling traffic numbers. However, humans are wired to only see danger and bad behaviour, while reactive thinking to a bad situation can see that label transferred to the whole, pretty much unfairly. In recent years, sports cycling clubs have had strict membership rules predicated on setting good examples, especially following the "2008 Hellride," the case I mention in my initial post. Like the majority of motorists, cyclist want to get safely from A to B, regardless of their reason to be cycling. The difference is an impatient motorist can kill a cyclist or pedestrian without even trying. The only law at play in this are Newton's Laws of Motion - mas multiplied by velocity. Badly behaved cyclists endanger only themselves, primarily, a merely thoughtless motorist can kill (and regret) in a millisecond. 100kg (220lb) of rider and machine is no match for a 2 ton SUV and its distracted driver. And those distracted drivers are the biggest killers of their own group, other motorists, never mind my people, commuter cyclists, not in lycra, in their work clothes. The largest group of riders in Australia.