(from the ABC)

Cyclists say an elevated bike lane should be part of the South Road-Anzac Highway redevelopment in Adelaide.

The South Australian Government says it is still holding public consultation on the plans, but does not intend building an overpass for cyclist and pedestrian use.

Jeremy Miller from the Bicycle Institute of South Australia says it would be a wasted opportunity.

“It seems to sort of really defeat the whole purpose of putting the trams up in the air when cyclists are going to be able to stop that flow of traffic on an adhoc basis as they approach South Road,” he said.

“We’d much rather be going on a tramway overpass with the trams and have a cycle overpass built in conjunction with that.

“The whole idea of South Road is to become a continuous network for the cars, but cyclists will now have to approach South Road, press a button to get across and break that continuous flow of traffic, which seems a bit ridiculous from our point of view.”

(click here for the audio)

(sounds to me like someone got caught in traffic on her way to the work Christmas party. There was a CM the night before she penned this piece.)

Stop this critical mess

by Anita Quigley
November 25, 2006

Article from:

A SCIENTIST recently discovered that motorists pass, on average, 7.5cm closer to cyclists in helmets than they do to someone riding along bare-headed.

Presumably, drawing some faith in his or her “riderly” competence from the mere presence of the helmet.

It has never occurred to me it might matter to drivers what a cyclist wears because, clothed or naked, with a helmet or not, all cyclists in the city are irritating and I find bring on an overwhelming desire to swerve towards.

But perhaps never so much as yesterday when they held every evening peak-hour motorist in Sydney to ransom.

Critical Mass, an organisation of “bicycle enthusiasts”, headed off from Hyde Park North about 6pm over the Harbour Bridge and along the Pacific Highway before finishing for noodles in North Sydney in “celebration of non-motorised transport”.

According to their website, cyclists taking over the roads in this way, is a “welcoming space where people feel safe”. For the vast majority of the rest of us, it is as painful as a burst hernia.

Critical Mass is actually selfish inner-city twats who have no regard for their fellow Sydneysiders: people who have worked hard all week and who just want to drive home.

What Critical Mass fails to realise is that we don’t want to spend our Friday night in gridlock while lycra-clad twits - with a police escort - whiz past to go have noodles and make the point that Sydney should be free of cars.

These are probably also the same errant cyclists who ignore the road rules, jump red lights (thinking it’s their privilege) and ride on the footpath.

Sure, there are needless car journeys made, probably thousands of them every day.

But here is the news - damn few of them are made in peak-hour on a Friday night. For the sake of the majority, this “protest” of selfish idiot cyclists must not be sanctioned.