Cyclist Killed on M7

I heard on JJJ yesteday morning... made me thankful our bunches got back okay :eek:.
 
trucks are great things aren't they. both the bane on the road and the base of a lot of our industry. so many incidents involve trucks on the road these days. almost all of the rail crossing smashes we have had involved trucks as well.
 
This guy is a fool. There is a perfectly good bike lane to use there, and he goes and rides on a motorway.
Was having a chat to some local riders and they gave this bloke the nickname of 'white line warrior' cause he trains right on the white line of the lane.
 
ScottD said:
This guy is a fool. There is a perfectly good bike lane to use there, and he goes and rides on a motorway.
Was having a chat to some local riders and they gave this bloke the nickname of 'white line warrior' cause he trains right on the white line of the lane.
Click to expand...


"someone will no doubt point out that the M7 is provided with a $40M segregated shared use cycle path, which the riders weren't using. Such a comment of course completely ignores the fact that the M7 shoulder is also designated for use by cyclists (and is clearly signposted as such)."
 
What reason would the guy of had for riding on the freeway as opposed to the bike path then? Less cyclists in his way?
 
RCOH said:
"someone will no doubt point out that the M7 is provided with a $40M segregated shared use cycle path, which the riders weren't using. Such a comment of course completely ignores the fact that the M7 shoulder is also designated for use by cyclists (and is clearly signposted as such)."
Click to expand...


ScottD said:
This guy is a fool. There is a perfectly good bike lane to use there, and he goes and rides on a motorway.
Was having a chat to some local riders and they gave this bloke the nickname of 'white line warrior' cause he trains right on the white line of the lane.
Click to expand...
My thoughts are somewhere between you guys.:cool:

There is a perfectly good cycle lane the whole length of the M7. If this guy had used it, he would be alive today.

Cyclists do have the right to use the breakdown lane on the M7, and yes, it is signposted, also with cycle stencils on the road.

But the fact is, we ALL know drivers make mistakes, and for a cyclist on a tollway with a 100kmh limit, that mistake is pretty likely to be a fatal one for the cyclist. I tend toward ScottD, he is very foolish to have been riding on the tollway when there is a cycle lane on the side of the road. But that does not reduce the tragedy.

Lebronmtb - the cycle lane does have other cyclists, often families. Also walkers use it. And it does meander a little at times around certain corner sections, meaning you are not able to just sit and crank hard as you would in the breakdown lane.

I ride the M7 cycleway about once a month and I would NEVER consider riding along the breakdown lane for exactly the reason that has unfortunately happened to this bloke. For the benefit of less interruptions and less corners he has ended up dead.

I NEVER trust a driver, not when the consequence is my life.
 
scblack said:
I NEVER trust a driver, not when the consequence is my life.
Click to expand...

this...

this is the main reason we gave up our first love, motorcycling..... and why we've never really been pushbike riding on a road for a long time. The small amount of road riding we've done, have been on semi rural roads out west sydney... which has very few cars and just miles and miles to ride....

Feel sorry for all the riders involved, but the laws of physics are against you if the vehicle driver makes a mistake - and in writing that, kinda feel sorry for the truck driver... We're sure his nights wont be filled with sleep, and his life is probably pretty much ruined....

With no concern to the legallity of it, can a road rider help spanky understand the attraction to the M4, M7 and other similar multilane high speed roads?? Is it just the long, uninterrupted journey? Not hassling anyone, or putting sh*t on roadies for any reason.... just trying to get some insight into why its done..... as opposed to say, heading out to (say) Llandilo in far western sydney for a peddle on the back roads where cars are in the minority?

s

p.s. note: spanky does live out westy land..... thats why he mentioned Llandilo... plus, it has TWO L's at the start..... and sounds welsh....
 
Spanky, it is a similar reason to why I used to commute straight up Military Road to the city as opposed to the back-roads.

Main roads tend to follow the line of least resistance.

Military Road is built along a ridge-line in a hilly part of Sydney, and the back streets are designed to stop motorists from taking shortcuts. So that means that the alternatives are slow, hilly, and meander all over the place.

I have never ridden the M7 freeway, or the M7 bike path, however I understand that the path meanders all over the place and is shared with pedestrians, making it impractical and possibly unsafe to ride at speed. Read the link I posted earlier for first-hand accounts of this.

In addition to this, a breakdown lane is inherently safe as cars and trucks don't usually travel in it. Yes it is there for emergencies, but would our reactions be the same if a truck ad killed 'dad' changing a flat tyre, or someone walking to the emergency phone? I doubt it.

ps, Scott, this is the first reference to the 'white line warrior' thing I have heard or seen online or in the media (ie in public). True or not it is a pretty big call to be making from 'friend of a friend of mine' information. I know that you ride a lot of road yourself, but a cyclist has been killed here. Personally, I would not want to speculate on the circumstances of the truck driver or the cyclist yet.

Cheers guys, this is a pretty touchy subject.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top