On Saturday morning we took Miss (10) and Master (6) Jnr Rouleur out for a lap around the River (East Perth; City Loop; Freeway Bike Path back to Como). The bulk of the ride was fabulous – Miss and Master had a ball and all on the route were well behaved, polite and patient….until….
..turning on to the Freeway Bike Path, it all become quite the ordeal in trying to negotiate our progress safely and without mishap.
Now, we’ve all been guilty of putting ourselves into the red zone once in a while and testing the boundaries of our capacity to hang on. Davina was most recently a victim of such an attempt. On more than several occasions I sought to protect the Jnrs from being splatted by numerous crazies riding at their max. I was genuinely surprised that, when I looked forward at the next marauding group descending upon our little brood, just how many times one, two or even three riders (usually at the back of the pack) wobbled away and crossed over onto our side of the path. The wind chewed up and spat out my feeble attempts (politely of course) to call out in advance that there were small children on the path and could they refrain from their lane hogging ways; alas, to no avail.
We did, in the end, voluntarily eject ourselves from the path 2 overpasses early and sought the sanctuary OF THE ROAD on the other side. Funny, huh? I’d rather take my chances with cars and have the kids on the road…?!
So, as the 2nd (and probably soon to be the largest affiliated club in WA), I’d like to make a call out to all members of SPR, that we continue to take the lead on modeling the desired behaviours on bikes. Sometimes this is difficult (we all cross the road at the red man), but unless each and every one of us actively and individually demonstrate the right safety behaviours, I firmly believe that a) someone will really get hurt and b) our kids won’t have a safe set of paths to ride on in the future (they do as we do).
In the main, we’re pretty good….although I did notice that this morning’s ride had a number of people cutting the corners on the Majestic decent (top and bottom)…..there was a rider ascending who got the fright of his life, and a car turning in at the bottom that, but for the grace of God, didn’t clean anyone up.
Be safe….go home to your kids.
The freeway bike path is the most dangerous part of the early morning ride !
Agreed – I regularly ride south (ie: against the morning traffic flow) on Tues or Thurs mornings around 7.00 and every ride I am amazed by the d**kheads or packs riding through the old narrow black bitumen sections of the path, two up and at full pelt towards me with their wheels and/or bars on myside of the centre line. Over the years I have seen many ambulances parked on the side of the freeway attending to a cyclists with broken bits and bloodied faces, and yet we still don’t collectively learn – ego and stupidity rules OK.
The law is quite unequivocal: The WA Road Traffic Code (Reg 216 (4) & (5) ) prohibits cyclists from riding two up on a bike or shared path – unless overtaking another cyclist.
Good comments and well written. Lets not be the club that is known for how poorly we ride, but for the club that takes the lead with these things and show people what to do by example, especially (but not only) when wearing club kit.