While you're at it Dave, go have a look at the cycleway/footpath along QEII Drive. It's not all nice & smooth & easy to access - there are tree roots growing up through it, at some places it's less than 20cm wide thanks to detritus and crumbling asphalt. Since the council's moratorium on cycle facilities was repealed, nothing's been done to maintain most of the off-road cycleways in the city. All the money in the cycle facilities budget seems to have gone on painting new cycle lanes on surface roads, but not on maintanance of existing paths.

Having said that, I'd rather use the cycle path than contend with the cars on that stretch of road, and any cyclist who takes to an 80km/h stretch in the dark & fog without lights & reflective gear is just making the world harder for the rest of us.

Could I please have a blog site in which I could report every traffic trangression I witness from motorists each morning? What a pointless waste of space.

In the shifting and constant battle between cyclists and motorists, the self righteous cretins stand out time and time again. As a cyclist and motorist I get annoyed with the self righteous cyclists who ride two abreast to have a chat. If they have the breath to chat they are not cycling hard enough. Of course the two you encountered could be competing for the Darwin awards and therefore their death wish is explained. It is just a pity the motorist seems always to blame and has to get a scratch in their paint because of idiots.

From another cyclists POV I agree with Alice that often bike paths are certainly not what they seem from cars, however as she stated those two were grade A dinguses.

Absolute minimum that I go riding with at night here in Auckland (not exactly known to be particularly foggy) is three rear lights (one static and two flashing - one particularly bright) and one flashing on the front.

It actually worries me when I see people on bikes in dark clothes and no lights at night and a few times before today in particularly dark areas I've deliberately sat behind them so passing cars see me and hopefully see them too.

Alice2 is correct, that cycleway is far from "smooth, pleasant tarmac". I do agree that riding two abreast in the fog is silly, but why should they be wearing brightly coloured clothes? Is this now mandatory?

Do you hate cyclists that much? What's your rush? As it's been mentioned, most cycleways are crumbling and covered in rubbish. You should ride to work for a week then think before you post such dribble.

Dear Dave, you are once again judging all cyclists by the actions of the idiot few. There will always be idiots on the roads whether they are in cars or on bikes and judging all by the actions of the idiot few would imply that you lack the mental ability to distinguish the difference. Each time you shout out your bicycle racism from your little soap box I cringe. Stick to talking about cars Dave and stop perpetuating the cyclist/motorist hate. Cyclists and motorists get on fine together on the roads of Europe, why are we so uncivilized over here?? I think a lot of it has to do with the attitude of the road users.

Learn to drive to the conditions Dave. If you needed ABS, then clearly you were driving outside your vision.

The fog is in your brain, Dave. Maybe you should go and read the Road Code - cyclists don't have to use cycle lanes, and perhaps if you had ever tried to use some cycle lanes yourself you would find that they are generally poorly constructed and poorly maintained, covered in glass, recycle bins, and the debris left when middle aged men crash their motors into each other. I'm not condoning riding two abreast, however - they should have been single file - but really Dave, haven't you got anything better to write about today? Get a life.

Rick # 5 - not mandatory, just common sense. As a cyclist, given what will almost certainly happen to me if struck by a vehicle (regardless of whose fault it was), I do my utmost to make bloody sure motorists see me. The would-be fashionistas who periodically complain about cyclists' garish clothing are totally missing the point. If someone's complaining it's garish, that means they've seen it, and therefore it's done its job.

Rocketman # 2 - such a spectacular display of OTT defensiveness makes me wonder if you were one of the two cretins Dave encountered?