Editorial: Back off

OPINION: The confrontation on Dyers Pass Rd is indicative of a wider problem. Cyclists and motorists are every day all over the country involved in a dance of death.

Mostly the interaction results in no harm done, and mostly there is goodwill on both sides. But too often death and injury result or the participants are consumed by anger and ill will.

Partly this is due to the aggression and silliness that too frequently mark the on-road New Zealand character.

Few citizens will not have been appalled by the me-first assertion of people behind the wheel, the ignoring of basic driving rules and infantile risk-taking.

No doubt other countries experience the same thing but visitors find the yahoo spirit rampant on our roads.

Its expression in the relationship between driver and biker is becoming increasing troublesome as more people take to their bikes and car volumes grow.

The number of biking fatalities and injuries testifies to this, as does the evidence of abuse and intimidation exchanged between the two parties.

Had New Zealand built its roads with a thought to the cycling fraternity much of this confrontation would be avoided.

But in the second half of the 20th century, when a motor car was affordable for all and roads were rolled out to cope with the increase in vehicles, the cyclist was forgotten.

It is only now that cycling is taking over as the exercise of choice for many people, the oil and pollution crisis intrudes and the superbly engineered new-age bikes become available, that cycle lanes are being retro-fitted and engineers putting them into their plans for new roads.

But the attempt to accommodate cyclists on the roading network is far too slow. Thus it is that roads mostly unsuited to safe biking, such as Dyers Pass and the main arteries of Banks Peninsula, are the scene of driver-cyclist confrontation.

Unfortunately, the Government is going backwards on the issue. It has reduced spending on urban cycleways and diverted $50 million into a rural cycleway.

Public opinion will have its say on this imbalance as a great many New Zealanders have some close connection with cyclists.

Official policy – local and national – will thus have to pay more heed to the need to create cycleway networks that allow riders to get to their destinations safely.

The huge expenditure on new roads in Christchurch, typified by the extension to the Southern Motorway, gives the city a chance to ensure full provision is made for cyclists.

This is particularly so because the city provides a mixture of plain and hill ideal for cycling. Provision of the needed facilities should not be a task just for cycle groups but for the city council, because such provision is in all citizens' interest.

In the meantime, all users will have to be more tolerant of the diverse means of transport on our roads.

Drivers will have to disabuse themselves of the notion that they have precedence and cyclist will have to recognise that they must treat vehicles with respect. Calmness and consideration must be the watchwords.

That is needed not just on the road. Discussion should also be temperate – even when posting online.

The contention in Cashmere shows that the web has no privacy and is not a forum for abuse.

- © Fairfax NZ News