EDITOR – Susan from Hillcrest addressed a frequently-raised issue that always makes me wish common sense can be genetically implanted into all people (Highway Mail, week ending, 8 April). There seems to be an undeclared war waging between users of the roads, a war that seems more prominent in KZN but is most certainly not absent in the rest of SA.
I am a runner, a road cyclist, a motorcyclist but also a motorist. I have seen the debates from all point of views and I have at some stage or the other experienced disregard from all of the aforementioned groups. I have seen and experienced first-hand the reasons why each group respectively dislikes the other and feels the other is at fault.
I have had close encounters in all forms as well as serious incidents on the road. I have been knocked off my bicycle head-on by a drunk driver, my father killed in the same incident and my wife miraculously escaping death after being hit by a car in a separate incident. So I have had my fair share of experience.
The problem with most situations similar to the one Susan found herself in is that it always becomes a blame game and is highlighted in the title, ‘Who has right of way?’ If motorists insist on right of way on a narrow road, what do they expect of the cyclists, more than riding single file, keeping as far left as possible? Riders can only reduce the space they take up by so much. This is where the PPA’s Keep Wider of the Rider campaign comes in. The campaign was raised to request motorists to keep 1.5 metres between their vehicles and cyclists when passing so we can all get back home safely with no incidents, however big small they may be.
Cyclists should earn motorists’ respect by following the rules of the road, riding in single file, keeping left, indicating and stopping and yielding as you would as a motorist.
Yes, motorists may claim right of way and cyclists may think they do not need to follow the rules of the road, but at the end of the day, if we cannot put our pride in our pockets and rather ask how we can be more considerate to other road users (instead of whose right it is), pedestrian, runner and cyclist deaths on the roads will continue to rise and motorists will continue finding more and more reasons not to consider other road users.
Lastly, as for cyclists using ‘narrow and windy roads’ as described in the letter, motorist should consider the following: after the recent incident in which two cyclists were tragically killed on the M4, cycling clubs were urged to request their riders not to use any freeways. My club specifically asked members to keep off the M13, M7, M19, M4 and naturally, the N2 and N3. If we are not allowed on those roads, there is not much that remains other than narrow and windy roads.
This war will never end unless we all adjust our attitudes.
Cedric Olivier
Waterfall
