Shane Warne

clarkey cat

Shane Warne smashed my mate's missus. He found out about it when he saw it on the front page of the Mirror.

He phoned her, heartbroken and she said "sorry, its over - Im using the money the paper gave me to go travelling. Bye!"

He's a ledge.

SimonAH

Ah.

Sorry Matt, in that case I have not communicated well.

The Shane Ward action (and the many more similar events that we hear about on a regular basis) was inexcusable – and TBH I thought it so obviously inexcusable that I assumed that my view on this was taken as read. I was really only commenting on the secondary issue here which is the comments left after the article on the newspaper website and the apparently mainstream anti-cyclist sentiment that they espouse. An apologist for bad and dangerous driving is not something I will ever be.

The common threads used to justify these anti-cyclist opinions are;

1) Cyclists should pay road tax (or rego or VED or whatever) and,
2) That cyclists flout the rules of the road and break the law with abandon because they can’t be traced, and finally
3) That cyclists hold up traffic

Well the first is unlikely to become law, primarily because of the difficulty in administering it (who is responsible for paying the VED for a child’s bike used in the park?) and the fact that there are so many millions of unregistered bikes out there. Regardless of whether or not we pay a tax for the privilege of riding on the road, we are permitted to do so and there are rules of conduct we are obliged to follow (and rules of conduct that motorists are obliged to follow when interacting with bicyclists).

The second is not justified by the fact that vehicle drivers also break myriads of rules – it simply allows them to point the finger and froth – and is the easiest thing to change to improve the image of cycling surely?

The third is sometimes inevitable, but with courteous riding I’ve never (so far) had this cause a problem.

mudcow007

clarkey cat wrote:

Shane Warne smashed my mate's missus. He found out about it when he saw it on the front page of the Mirror.

He phoned her, heartbroken and she said "sorry, its over - Im using the money the paper gave me to go travelling. Bye!"

He's a ledge.

when i grow up i wanna be like warne!!

veronese68

Rick Chasey wrote:

The solution, is probably never going to happen.

FTFY

W1

BigMat wrote:

W1 wrote:

BigMat wrote:

[
@ W1 - I think you are getting a tad panicked here. The prospect of being licenced / registered / insured doesn't really worry me. Firstly, I have no real objection to any of that, but mainly because it is completely unfeasible and will never happen. Expect more of the same - increasing numbers of cyclists, increasing numbers of idiots berating us. A few jumping red lights or not isn't going to make a huge difference (IMO).

Probably. I hope I'm wrong. I used to think like you - but I'm not so sure anymore.

I would object to having to jump through red-tape and (expensive) hoops because a significant minority can't comprehend the abuse of the freedoms that we currently have.

The administrative burden would be massively disproportionate, then there's the issue of what to do about children, how to enforce and what benefit there might actually be. I guess it could happen, but there'd be a huge backlash as it flies in the face of common sense especially when looked at from a health / environmental perspective. I'd be happy to face compulsory third party insurance to cycle on the roads though - might make obtaining that sort of cover more straightforward.

I'm concious of the issues - but I am long since believing that a mere administrative cock up/nightmare that will result would be a barrier to a government introducing more red tape!

simon_e

W1 wrote:

BigMat wrote:

[
@ W1 - I think you are getting a tad panicked here. The prospect of being licenced / registered / insured doesn't really worry me. Firstly, I have no real objection to any of that, but mainly because it is completely unfeasible and will never happen. Expect more of the same - increasing numbers of cyclists, increasing numbers of idiots berating us. A few jumping red lights or not isn't going to make a huge difference (IMO).

Probably. I hope I'm wrong. I used to think like you - but I'm not so sure anymore..

You can relax.
http://ipayroadtax.com/licensed-to-cycl ... -to-cycle/
In these financially constrained times there are many bigger fish to fry. And note that it's a small number of not-very-influential bigmouths that are spouting about it, bigoted fools with nothing better to do.

gtvlusso

mudcow007 wrote:

clarkey cat wrote:

Shane Warne smashed my mate's missus. He found out about it when he saw it on the front page of the Mirror.

He phoned her, heartbroken and she said "sorry, its over - Im using the money the paper gave me to go travelling. Bye!"

He's a ledge.

when i grow up i wanna be like warne!!

To be honest - you would not want the old bird back after Warne spun one into her middle stump......

simon_e

clarkey cat wrote:

Shane Warne smashed my mate's missus. He found out about it when he saw it on the front page of the Mirror.

He phoned her, heartbroken and she said "sorry, its over - Im using the money the paper gave me to go travelling. Bye!"

A cheap tart, obviously (like Warne himself).

I hope your mate has found someone better since then, though it shouldn't be difficult.

blkmcs

Unfortunately this person is still something of a hero to many bogans downunder and there is anecdotal evidence of an increase in abuse of cyclists since his twitter rants. Few of the local news outlets have bothered to mention independent witnesses who contradict Shame's version of events, the best they do is say the facts are uncertain.
Plenty of discussion here.
http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewt ... 12&t=48453

sfichele

Simon E wrote:

http://ipayroadtax.com/licensed-to-cycl ... -to-cycle/

What a fantastic site and well put argument about the registration and safety of cycles. The video with the red light jumping is haunting.

Oh yeah - and Shane Warne, what a slimey c0ck. Hope he gets his a55 sued

deptfordmarmoset

The man can spin anything.

shouldbeinbed

Oh goody another thread hijacked by 'insert old chestnut here'

But to add my unnecessary two penn'orth to the pointless round robin.

I frequently see cyclists sailing happily through red lights, well after the light is red, when they've had ample warning and every opportunity to safely slow down and stop but have simply chosen not to, often filtering past stationary cars to RLJ. The comparatively very small number of cars I see do it are usually already past the line but held up and choose not to wait/go to clear a yellow hartched box (I know!) or are amber gamblers invariably being tailgated to a degree that to anchor on could easily see them rear-ended. Seen a few crashes like this. Not saying it makes it right but I'm not prepared to be an apologist for blatantly provocative and 99% entirely avoidable illegal cycling.

I can say hand on heart I see 20+ cycling RLJs way after red for any one motorised one usually on the cusp.

As to the Warne thing, shouldn't people be more concerned that he appears to have told a made up version of events & seems to be getting away with using his car as a weapon.

Paulie W

I see just as many cars/vans/lorries going through a red as bikes on my commute (partly I admit a function of the relatively low number of bikes) but the former are nearly always trying and failing (sometimes miserably) to beat the lights whereas the latter are mostly cyclists arriving at a red light slowing down (normally) then progressing through the red. The former action, like speeding, seems to have become acceptable - watched a car make no attempt to stop as the light went red about 3 cars in front of him then watched a police car follow him through the red as the traffic was already moving to their left.