While it’s fair to say the Safe Passing Laws are well intentioned (especially where children are involved) it’s also true far too many cycling advocates are obsessed with recreational outrage on social media nowadays. If a motor vehicle passes a cyclist with less than the minimum separation distance – even if by just a millimeter – cycling advocates no longer care about the ACTUAL danger that was presented to a cyclist. Instead, it’s seen as an opportunity to seek notoriety on social media.
So, without further ado, please decide for yourself whether Gareth Lock (the protagonist in this article) is in the right or in the wrong.
Gareth Lock, a cycling advocate who is well known as CycleOps70 on Twitter for his extreme anti-motorist views, recently posted a video in an effort to portray himself as a “victim of institutional bigotry and prejudice” by the West Australian Police. A preposterous claim of course, but that’s how two-wheeled social justice warriors like Gareth Lock tend to think these days.
Modern cycling advocates love to play the victim. They often refer to themselves as a “minority group”. Yes, you heard that right. In our view it’s pretty hard to describe yourself as “a minority group” when you’re a middle aged, middle class white guy and you’re pursuing a hobby that you can walk away from at any time… but whatever.
That said, when it comes to cyclists who deliberately expose themselves to danger just to get more clicks, Gareth Lock is hardly a high water mark. Not even close. Make sure to read our article about Cameron Frewer – The Most Pointless Cycling Death Of All Time.
Racing cyclists are well aware there's an expectation they'll ride in a professional manner when they're on a ride, and that includes keeping a straight line. In that context, quite frankly Gareth Lock is a terrible bike rider. He's really bad.
In case you don’t know, there’s a practice cyclists engage in known as ‘taking the lane’. Essentially the goal is to move into the middle of a lane and then impede the ability for other road users to pass. Quite frankly, when cyclists ‘take the lane’ they are, in effect, daring other road users to hit them. Mostly it works out OK, but occasionally they pick the wrong guy.
More importantly, there is currently no law which says how late a cyclist can leave it BEFORE they “take the lane”. They don’t have to indicate, indeed, they don’t even have to look. As a motorist you’re expected to predict a cyclist is going to “take the lane” at any time.
In his video, Gareth Lock tries to ‘take the lane’ in front of a ten ton truck. Now, think about that for a moment. Gareth is obviously not the brightest bulb in the box. But on top of that, he can’t ride a straight line to save his life. Imagine riding a bike with a really bad case of Parkinson’s Disease and perhaps you’ll get an idea how bad a cyclist Gareth Lock actually is.
During their investigation, the West Australian police considered Gareth Lock's written complaint, and in their response they warned him to stop doing what he was doing because his behaviour, in and of itself, constitutes a traffic offence.
Not only that, perhaps the most damning evidence is this next shot of an empty shared path next to the main road – a shared path clearly marked for pedestrians AND cyclists. In fairness, Gareth Lock did indeed choose a shared path – it’s simply that HIS version of a shared path includes deadly ten ton trucks. Most reasonable people look at these sorts of choices as poor choices. But if you’re a road cyclist, poor choices comes with the territory it seems.
In response to the cyclist’s written complaint, the official response by West Australian police stated the driver passed close “due largely to the fact that your actions of moving out in to the west bound lane to impede the truck driver’s path have decreased the available passing distance to him. This action, in and of itself, constitutes an offence.”
It will come as no surprise Australia’s cyclists are livid with this outcome. From their perspective, the Safe Passing Laws are meant to elevate cyclists to a sort of ‘protected species status’. For several years now, cycling advocates have been urging cyclists to “take the lane” every time they don’t want to be passed by a motor vehicle. This result puts all of that into question.
And to that we say “Well Done West Australian Police!” Some common sense has finally entered the chat. It’s ridiculous cyclists can play chicken with a vehicle, and somehow motorists are responsible for the poor choices being made by cyclists when that happens.
