From our earliest days we start to learn, through our school years this is built on and expanded to a point where we are fired at the adult world, only to find that the learning curve has still got a long way to go.
As adults we learn to compromise, adjust and co-operate; we even learn to obey the rules of a society that until you leave the sanctuary of the home/ school life you rarely have to deal with. Road rules, for example, aren’t something that are designed for toddlers, but even at an early age it is beneficial to understand the basics, such as looking for cars, holding mum or dad’s hand and not playing on the road. Yes, even toddlers can grasp that much.
Growing up in a world that is on the brink of automobile saturation can make life a little scary for the many teenagers who want to get mobile. Traffic moves pretty quickly in these modern times, and there’s plenty of it in the main centres so you have to have your wits about you and observe certain rules.
Of course, you don’t have to have an automobile to get mobile, you can always ride a bicycle, it’s pretty cheap transport and you get fresh air and exercise into the bargain. However, you are still bound by those pesky rule things, they’re everywhere. You must wear a helmet, for example, it’s compulsory in New Zealand, and you must not ride on the motorway — it’s against the law as well as being dangerous.
Auckland Harbour Bridge is part of Auckland’s motorway system and therefore you can expect to drive your automobile over the bridge, within the speed limit, at any time on any day. You’re a motorist, you paid for the road and you have every right to use the road or the bridge, or any part of the roading system for that matter, unless, of course there are some protesting cyclists who would take it upon themselves to hold up law abiding motorists for 90 minutes just to make a point.
It would appear that the cyclists want a cycleway attached to the bridge but Transit has deemed it unfeasible. So there you go, it’s been looked into, it isn’t happening, get over it.
The word selfish doesn’t come close to describing the actions of these clowns, and I make no apology for using the word ‘clown’ because that’s what they are. Cycling or walking (I saw one woman with a pram) onto a motorway is lunacy, and at that point this group lost all credibility in my eyes. Transit said they were not to cross, police were in attendance to keep order (that’s their job) and blow me down, off go the protesters gleefully flouting the law, jeopardising their own safety and that of others and inconveniencing thousands of motorists who paid for the darned road in the first place!
What this tells the world is that if you have a noisy minority group who want to make a point to their nation then you can do so by pushing past hapless police, shoving Transit representatives aside and holding up traffic at will.
Incredibly, Supt. Bill Searle stated on nationwide television that he was “proud” of the action police took. Surely he was joking? Why were there no arrests? I would have thought that a handful of bobbies can grab a few old ladies and make an example of them to ensure that they and their ilk think twice about rampaging onto the bridge a second time. It smacks of football hooliganism and usually police take a dim view of it, making arrests on the day and afterward using videotape of events to identify law breakers. There’s plenty of tape available; go nail some of those lawless cyclists. Could the organiser not be charged with inciting civil disobedience or something?
Seriously; if there are that many people who want to walk and cycle to work then build them a walkway/ cycleway and put a toll on it, just like they do for cars and trucks. User pays. Cyclists haven’t paid for the motorways so they should damn-well stay off them!
Illustration by Steve Richards
