On reasonable care

I finally remembered what the hell it was I wanted to post on the other day. I remembered while riding into town on Gardiners Creek bike path tonight. This bike path has two detours on it at the moment.. both arguably very very lethal and it occurred to me that no one would dare do something equivalent on a major road. Someone would get seriously hurt... the appropriate authority would get their ass sued off... and while I am not in favor of the current massively litigious nature of society, they would deserve it. And everyone concerned knows it. And so the really stupid does not happen. But bike paths are open slather. And the truly stupid happens all the time

I have probably raved about this before. But it deserves a rave. Eastlink bike path has bits only experts can ride up. It has wooden bridges.. lethal when damp and when icy with downhill curves on them and grates in the middle of the path on blind corners. Gardiners creek currently has a plywood 180 degree 1 metre radius downhill corner on a detour in a part of the path prone to ice. The Dandenong creek path has seen a guy killed recently on a part of the path that Parks Victoria had been warned about repeatedly. They have effectively and competently solved the problem tho. Or not. There have been other fatal accidents on Melbourne bike paths And oopses beyond number.

As I said you could not get away with doing this sort of thing on the road. And the idea of getting cyclists.. wearing cleated shoes as many will be, to get off and walk, is just insane. Way more dangerous walking than riding. A sign saying "ride at walking pace' would at least make some sense. You think 40 kph zones are nuts try.. "walking pace only signs" The problem is that bikes are supposed to be an actual mode of transport. The way the councils get away with it is to say that all bike paths are shared paths and that they only have to make them safe for pedestrians. And pedestrians not wearing bike shoes at that. Its nuts.

And bike paths do appear to be designed by the work experience guy. Drunk. A man who has never actually seen a bike. And thinks of them as.. maybe roller blades. Rather than the most efficient mode of transport in a energy expended sense ever. As I said nuts.

I went to a seminar on motorcycle safety earlier this year. I suggested that people hired as road engineers by VicRoads should at least be able to ride a motorcycle and drive a truck. Not that hard one would have thought. Nope. Heaven forbid people design stuff they have a clue about. Was not an idea that met with much approval. Bugger.

We pay insurance in case we actually screw a clients data up accidently, and we make seriously best efforts to not do this. My dentist rings up to make sure nothing went wrong. Reasonable care is required by the law in many endeavors and its a reasonable requirement. Why then when its absolutely obvious, at least to any thinking person with a clue about cycling that a bit of cycling infrastructure is lethal do the people concerned not have a duty.. or even think they have a moral duty, to take reasonable care? Its not actually very much to ask.

Heavy experimentation with google addwords at PerfectNotes at the moment. This sort of targeted advertising is brilliant. Am talking to a couple of clients about targeted advertising on their behalf. This stuff is absolutely brilliant. Mark has been using it to sell his bonsai for a while already.