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Tuesday, March 8, 2016

International Women's Day & cycling forever sexist in Australia


Blissful time in Japan, where no-one carps on about your cycling clothes, or your cycling headgear ...


... or even your fabulous cycling footgear.


All of the above, 'de rigeur' in Japan


Oh but that is not the case in Australia ... and alas this week my body is back in this 'sexist-back-water' (but not my heart) and now I find myself up to my ears in pending court cases ... sigh


$$$ Wednesday 23 March: District Court, Newcastle, NSW
$$$ Tuesday 5 April: Magistrates Court, Adelaide, South Australia
$$$ Tuesday 12 April: Local Court, Waverley, NSW


The Adelaide matter arrived yesterday morning in the form of a summons, and hand delivered by two uniformed NSW police officers.

After the initial terror of two police standing on my back doorstep and being assured all was alright with my world (my heart always skips a beat), they proceeded to hand-over the curial paperwork.


No time for tea as they had just had a cuppa, we did have time for a chat, with them curious to know whether I would persist with my campaign. They seemed to think this would be the last of it now that the fines have been bumped up exponentially, but I assured them that it would not.


Baffled, they wanted to know why yet they were not convinced by my answer ... you know, sticking properties of helmets, rapid deceleration of the brain in an accident, often more than one impact received by the 'only-safe-for-one-impact' helmet in an accident, lack of class one evidence (or any evidence for that matter) proving helmets make you safer when riding a bicycle to the shops ... yawn.

They trotted out usual twaddle about all the unreported cycling accidents that never make it to hospital - wtf - and how safe airbags are and how they wouldn't get into cars without them, and then they toddled off and got into their 'airbagged' (I presume) paddy-wagon, and I entered the new court date onto my calendar.

Over twenty years in the making, this half-baked shite about and towards cyclists is representative of Australian community attitudes, and underpins a conflicted culture of sexism and demonisation.

Alarmingly the hostility on Australian streets now is 'writ large' and cycling to get bread and milk has never been so nasty or toxic.

Well done, politicians of Australia, well done, ignorant men of Australia, and well done, bicycle advocacy groups of Australia!

You've all played your part in this sorry Australian saga of bicycle transport affairs.

You're all rubbish, and just look at the mess you've landed us in!

So remembering that it's International Women's Day today, here's a little bloggy chant from me ...

"What do we want?"

"Equality!"

"When do we want it?"



6 comments:

  1. Nice photos.
    Australia: bikes == cars
    Japan: bikes ~= pedestrians
    Look at where that got us.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good on you Sue, keep fighting the good fight! I'm off to court for a helmet fine too.

    With you in spirit!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm really supportive of your opposition to these stupid laws Sue, and I greatly admire your courage. I'm totally happy for people to wear a helmet if and where they choose, but I totally agree with your desire for personal choice.

    Just one thing though. I really wish that you weren't trying to make this a female discrimination or sexism thing. I believe that these laws impact on just as many (if not more) males as they do females.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm really supportive of your opposition to these stupid laws Sue, and I greatly admire your courage. I'm totally happy for people to wear a helmet if and where they choose, but I totally agree with your desire for personal choice.

    Just one thing though. I really wish that you weren't trying to make this a female discrimination or sexism thing. I believe that these laws impact on just as many (if not more) males as they do females.

    ReplyDelete