Posts by Deborah
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Done.
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It’s hard work getting a bicycle going again from a full stop, and it’s my work not the un-work of a tank full of petroleum pixies.
Really? I don't find it so, especially if I have one foot on the ground, and the other on the pedal with the pedal at top and just to the front right ready for a strong push-off. And it's just what comes with the territory when I choose to ride my bike, just as paying over $2 per litre for petrol is what comes with the territory when I choose to drive my car.
I think Christopher Dempsey has got a point when it comes to safety, and there are clearly times when in order to stay alive, a cyclist has to break the road code. Cycling through the top of a t-intersection on a red light doesn't strike me as one of them, 'though I'm sure that there have been particular occasions when safety demands it. Likewise with turning left through a red light.
I know that as a driver, I get a shock when I am driving through an intersection, on a green, and suddenly a cyclist pops up, unexpectedly because *I* am the one with the green, not the cyclist.
As a cyclist, I stick to the road code, unless immediate safety needs dictate otherwise, because then other road users have a much better chance of predicting what I will do. That's also why I indicate when I'm cycling - big clear hand signals that I maintain for as long as possible, so that other road users have a good understanding of where I intend to go and they can react accordingly.
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Hard News: When "common sense" isn't, in reply to Matthew Poole,
So... the road code doesn't apply to cyclists?
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You should all come and live in Palmerston North, where there are cycle lanes everywhere, and a physically separate lane for the busiest route out to the university where the speed limit is 70k, and lots of cyclists, so there's good awareness.
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Hard News: The Wogistan form book, in reply to Nathaniel Wilson,
Kathryn Ryan took Prosser to task on the ‘all terrorists are Muslims’ line on Nine to Noon. It’s worth listening to the whole thing.
Kathryn Ryan interviewing Richard Prosser: MP3, 22 mins
(Edited to fix goof-up where I said it was on Morning Report. Thanks for catching it, Sacha.) -
'though while we talking about the current round of Muslim-bashing, it's also worth reading what anjum has to say about it.
we go through this once every 6 months or so. if it's not women wearing burqa's banned from buses, it's cartoons, it's various politicians or authors. some little spark and "we" get to have "the debate" all over again as to whether muslims are good or bad, happy or sad. leaders of political parties get to have their faces in the news and posture about inclusiveness and to express OUTRAGE at such terrible remarks. let's see how many political points we can score on the back of this current incident.
frankly, i'm sick of these conversations and i'm sick being used as a political tool. and that is exactly what happened in this case.
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Hard News: Triangulated by Fools, in reply to Keir Leslie,
Of course, the alternative disconnected-from-reality discourse is that Shearer is a lovely man who is an excellent leader and any stumble he makes is all the fault of that wicked David Cunliffe...
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Hard News: Calling the race before it's over, in reply to Paul Williams,
@Paul Williams.... :-) Contemplating what I might do.
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I’m finding the backlash a bit odd and distasteful right now.
A bit cryptic for me, Russell (which may possibly be because I’m several glasses of wine up). The backlash against DS et al, or the backlash against DC et al?
ETA: The several glasses of wine are due to work related issues, not angst over today's events.
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Sadly my eyes have gone bung, and I can’t read my computer screen anymore.
Bloody hell! I hope that the optometrist can help.
Also, great column.