Walking home, I was raging about pedestrians being booked when the real problem (in my opinion) is 'rogue' cyclists. The streets are one way anyway so relatively safe for pedestrians, except for the fact they have to look both ways before crossing a one way street, not for cars, but cyclists.
Fuck! I was waiting to cross Elizabeth Street from the 'island' on Devonshire Street one night a few months back. I waited until the traffic was stopped for the lights on Elizabeth Street, and there were no cars coming up Devonshire Street from Central, so I stepped out into the road, and promptly missed a cyclist by inches. Where did he fucking come from? I was so shocked I screamed out 'CUNT!' much to the amusement of a couple next to me. The fucking cyclist had come out of Rutland Street and cycled diagonally across Elizabeth Street. Why would I look left when it's a one way street?
I don't hate cyclists and I loved cycling in England, but I don't see why I should have to give way to them here in Surry Hills? They want motorists to give way to them, so why don't they give way to pedestrians?
What gets up my nose is that they reserve the right to cycle wherever they want. If the road is too busy, they cycle on the pavement, and expect pedestrians to get out of the way. Whenever I walk to the junction of Elizabeth and Cleveland Streets, I always peek around the side of Nada's restaurant in case any cyclist is barrelling down Cleveland St and across the lights on Elizabeth Street.
Bourke Street has a 'proper' cycleway and when Clover Moore created it, they cut the width of the road for traffic. No problem, except when you have to pass cyclists who ride on the road because the cycleway is too crowded for them. It's the same sometimes on Darley? Street up towards Bronte and Clovelly, where the pavement is a shared route for cyclists and pedestrians, but some cyclists stay on the road, and the road is too fucking narrow to overtake them safely.
Once I got home I fired off an angry rant to the NSW Police Commisioner, and a letter to my MP, or rather NOT my MP as I'd forgotten I'm under Newtown now.
Rant begins (or rather second rant!)
I saw some police on the corner of Elizabeth and Devonshire
Streets this afternoon with a couple of 'suspects' whom I assumed were
'criminals' but I was told in the pub that they were booked for jaywalking.
I live in Surry Hills and since I moved back here from the
UK seven years ago, I have had to learn a new set of road rules:
Always look both ways before crossing the pavement.
Always give way to cyclists when I'm walking on the
pavement.
Always look both ways on one way streets (like the two
streets above) before crossing.
Always look both ways on pedestrian crossing, even if the
pedestrian lights are 'green' and/or the vehicles have all stopped.
Why? Because of cyclists continually breaking the rules and
it happens EVERY day in Surry Hills. I was waiting for a bus at Central to the
city today and I was nearly hit by a cyclist (and cyclists are supposed to
dismount within 20/30 metres of the Devonshire Street entrance.
I don't understand why you can't operate a 'blitz' on
cyclists around this area.
I know jaywalking is a problem but as both a pedestrian and
a motorist, I see more problems from cyclists. (I notice too, that cyclists can
ride around at night without showing lights and never seemingly get booked.
Again, every day I drive at night through Surry Hills, I see cyclists dressed
in dark clothes without lights.
The real danger for pedestrians is not jaywalking on
Elizabeth Street and Devonshire Street, but on the street about 30 metres south
which leads to Chalmers Street. It is a two way street and pedestrians have to
look back down Elizabeth Street and up
Devonshire Street for vehicles turning left into Elizabeth, then immediately
right. There was an accident there a couple of days ago involving a car and a
motor scooter. It is a horrible junction.
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