Letter to the Editor: The right to ride

DEAR News Of The Area,

IN response to the death of a rider in Sydney recently, the NSW premier proposed new rules to halve the power and speed of e-bikes to 250watts and 25kmh-30kmh respectively (Guardian, 2 December).

This is great news.

If you want to go faster than that on a bike, do the training, put on the lycra and knock yourself out.

But why, after every pedestrian and cyclist death on NSW roads, is there no government action on the speed and power of cars?

Why doesn’t the premier respond to every child killed by a car or truck with a promise to halve the speed and power of road vehicles?

A cynic would say because it would be political suicide to care about the lives of children and cyclists more than the rights of genitally challenged men to drive really fast in three-tonne FU machines.

But the deeper reason is that we are all immune to the death-dealing of cars.

We are so enculturated to think in terms of car entitlement – that the rights of cars supersede everything else – so we accept a few dead children because it’s just part of the natural order.

We’ve even built this into our urban planning so that we have houses, and roads for cars, and nothing else.

Not even sidewalks for kids to walk safely on.

But really there’s no objective reason why cars should take priority over other ways of getting around, it just takes political will to change things and this is where you come in.

Don’t just resign yourself to the inevitability of people being killed.

Demand that your planners and decision-makers uphold your right to be safe from cars, whether by limiting cars or by protecting you and your kids when you exercise your right to walk or ride.

Regards,
Marcus BAYNES-ROCK,
Coffs Harbour.