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Bikes vs Cars – Road Rules

There has been much debate in the media and on forums everywhere regarding the whole bikes vs cars thing. Whilst most cyclists are well behaved, and most cars are well behaved, i think there are a select few making things bad for everyone by behaving like a child.

So I would just like to clarify things for you all and quote the road code here, just in case anyone was in doubt.

80-90% of Cyclists are also drivers, they pay road taxes, etc and drive on the road just as you do. Stop using this as an argument to justify your bad driving.

It IS legal to ride 2 abreast cycling, this however does take up an entire lane and so single file should be used when overtaking parked cars, or if cars want to get through.

If you are a car, then sometimes they may not notice you behind them, it pays to give a couple of short beeps to let them know you are there. At this point people in bunches will start the call ‘Car Back’ which is passed from rider to rider and they should move into single file.

At the lights,  especially when there are people turning, cyclists will sit in the middle of the lane. This is so that nobody turns in front of them at all, and because they can usually do a fairly fast take off.

Probably the worst situation is the most common, and that’s when a car overtakes a cyclist nicely and without thinking with plenty of gap, then forgets they were there and turns left into a street or driveway effectively cutting them off.  Whilst the crash may be minor for the car involve if the cyclist can brake, a resulting road rash or broken bones etc can sting for some time.

Riding on the footpath is illegal for anyone over 12 who is not a postie, its not an option that works for cyclists. The ‘cycling paths’ that are painted onto footpaths  are great for teenagers and kids, and even those slower riders or beach cruisers, however they are not in any way suitable for anyone riding faster than 15km/ph. The reason is because often people have children and dogs on the same footpaths which are unpredictable and will often jump out in front of you, not to mention people getting in and out of cars which have to cross the cycle path to get to the walking part, and in general people just not honouring the actual ‘cycle path’ part being only for cyclists.

The average roadie speed on the flat is easily near 30km/ph. A lot of people underestimate the speed they are going and think ‘oh they wont get here before i turn’ or similar’. On a downhill, personally, I’ve seen a lot of cyclists doing up to, and over 80km/ph, can you please be aware of this when you are turning and see a cyclist?

Above all, both Cyclists and Drivers, try to be more tolerant and less angry. You dont NEED to get angry if you get cut off, or if somebody over takes you, its ok to just let it go. Life is too short to waste time on pointless anger or in a jail cell/hospital because of it.

http://www.ltsa.govt.nz/roadcode/about-other-road-users/information-for-cyclists.html

Safety rules for cyclists

  • Cyclists must wear an approved safety helmet. Always fasten it securely, by following the manufacturer’s instructions.
  • It’s a good idea to wear brightly coloured or reflective clothing when cycling. That way you’ll be easier to see.
  • Don’t ride your bicycle on a footpath unless you are delivering newspapers, mail or leaflets, or there is a sign indicating it is a shared pedestrian and cycle path.
  • At intersections, you must:
    • follow the rules for motor vehicles, or
    • get off your cycle and walk across.
  • You can only ride alongside another cyclist or moped. You must not ride alongside a car, truck or other motor vehicle.
  • Always ride in single file if passing another vehicle.
  • Your cycle must not be towed by another vehicle.
  • Your cycle can only tow a trailer (one designed to be towed by a cycle) and must not be fitted with a sidecar. Or you can have www.santantowingpros.com tow it for you.
  • You must not carry a pillion passenger on your cycle unless you have a pillion seat and footrest. If you are carrying a child, the pillion seat must protect the child’s legs from the wheels.
  • You must not leave a cycle blocking a footpath.
  • Where there is an adequate cycle path or cycle lane, cyclists should use it.
  • You must ride with lights on when it is dark (from 30 minutes after sunset until 30 minutes before sunrise).
  • You must keep your cycle in good working condition.

http://www.ltsa.govt.nz/roadcode/about-other-road-users/sharing-road-with-cyclists.html

Safe driving around cyclists

  • Hazards like parked cars, potholes, glass, litter and opening car doors may cause cyclists to veer off-line and move into your path. Because of this, give cyclists plenty of room when passing them. Ideally, allow at least 1.5 metres between you and the cyclist.
  • Wait for a clear space before passing a cyclist on a narrow road.
  • At intersections, apply the same rules to cyclists that you would to any other vehicle on the road. Take care to indicate turns.
  • Only drive across cycle lanes when entering or leaving side roads, driveways or parking spaces.
  • If you are crossing a cycle lane, give way to cyclists before you cross.
  • Take extra care around young cyclists.
  • You must not drive in a cycle lane.
Posted on

Hackers in the Media – Autovoting Polls etc

One little thing that REALLY bugs me, is the medias cluelessness about anything computer related at all. Often referring to ‘Hackers’ without a second thought at all.

A few months back a man was harassing another person on trademe, was blocked, and created another trademe account to harass them further. The media titled the article something akin to ‘man hacks trademe to abuse woman’. Hang on, wouldn’t that mean he did something illegal? or had some sort of computer skill? Are they seriously not aware that any old person who knows next too nothing about computers, can use a second email address signed up freely at gmail.com or hotmail.com, and sign up another trademe account?

This happens regularly, and today is no exception. In the media today i see this article. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10606941

Hackers force web poll to close after skewing results

4:00AM Tuesday Nov 03, 2009
By Beck Vass

Online polls on nzherald.co.nz have been pulled until further notice.

Online polls on the Herald’s website nzherald.co.nz have been pulled until further notice after hackers entered the system, skewing the results of three polls.

The polls – which included questions relating to whether people thought Destiny Church was a cult or a church, if people thought it was okay for MP Rodney Hide to take his girlfriend on tour at taxpayers’ expense and if people were sick of being told they were ruining the planet – were hacked late last week.

Jeremy Rees, nzherald.co.nz publisher, said a staff member was alerted to the hacking when, in the space of four hours last Thursday, the Destiny Church poll swung from 97 per cent of people saying it was a cult to 60 per cent saying it was a church, with an unusually high number of responses.

On Friday, the Rodney Hide Poll showed 90 per cent of people thought it was unacceptable that he took his girlfriend Louise Crome overseas, leaving taxpayers to foot the $25,163 bill. But that poll also swung rapidly, moving in favour of the MP.

The poll was pulled down and the one that replaced it asked if people were sick of being told they were ruining the planet and from 4pm it was noticed that the number of votes was unusually high for a Friday afternoon, with about 2000 votes an hour.

Mr Rees said IT specialists were looking into the problems and had identified internet protocol (IP) numbers 118.92.185.135, 118.90.40.97 and 203.109.154.13 as the source of the problems but polls had been stopped until issues were resolved.

While some people might think the poll hacking was a conspiracy from interested parties, that was often not the case, Mr Rees said.

“Often most likely it’s some kind of 18-year-old guy in a black T-shirt who’s bored from looking at the new Google wave [a type of software] product and has decided to take a hack.”

Now, seriously, men in black shirts? really? are we back in the 90s when most people on a computer had to be fairly technical to do such a thing, and usually teenagers ergo wearing black shirts?

I’ve been known to use autovoting a few times on various game websites for a little fun. Its not hacking, its skewing the results for sure, but these are not for a competition, they are not voting for a particular government party, and in fact if they were serious about wanting the results to be accurate they would enforce logins, and dynamic hidden fields to help control it.

I notice that they also have included the IP addresses of the computers that were doing the voting, hmm not such a good idea really to do so, however this illustrates  that these are not ‘hackers’ , they didnt even use an anonymous proxy.

liz@tulip:~$ host 118.92.185.135
135.185.92.118.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer 118-92-185-135.dsl.dyn.ihug.co.nz.
liz@tulip:~$ host 118.90.40.97
97.40.90.118.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer ip-118-90-40-97.xdsl.xnet.co.nz.
liz@tulip:~$ host 203.109.154.13
13.154.109.203.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer atm1-0-939.akl-grafton-car1.ihug.net.

They are using ihug, xnet and the last one looks much like router or business connection – clearly in Grafton Auckland.

Whilst they may have loaded up something simple like greasemonkey on firefox, then written a few lines of code, they more than likely just downloaded an application similar to those used for runescape to automate things.

So, lets get this straight, there is MUCH debate over what a hacker is, and the difference between a hacker, and a cracker. However, neither one covers whatever the heck the medias idea is. They are what’s generally referred to as a pain in the butt, and in any case, if you are one of the top websites in a country, you should have a LOT better security if you are worried about the validity of your poll data.

ps. I’m a female, and i rarely wear black shirts, i’m also nowhere near 18 , however my son is almost 18, who also doesn’t wear black shirts, and who also could easily ‘hack’ those polls.