The Smut Pedaller

I commute every day from Newtown to Darlinghurst pretty much regardless of the weather, I'm proud to say that even in Sydney's torrential rain I only wussed out once and caught the train - and that kinda sucked. The route I normally take is down Wilson St along Redfern St and the left up Crown St through to Darlinghurst, usually a pretty easy ride with little stress. Wilson St is a one way towards the city and it features a separate contraflow bikes only lane.

It's almost always going towards the city I have been hassled, I'm usually quite happy to let a car overtake me when there is space and no one approaching the other way. However I have been hassled on two separate occasions by people who insist on trying to overtake in land based aircraft carriers (also known as a grossly inappropriate for inner Sydney but you obviously aren't from inner Sydney type cars). One such occasion a pair of overweight middle aged women in a big black people mover (yes really, it was too good to be true) were so frustrated they ran over the middle of a roundabout endangering everyone else just to overtake. They did yell at me "do you pay rego?" I have owned and registered a car for the past 8 years and I let them know. I let it go and pedalled along at my normal speed and managed to pass them at the next red light...

It really shits me though that cars use Wilson St to get away from the congestion on King St created by other cars and then expect bike riders to get the hell out of the way. Bike riders have few other options other than Wilson St, it is reasonably direct and wide after the roundabout with Burren St.

This is the other thing you have to deal with on Wilson St, I took both these photos on two nights in the past week. To get around these cars parked in the contraflow lane you have to go over into the oncoming traffic to pass, during peak hour there is probably a person on a bike going down here every 20 seconds or so. The first car I was tempted to key or something but just let it go. The white ute however was a company car so I googled them and sent them an email

I came across one of your vehicles parked over the contraflow bicycle lane along Wilson St in Newtown last night at about 6pm. Parking over the bicycle lane there meant that I or anyone coming up the bike line has to cross over into oncoming traffic and risk getting hit to pass it on a already narrow st. This part of Wilson St is also a no stopping zone and there is a public car park opposite where they could have parked instead. Wilson St is a major cycle route for anyone living in the inner west going towards the city and is quite busy during peak hour. The vehicle had the registration number YRM286, I've attached a photograph of this vehicle.

Within a few hours I got a reply:

Thanks for letting us know, we have spoken to the driver involved. Hopefully this will not happen again.
Regards,

Its nice to know someone gives a shit