You are perfectly right, you do make a useful contribution to the environment, I can't argue with that. As you are nearer to the road than the pedestrians, you are breathing in all our exhust fumes and making the world a better place. I spew it out and you breathe it in! Now that's what I call recycling!

Steve

And when you ride on the pavement, look how you treat the pedestrians! Poor bloke only went out for some curry powder!

Steve

LOL...if you really believe the only people who suffer the effect of exhaust fumes are cyclists you are sadly naive

Come to Melbourne! Look at the layer of brown traffic smog that hangs over the city and the bay.....whether you're cycling, walking, enjoying the sunshine at the beach, sitting in your own back garden or even sitting in your car, you are breathing in polluted air.

No wonder that one in 4 kids here has asthma.

Unless you have your car vents permanently closed and are wearing breathing apparatus, you'll find you're taking in the same dirty air from traffic as someone walking outside.

Do you or your bloke wear a mask HP? I used to when i rode in London and it was a great help....You could blow your nose at the end of the day and it did'nt come out black

On the subject of traffic....one thing that i REALLY hated about oz was the lack of provision for pedestrians in some areas. Sometimes it was a case of either driving to k-mart, or dodging cars on your way there, ala USA.

This is true. When first arrived in Oz and carless, we took to walking to places. Was trying to get to a certain place a major Brisbane touristy place, we were 300M away but could find no discernible safe way of crossing the road with a pushchair as no paths at roadside and no lights for pedestrians at busy roundabout. Asked a bus driver who advsied that we wouldn't be able to cross and to get on the next bus! Now happy owner of car.

I've always wondered about this...
A lot of places here in Aus, well Brisbane anyway, do not have footpaths outside houses etc, as your probably well aware of , so you are forced to walk on peoples, houses grass.. but what if you are in a wheelchair, or you are pushing a pram.. ie you can not push over the grass and need a flat surface, You are forced to walk, wheel on the road.. What if a car hits you.. can you sue the council for not providing pavements??. You pay your rates - in my opinion they have a duty of care to maintain streets which includes providing footpaths for pedestrians.

I sometimes wonder what the hell do they do with the rates. certainly not on street lights, or pavements, or cutting the council grass bit of land.. ie one metre away from kerb side.

cheers

P.S Although not a cyclist myself.. my cousin was.. notice I said "Was". He was killed by a car ploughing into him last year (in the UK) whilst he was out cycling (it was his means of transport) . The idiot driving the car was at fault which was proven at the inquest.

On a similar note to the rates......(sorry to be going wayy off of thread here ), somthing that may interest you Ceri, as a boat owner. I was listening to brisbane 4bc radio the other day and they were talking about boat licences and registration. They were saying the QLD gov take about £180 million a year in boat registration, and of that only 4 million is spent on boat ramps, and 1 million on dredging. Apparently there is major concern amongst "boaties" as to where their cash is going.....