Freedom Cyclist v Helmet Laws (ad-free advocacy)

Australian driving kills Australian cyclists

2013-05-22T03:14:00.002+10:00

(Images: Sydney Morning Herald, May 21 2013)

Why is it so hard for Australian motorists to share the road with vulnerable road users?

Whatever happened to 'patience' and 'brakes'?

Do Australian motorists see cyclists as 'mere obstacles'?

Why is it you can be convicted for cycling without wearing a helmet but not for driving over & killing a cyclist?

Will Australia ever 'get' cycling?

...this is us, this is us now - shame on us all

Freedom of information request

2013-05-18T00:11:00.000+10:00

Content of my email sent to Australian Research Council May 7, 2013.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Ms Howard,

Please could you provide me with the following information:

Details of all Australian Research Council grants that have been given to various academic institutions for bicycle helmet studies over the past 25 years.

If there are certain administrative processes that I need to perform to facilitate my access to this information, I would be grateful if you could let me know.

Thank you for your assistance and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind regards,
Sue Abbott

-------------------------------------------------------------------
(to date, not a peep from the Australian Research Council which in my opinion is particularly poor form given the public resources they have at their finger tips - even just a reply email to say 'thanks we'll be in touch soon' would have been fine)

A battle of heels

2013-05-17T01:23:00.001+10:00

To expand a little on yesterday's tweet, BN2 was waiting at the King Street intersection on Elizabeth Street when this 'clop clop clopping' noise came rapidly up behind her! Suddenly a high-heel-wearing woman using the pavement appeared alongside and started to scream at her:

'Look at you...you're not wearing a helmet!!!!! And look at you in your heels...you're not even dressed for cycling!!!!!!! Look at you!!!!'

'I'm sorry, who are you?' said BN2

'I'm a lawyer and a human rights advocate, and you should be wearing a helmet!'

'Thank you for concern; it has been duly noted.'

With the lights still red and a posse of other pedestrians pooled in this little corner of Sydney, there followed an awkward silence until finally BN2 got her green light and self-identified lawyer got her green man...

Oh dear ...that love of nanny, so very very Australian!!!

Wonderful, wonderful Christiania!

2013-05-13T23:17:00.003+10:00

Useful, convenient, nippy-ish, easy to park, perfect picnic-ing chariot, fits through vehicle barriers, way-way-way better than a car!!!

I love it...

We all love it....

You'd love it!!!!

Tractor tyres (check); B-triple tyres (check); bicycle tyres (don't be silly!)

2013-05-10T01:16:00.001+10:00

It has taken 8 days to locate an inner tube in Scone!!!!! ...sigh... which basically meant a reshuffle of this week's engagements, then too much time near a kitchen, a dangerous spot of baking...and now full slice tins...not good

But finally yesterday at lunchtime, one was located 26 km away in nearby town of Muswellbrook, taken to the tennis club in Aberdeen during the late afternoon, and then brought home to me last night. It'll be back inside the tyre later on today and then I'll be on my bike in a jiffy hotfooting it off to town with a 'to do' list as long as my arm!

Note to self: when next in Sydney, stock up big time on inner tubes!!!

- never am I going to be without a cupboard full again

Helmet believers ♥ their little helmets

2013-05-07T23:19:00.001+10:00

Oh gawd...here we go again.

Dr Dinh has had a letter published in this week's Medical Journal of Australia (MJA 198 [8] - 6 May 2013), which he then reports on in his article on The Conversation subsequently syndicated to the Brisbane Times...

...and oh boy!...are mainstream media excited.

Nothing he says extinguishes the fact that cycling here has yet to be made 'irresistible' as it has in the Netherlands (currently still a helmet- free country - don't do it, guys!!!), Denmark and Germany .

Somewhat weirdly though, I felt pretty chuffed when I noticed that he'd hyperlinked me in his article at 'publicised court cases'...clearly we (anti-helmet law campaigners) are getting under his and his colleagues' helmet promoting skin.

Oh...but it's so tiresome playing these little games - and expensive...

...ah...now that reminds me to get a wriggle on and submit my freedom of information request to the Australian Research Council (ARC) for details of all ARC grants provided to various academic institutions for bicycle helmet studies over the past 25 years...so...

Check

♫always look on the bright side of life...whew whooh, whew whooh whooh whooh whooh whooh♪♫

EXTREME ANIMAL CRUELTY AUSTRALIA'S FAULT - BAN LIVE EXPORT NOW

2013-05-06T20:06:00.000+10:00

(Images: 'Egypt exposed,' Animals Australia)

Dear Joel (my federal member for Hunter) and George (my state member for Upper Hunter),

I have written to you before on this matter, and this terrible trade is still going on. You said you were going to stop it. To watch the cruelty exposed on The 7:30 Report is unbearable.

How can you let this happen?

How can Australia sit by and pretend that it'll be all ok once we've sorted it out (which we never do)?

How can we be so arrogant to think that we can keep an eye on these poor animals and guard them against acts of cruelty from our sunny shores?

How can we ever be sure what exactly happens to these poor wretched animals when they are so far away in other lands?

Enough is enough - ban live export now. Open up the abattoirs here again, make the meat producers pay proper Australian wages - ban live export now.

From here on in, I refuse to vote at any election state or federal until you, our elected representatives, provide solid assurances that this wicked practice is to be stopped now.

Any animal leaving Australia ought to leave 'already dead' - I cannot bear being part of this commercial cruelty. Whilst Australian governments refuse to ban this ghastly practice, their dreadful tortuous deaths are done in our name.

BAN LIVE ANIMAL EXPORT NOW.

Yours in abject misery at what I can't watch on The 7:30 Report,

Sue Abbott

(published on my Scone Blog too)

AUSTRALIAN CYCLING IS NASTY

2013-05-05T23:36:00.001+10:00

Dear World,

Beware of ever introducing bicycle helmet laws into your countries.

Here is a taste of some recent comments left on a Youtube film made nearly 4 years ago by the highly-acclaimed documentary maker, Mike Rubbo, detailing the lead-up to my first court case.

Nasty, gutless, ignorant...but sadly not unusual in Australia...

...and these same types of comment are made on the road too...this is Australia.

Only last week I had one prize charlie with hand on horn pass me at great speed with only millimetres to spare, gesticulating like there was no tomorrow all the way to...the red traffic lights just ahead!

Naturally when I joined him at the still red lights I tapped on his front passenger window and asked him "what is your problem?" The coward could not even look at me and was as quiet as a mouse. What a lily-livered wonder! He hadn't planned on being stuck with me - no, he was zooming past in his 4 wheel drive - he was a business man - he was going places fast...but he was in Newtown and inevitably at the mercy of Inner West congestion.

Anyway, I digress...the internet prize charlies often claim to ride bikes but when you read the content of their comments you often discover that they can't - they always seem to be falling off and yet these incompetent numpties have the cheek to lash out against others who do things differently to them.

This, dear World, is Australian cycling and this is why those of us here who want to bring riding bicycles back to the realm of normal know that we have a massive uphill battle.

And so, dear World, my message to you is...be very very afraid...helmet laws kill cycling...period

Kind regards,
Sue Abbott

"Going to Court for Bicycle Helmet Crime" Chapter 1

2013-05-05T20:12:00.001+10:00

Trying my hand at a little film making...not an easy project what with Biggles and Miffy (family dogs) having lots to say, and cockatoos overhead, and wind, and me not having a tripod and having to do it at arm's length!!!

No matter - done anyway because I thought I just might document the whole process this time from whoa to go...

So what we have is a pretty rubbish attempt at directing and producing with the camera way too close and a touch wobbly...but all that aside...

...Welcome to Chapter 1 !!!

RACV- nice work if you can get it

2013-05-03T23:09:00.001+10:00

(Images: 'CIM, Australia's leading business events magazine')

The RACV has resorts & hotels?

...the car insurance people?

...the roadside assistance people?

...the road safety people?

...the bike-share people?

Big Oil is in the business of running hotels as well as cars and bicycles?

- who knew?

I've got mail

2013-05-01T21:59:00.000+10:00

My bicycle helmet ticket has arrived...

...& it tells me to go to SDRO website if I want to take it to court - I do so I select hammer option

...then online court election form option...

...next client authentication stuff...

...and now I put the kettle on!!!!

Regulatory Capture

2013-04-30T20:18:00.002+10:00

Hearing about 'regulatory capture' during last week's Voiceless lecture, was a pure lightbulb moment.

I got home and immediately googled this new term whereupon I came across Wikipedia's brief explanation that regulatory capture occurs 'when a regulatory agency, created to act in the public interest, instead advances the commercial or special concerns of interest groups that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating.'

Bingo! - aka an explanation for the appalling conditions incurred during the production of animals for our consumption...and also an explanation for our very own bicycle helmet regulations.

Wikipedia continues that 'regulatory capture is a form of government failure, as it can act as an encouragement for firms to produce negative externalities. The agencies are called "captured agencies".'

This is us - and there's actually a term for this regulatory rubbish that we've had to put up with...and it's pretty easy to see how it fits within our Australian parameters coupled with ever-pervasive big corporate parameters.

And when you go on to explore this term with bicycle helmets in mind there is some interesting stuff delineating this issue.

The Technology Liberation Front provides a comprehensive collection of eminent people to further explain regulatory capture.

For example, Holman Jenkins ("Let’s Restart the Green Revolution," Wall Street Journal, February 2, 2011 - regarding how misguided agricultural & environmental policies are hurting consumers) explains:

"When some hear the word ‘regulation,’ they imagine government rushing to the defense of consumers. In the real world, government serves up regulation to those who ask for it, which usually means organized interests seeking to block a competitive threat. This insight, by the way, originated with the left, with historians who went back and reconstructed how railroads in the U.S. concocted federal regulation to protect themselves from price competition. We should also notice that an astonishingly large part of the world has experienced an astonishing degree of stagnation for an astonishingly long time for exactly such reasons."

...and George Stigler ("The Theory of Economic Regulation," 2(1) Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science, 1971, 3-21 at 3) had this to say:

"…as a rule, regulation is acquired by the industry and is designed and operated primarily for its benefits."

A revealing quote from George Gilder (Wealth & Poverty, New York: Bantam Books, 1981, pp. 283) puts forward that:

"One reason for government resistance to change is that the process of creative destruction can attack not only an existing industry, but also the regulatory apparatus that subsists on it; and it is much more difficult to retrench a bureaucracy than it is to bankrupt a company. A regulatory apparatus is a parasite that can grow larger than its host industry and become in turn a host itself, with the industry reduced to parasitism, dependent on the subsidies and protections of the very government body that initially sapped its strength."

...and Bruce Yandle (“Bootleggers and Baptists — The Education of a Regulatory Economist,” Regulation, Vol. 3, No. 3, May/June 1983,p. 13) explains what it is that industry wants from the regulators:

“They want protection from competition, from technological change, and from losses that threaten profits and jobs. A carefully constructed regulation can accomplish all kinds of anticompetitive goals of this sort, while giving the citizenry the impression that the only goal is to serve the public interest.”

No kidding, this really is bingo!!!!...it fits Australia's bicycle helmet regulation to a tee...

...and it sucks...as it does for the appalling conditions we permit animals to be produced in, deliberately never turning our mind to the cruelty involved which if it was exacted on our precious dogs and cats would cause a sustained community outrage.

Time to see 'Regulatory Capture for what it is - protectionism for Big Corpa...

...and time to fight it on all industry counts

♫Who do you think you're kidding, Mr Ga-ay♪♫

2013-04-28T20:44:00.000+10:00

(Images: 'Jerry Seinfield - helmets,' spedkeyat, YouTube)

Dear Mr Gay,

Check out some classic 'Jerry' and get cracking on a spot of repealing!

You know it & we know it...that as time goes by, less and less Australians believe these industry-driven regulations are about bicycle safety.

Yours in bicycle cheers,
Sue Abbott

"Oh to be in England now that April's there"

2013-04-25T22:00:00.001+10:00

In the maternal line of my family, I am the first woman in four generations to raise her children to adulthood with their father alongside her.

My mother, grandmother and great-grandmother were not so lucky.

When you’re missing a family member, who cares about the honour to die for your country?

I hate ANZAC Day

& I hate Gallipoli

& I hate the annual military grooming

& I hate always getting ready for somebody else's battle

& I also hate the RAF

& I wish I'd had longer with my father

GG ahoy!

2013-04-25T12:16:00.002+10:00

(Images: appgratis)

No, no, no, no, no...a too too scary thought

Jeez, ok ok...

- labour...

- maybe...

...sheesh

Groundhog Day - booked on Sydney Harbour Bridge

2013-04-23T14:57:00.001+10:00

Why do we do it?

Why do we waste precious resources criminalising 'cycling without helmets' when we know that the rest of the world eschews such squeamishness because helmet data is unsubstantiated?

Anyhoo they are not questions for police but rather politicians, so this morning after affable chat with cute policeman near Harbour Bridge Steps, I ended up having my details taken for issue of helmet infringement notice via mail in the next few days.

According to aforementioned CP (cute policeman), helmets save lives, doesn't matter if you don't make a habit of falling off, only takes one accident...and to my remarks that if I should wear one so should motorists, apparently motorists have big cars protecting their heads and therefore don't need helmets...

hmmmn

...even though CP and I both sort of agreed that motorists really do make up most of the statistics relatively or otherwise for head injuries...

(thanks to @CyclingRSmith for timely tweet grahphic!)

But back to CP and me, he asked where I had cycled from, and I said Newtown and that I'd come over to photograph the steps which I thought were a ridiculous feature as part of the cycling route because they did their best to preclude me and my type of cycling. As I said to him, it was no easy feat getting my big heavy dutch bike down despite the ramp!

He seemed surprised at the thought of people like me struggling with the step feature of the bridge, and said that he and his colleagues usually cycled down them as did a lot of bridge users!!!

Totally gobsmacked, I was most impressed and wished I'd arrived earlier to see the downhill of harbour bridge mountain bike course in action...

As it was, users when I was there were quite tame, albeit even if they could hoick their bikes up on their shoulders, something I certainly can't do.

So long story short...it's off to court for me again in the not too distant future - sigh

My vote...going, going, god knows where

2013-04-22T23:46:00.001+10:00

(Images: usylife, Tumblr)

...so Tony Abbott then?

Nope, can't do that either - sigh

Tertiary & self education up shit creek without a paddle

2013-04-21T23:49:00.002+10:00

There goes your education if you ever had one in the first place!

Not content with ripping into the university budget to pay for the new National Improvement for School Plan (renamed according to Peter Hartcher after David Gonski's public statement disowning PM's neutered version), the government (sector of community who largely received university education for free) has now decided to add self education and professional development expenses to their pruning-list .

Given that Big Oil and Big Coal rule the Australian economy, petrol and mega-tonka truck expenses are still fair dinkum but Big Brainy Box and Big Bunsen Burner just haven't got a foot in yet with Big Gov so we've now been told we can forget about intellectual and continuing professional development expenses if they're our bag.

So after a quick squiz at Treasury Press Release here's the thing ...we're to be educated to year 10 or 12 but after that, buddies, we're on our own...

Yes we'll be proficient in reading manuals and yes we'll be able to follow instructions and probably we'll get the drift with OH&S policies but any attempt at freeing our minds with a view to forming our own views removed from that of any authority's....well, we'll just have to forget that!!

...oh and another thing, as always the rural & remote areas will cop it the most severely.

'A pox on both their houses'...fancy tertiary and further education being so poorly rated by both this government and the oppostion (who are currently just squibbly accepting funding-slashing as convenient done-deal) - how can we be the best teachers, scientists, defence counsel, neuro-surgeons, midwives, photographers, journalists, linguists, politicians even, if the necessary learning after school isn't supported?

OK, enough's enough, that's it, Labour..I can't go any further with you - seriously, I've had it with you guys...I'm off...and I'm taking my vote with me

Down, down, down - SAI Global going down

2013-04-19T17:39:00.000+10:00

("Healthy Skepticism is the best strategy over the long term," Matthew Kidman, Business Day, SMH)

Now that the standard seller for the puffed up the bicycle helmet safety industry is taking a bit of a dip what are the repercussions for us?

(well...those of 'us' who wear helmets, which as it turns out is not me so I'm not actually included in that last little 'us' bit...but I'm in the next bit...)

What does it mean for Australia whose standards, accreditation, product testing, certification, OH &S compliance, ethics, risk assessements, audit management, legislation, commentary, codes, property development, ownership, transfer, military parts, metals, materials...in fact 'Uncle Tom Cobbley an all' are in their hands?

Hmmn I wonder

Alaskan men aren't frightened of bicycles

2013-04-18T00:40:00.000+10:00

Images: reddit.com submitted by mccubbins28

Gasp...some aussie ones are!!!!

NO HELMETS FOR BORIS BIKES - Boris says so!!!

2013-04-14T20:35:00.000+10:00

Boris Johnson, respect & ♥ to you

Nick Ferrari, hmmmn...why is playing 'Pollyanna' so universally popular with mainstream media? - we get same gut full Down Under

Oh c'mon, Duncan!

2013-04-11T21:16:00.001+10:00

via reddit

...don't be such a spoil sport...you're making us a global laughing stock...again...sheesh

Double lines = double danger

2013-04-11T00:00:00.001+10:00

The introduction of double lines to this part of my journey into town has caused me no end of problems.

Clearly Local Council and the Roads and Maritime Services were not thinking about cyclists when they donned their pinnies and opened up their cans of paints - probably more about hill crests, motorists, & wobble-free brushstrokes.

Anyhoo, now we have a situation comprising of a narrow road going up hill (or down depending on direction) and motorists strictly forbidden by highway code to cross the double lines...

...which translates into meaning that this 'council-sanctioned-paint-job' has made it virtually impossible for any motor vehicle except a motor bike to pass me legally.

So currently my road-sharing moments on this patch of road are either...

(a) comfortably 'illegal'

...or

(b) terrifyingly 'legal'

'Now I've got one [wordle] to say to you!'

2013-04-08T15:23:00.000+10:00

revoke
ridiculous
regulations
restricting
riding

Non-sterile bicycle helmets are not medical devices; non-sterile tampons are

2013-04-06T23:46:00.000+11:00

I received correspondence at the end of January from the Hon Catherine King MP stating:

'Non-sterile protective or safety apparel or equipment, for use in the home or for occupational or recreational use, has been declared not to be therapeutic goods. This declaration has been made under the Therapeutic Goods (Excluded Goods) Order No.1 of 2011. As per your example, bicycle helmets fall within this decription and therefore are not regulated by the Therapeutic Goods Administration under the Act.'

But yes, yes...I knew this which is why I asked in my letter to have the actual reason explained to me why bicycle helmets were not deemed to be therapeutic goods.

Inconsistency is evident on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) and appears to make a contrary case in that the Hon Catherine King's 'non-sterile protecitve or safety apparel or equipment, for use in the home or for occupational or recreational use' has been declared to be therapeutic goods...

...for example:

'Johnson & Johnson Pacific Tampons Non-Sterile; ARTG No: 67066; Type: Device; Sponsor: Johnson & Johnson'

Ok, ok, we all know that tampons are way more useful than bicycle helmets but still no-one or nothing to date has explained why bicycle helmets aren't listed on the ARTG.

When you read the provisions of section 41BD(1)(a)(iii) of the Therapeutic Goods Act (1989) a bicycle helmet ought to fit them because we know that bicycle helmets are deemed for use by human beings and for the purpose of modification of the anatomy.

But it seems to me that bicycle helmets have been disqualified as medical devices in order to cancel consent and refusal entitlements which would have automatically followed if bicycle helmets had been recognised as medical devices. Consequently a mini caveat has been slotted in at section 41BD(3) to provide a convenient little escape hatch for designated Secretary to be able to declare 'to be or not be' medical device proclamations even though designated Secretary may not even be a medical device expert.

It's all smoke & mirrors...as well as very flawed and very inconsistent and utterly contradictory.