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!!!
BN2 is more polite than I'd be: "Hum, some human-rights lawyer, going against the right to cycle dressed in normal work clothing!"
ReplyDeleteYour helmet law is certainly not the most dire violation of human rights on our planet, but it is one of the silliest.
Tu as raison!!!! - it certainly is 'one of the silliest'!!!!
DeleteThe human rights lawyer should be congratulated on her observation skills!
ReplyDeleteEven in the UK, where polystyrene hats are still optional, we occasionally get "where's your helmet?" shouted at us. Usually I just ignore them (they can't be shouting at me, surely?) but if not the response is a gentle "I haven't got one".
Quite why riding a bicycle indicates that you have the status of someone's child, I don't know.
Ha! ha! so beautifully put, Fonant...that is exactly it...
Delete...it sort of sheds some light on the treatment we invariably receive when sharing the road with others!!!
- nuts
Fonant, another possible polite response is: "Where's yours?"
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Freedom Sue, it is Montréal Urban Cycling Week. And they are tracing cycle lanes on my street - first paving over the future lane, where there are potholes (many of them here), then marking the pathway. This will be a link in a north-south axis, parallel to the existing one - which is already saturated at rush hours.
I can only imagine and dream - have fun during your special week!!
DeleteOn the other hand, you needn't endure our winters! Enjoy autumnal harvests, including the divine grape!
ReplyDeleteOh Sue - that is such the attitude in Australia at the moment!! Australians think it is their national duty to criticise and cluck their tongues at even the slightest indiscretion (in their own eyes)....
ReplyDeleteI say better to look at your own behaviour before criticising others . . .
Hi, Jamie: yes I agree with you (although I'm not completely sure whether that was a figurative 'look at your own behaviour' in general terms or an invitation to me to look at [my] own behaviour? - hehehe - whatever, I agree!!!!
DeleteI say: it's dangerous!
ReplyDeleteIf there is a why?, I say: drivers pass closer. That is a scientific research. And my personal experience.
The volume and weight on the head change the corporal notions. Chances of hiting the head are greater. I could learn, but I don't want to be a pilot, just a bycicle driver. And same as Street runners and surfers don't wear helmets, cause they change everything for what they are doing.
I say, 'quite so!'
ReplyDelete- totally agree with you.
When will Australian politicians catch on? sigh
That woman in question was most likely a poor sod from HRW doing her job out in the field advocating compliance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to wear a bicycle helmet, on behalf of the automobile industry.
ReplyDeleteThe automobile industry is all-powerful here that is for sure!
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