Newcastle Court: Appeal dismissed

The Australian helmet road continues.

In a nutshell the judge said that she was not going to indulge me in my crusade to change the law from her court (or words to that effect).

That was the 'conviction' part of the appeal, and with the 'severity' part I decided to stick with what I'd been dished up at the court of first instance ... ('things could get worse,' I thought!)

And there we have it; criminal conviction no. 3 still stands and I'm no further along that fanciful road of riding a bicycle like the rest of the world than ever before.

Sigh

Heigh ho! Heigh ho! It's off to court I go!

(Film: Bicycle Dutch)


The other day I watched this beautiful clip showcasing the Dutch and their babies doing their 'everyday bicycle stuff' and it made me feel happy, and mad, and sad ... all at once.

Now I can't stop thinking about how crazy we are in Australia with our 'everyday bicycle stuff'!

And yes it confirms my opinion that it all comes back to an inate sexism so deeply engrained here in Australia.

This is a nation that continues to sacrifice women, and children, and trees, and Mother Nature on an altar of white male insecurity even though we have the evidence and data to say we should do none of these things.

This is a nation that continues to elect an array of self-serving predominantly male politicians who continue to trash our nation by their own limitations and deficiences.

This is a nation that gets who they vote for ... sigh

Tomorrow, Wednesday, I am to appear in the NSW District Court in Newcastle (first of a trifecta of helmet court matters over the next two weeks, next one in Adelaide followed by the third one in Sydney). I am appearing to appeal against the criminal conviction I received in the Scone Local Court last year.

Yet again I will be protesting our mandatory bicycle helmet law made against evidence and science, and in contempt of the environment.

Yet again I will be protesting the craven hubris of the influential uninformed.

Yet again I will be protesting the 'unquestioning endorsement of the necessity of helmet compulsion which has conferred undeserved credibility on our useless helmet law.'

Yet again I will be protesting the very Australian triumph of general ignorance and its miscarriage of science.

But this time I am going to revisit Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Politica Rights whereby it states:

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In particular, no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation.

... and section 41BD of the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 whereby it states that a medical device is an:

1(a)(iii) investigation, replacement or modification of the anatomy or of a physiological process

... then diverting off to here


... where bicycle helmets are effectively delisted - (oooh but are they?!)


... and where I am then going to argue that because I don't use my bicycle at home, or for occucupational use or for recreational use, a bicycle helmet cannot be excluded by this table in my instance and therefore does fit after all the definition of a medical device as set down by the provisions in the Therapeutic Goods Act!

Oh, it's worth a burl don't you think!

I'll keep you posted

NSW Government and the Trojan Horse Brigade

At a recent tree rally on Anzac Parade earlier this month many of us felt we had been sold out by those who ought to be protecting our beautiful heritage listed trees on Anzac Parade and Alison Road.

Where was the outraged commentary from Centennial Parklands, or Royal Randwick, or even the City of Sydney, and why had the RSL been so nasty?

And where was the covereage in the Sydney Morning Herald?

Why hadn't this issue been on every front page since the tree felling process had commenced?

On reflection I guess the SMH were never going to get too involved given that they are so ridiculously propped up by both the horse-racing industry:



... and the oil industry:



Still notwithstanding the campaign to save the trees was gathering momentum on social media, there was a genuine sense of abandonement.

But the ever-growing revulsion of our New South Wales representatives was totally justified today by Background Briefing's explosive expose of our dodgy government and 'vested' interests.




Acording to Background Briefing's report, that curly scrolly bridge in the above image (the massively controversial Tibby Cotter Cycling and Pedestrian Bridge) turns out to be suitable for vehicles up to 10 tons.

Why, you ask, when to all intents and purposes the bridge was built for pedestrians and cylists?

Well as Background Briefing informed us, it is considered to be highly likely that this massive structure is the early beginnings of a massive underground carpark

The NSW government plans to completely commandeer our public lands and trees to build new stadiums and to create sporting precincts even for tennis which is so on the nose at the moment and may never recover.

The government has been eagerly aided and abetted by the pathetic Centennial Parklands Trust and its trustees who have got completely confused as to what their brief actually is ... namely protecting the parklands and keeping them safely in trust for people now and in future to enjoy and use freely and naturally.



Goodbye Anzac Parade and Kippax Lake as we know it ...


(screen capture: Fourfourtwo, Sydney Stadium Stuff)

... as we watch this out-of-control-government trash this unique memorial and get ready to clutch their hearts on Anzac Day to feign sorrow and gratitude.



For the benefit of NSW politicians, Background Briefing reminded us that the Anzacs marched down Randwick Road (later renamed to Anzac Parade in their memory) to Circular Quay and were bundled on to ships and off to war some of them never to return to Australia again ...



A sandstone obelisk designed and constructed by the city architect, RH Brodrick, was placed on Anzac Parade in 1917 to serve as a memorial to Diggers who did not return and as a meeting placed for those who did.



Yet even that poignant memorial was not safe from the machinations of a development-addicted government which under the premise of rennovation removed it indefinitely to some back lot of the Roads Department in order to build ...


... an entrance to a car-park, leaving just a stump of yet another Anzac memory ... so very disrepectful.


(Image: 1961 last day of Sydney trams on Anzac Parade, reservation Moore Park; Lindsay Bridge, Flickr)

And to think that if we hadn't got rid of Sydney's trams 55 years ago, which we're putting back now at great cost and angst, maybe this whole sorry saga might not have taken place ...

Oh, we have not been well served by our state representatives ...

... is it time to dispense with such a silly tier of government?

(cross posted to Scone Blogger's Blog)

International Women's Day & cycling forever sexist in Australia

Blissful time in Japan, where no-one carps on about your cycling clothes, or your cycling headgear ...


... or even your fabulous cycling footgear.


All of the above, 'de rigeur' in Japan


Oh but that is not the case in Australia ... and alas this week my body is back in this 'sexist-back-water' (but not my heart) and now I find myself up to my ears in pending court cases ... sigh


$$$ Wednesday 23 March: District Court, Newcastle, NSW
$$$ Tuesday 5 April: Magistrates Court, Adelaide, South Australia
$$$ Tuesday 12 April: Local Court, Waverley, NSW


The Adelaide matter arrived yesterday morning in the form of a summons, and hand delivered by two uniformed NSW police officers.

After the initial terror of two police standing on my back doorstep and being assured all was alright with my world (my heart always skips a beat), they proceeded to hand-over the curial paperwork.


No time for tea as they had just had a cuppa, we did have time for a chat, with them curious to know whether I would persist with my campaign. They seemed to think this would be the last of it now that the fines have been bumped up exponentially, but I assured them that it would not.


Baffled, they wanted to know why yet they were not convinced by my answer ... you know, sticking properties of helmets, rapid deceleration of the brain in an accident, often more than one impact received by the 'only-safe-for-one-impact' helmet in an accident, lack of class one evidence (or any evidence for that matter) proving helmets make you safer when riding a bicycle to the shops ... yawn.

They trotted out usual twaddle about all the unreported cycling accidents that never make it to hospital - wtf - and how safe airbags are and how they wouldn't get into cars without them, and then they toddled off and got into their 'airbagged' (I presume) paddy-wagon, and I entered the new court date onto my calendar.

Over twenty years in the making, this half-baked shite about and towards cyclists is representative of Australian community attitudes, and underpins a conflicted culture of sexism and demonisation.

Alarmingly the hostility on Australian streets now is 'writ large' and cycling to get bread and milk has never been so nasty or toxic.

Well done, politicians of Australia, well done, ignorant men of Australia, and well done, bicycle advocacy groups of Australia!

You've all played your part in this sorry Australian saga of bicycle transport affairs.

You're all rubbish, and just look at the mess you've landed us in!

So remembering that it's International Women's Day today, here's a little bloggy chant from me ...

"What do we want?"

"Equality!"

"When do we want it?"

NSW OUT OF CONTROL - SAVE OUR TREES

Sydney is not happy with its chainsaw-wielding government.


This row of trees among many others (1,277 trees all up including 871 significant and heritage listed trees) is to be wood-chipped into oblivion.


So last Friday on the corner of Anzac Parade and Alison Road,


... a vigil was held for Sydney's trees ...


... to protest against the machinations of politicians too invested in bitumen and construction to be able to see clearly ...


... the havoc that their actions will wreak on this city.


Coordinated protests are set to continue as people from across the city and state come together in an ever-growing snowball as they discover that along with the ruthless planned decimation of our invaluable trees, the actual implementation of the CBD and South East Light Rail is projected to reduce public transport capacity by nearly 70% ...


... as well as ripping up another cycleway ... sigh

Andrew Constance and Mike Baird need to pause and redesign the project so we can:

Save our trees
Save our city
Save our souls



(also cross posted to Scone Blogger's Blog)

STOP PRESS: bicycle fighting fund to the rescue

(Images: 'Dinky-di' advocacy groups for people who use bicycles)


Media Release

... drafted and despatched this arvo for any interested media outlets which might like to check out other angles other than the male and spandex ones they usually cover when dealing with 'matters-bicycle'

Two years on from Velo-City Global 2014 in Adelaide (a first for Australia though many still wonder what the European Cyclists Federation were 'sniffing' when they gave the go-ahead for this gig Down Under), the helmet infringement which Sue Abbott received whilst attending that bicycle conference has at last been finalised.

To quickly give you the 'heads-up' on the Velo-City conference series, it is the premier international urban planning cycling convention in the world and it moves to a different city and country every year for each event. Leading global experts in active mobility, sustainable transport, city planning, bicycle industry and advocacy meet en masse and exchange a wide depth of knowledge, experiences and vision, and for 2016 it will be kicking off later this month in Taipei.

But back to Adelaide, Australia 2014… and that helmet infringement.

After several court appearances in Adelaide finally culminating in a sentencing process via video-link in a Broken Hill court, Ms Abbott received a criminal conviction along with court costs and victims’ compensation levies amounting to $560 in total. This outcome was another blow for Ms Abbott and her seven year campaign, in which she has been challenging the unnecessary helmet law requirement in Australia when riding a bicycle.

But unbeknown to her, help was at hand.

Two well known bicycle advocacy groups, Upright Bicycle Riders of Australia and Freestyle Cyclists based in South Australia and Victoria respectively, joined forces to help compensate this Australian helmet-law victim.

Appreciating that the treatment meted out to Ms Abbott could be enough for many Australians to throw their bikes off the nearest jetty and never ride again, Upright Bicycle Riders of Australia and Freestyle Cyclists set up a crowd-funding platform, the ‘Aussie Bicycle Fighting Fund’ to raise monies to pay the South Australian court costs. Within 24 hours the amount was raised and donated, and an absolutely delighted Ms Abbott remains far from finished riding her bicycle.

So whilst the much anticipated experiences of more than 40 world leading cycling countries at Velo-City Global Adelaide 2014 amounted to nothing from an Australian political perspective, from a grass-roots one it appears that community leadership has taken hold of Australia’s ‘transport’ reins, and that the bicycle is back and here to stay.

'Thanks, Adelaide, turns out your 2014 cycling-celebration was worth it after all'

=============================================

Media release sent by:
Freedom Cyclist
t: @freedomcycliste
i: @freedomcyclist
b: http://freedomcyclist.blogspot.com.au

More info :
Kathy Francis: 0481 372 956

Even in Australia there can be a silver lining

"I get knocked down but I get up again,
They're never going keep me down!"

Yes I am smiling today!!! ...

... because notwithstanding Australia's violent sexist regressive world of using bicycles as a means of transport, a little ray of sunshine has come into my world!!!!

Australia's very own Freestyle Cyclists and Upright Bicycle Riders of Australia were so outraged at South Australian legislative & judicial treatment meted out to me (and essentially all non-sporty cyclists) that they determined amongst themselves they would come to my (our) aid.

So they set up a crowd-funding platform ... the Aussie Bicycle Fighting Fund ... to raise monies to pay my South Australian court costs (including that ridiculous Victims' Compensation Levy) handed to me via videolink in the Broken Hill court back in December.

Do you know how this makes me feel?

Let me tell you!

Very very supported and very very emboldened!

My fighting batteries have been recharged, and I'm ready to unfurl the non-sporty cycling standard again to continue our march to 'freedom-on-how-we-choose-to-ride-our-bicycles' whether with helmets today or without them tomorrow or perhaps never donning them at all.

This supreme act of generosity goes beyond the actual $$$ value.

This supreme act of generosity represents solidarity and support along with a heartfelt reminder to me from all those amazing Freestyle Cylclists and Upright Bicycle Riders of Australia that:

'We're right here for you, girl!"

And as that virtual love reaches out to me I feel enveloped by a strong sense of a bear-hug and a large dollop of courage ... and I am so humbled and completely brimming over with gratitude!

GOSH ... THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH ... WOW!

And again I just can't say this enough, from the bottom of my heart to all the Upright Bicycle Riders of Australia and Freestyle Cyclists and all the many donors:

"THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! ... I TRULY TRULY WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO THANK YOU ENOUGH!"

And you know what else; so much money has been donated into that fund there's now technically a 'fighting-kitty' to support others like me who come by way of Australia's hatred of cycling!

Go us!!!!

So from me it's three cheers for the Upright Bicycle Riders of Australia and Freestyle Cyclists - HOORAY HOORAY HOORAY ...

... and just out of interest why weren't those two groups asked to be at #DeityDunc's recent round-table discussions on matter-cycling instead of the blokey sporty cowardly types from the Victoria's Bicycle Network (national 'try-hards'), Bicycle NSW (gutless wonders) and the Amy Gillet Foundation (whose chairman has blocked me on twitter - very grown-up)?



Yes, why weren't the Uprgight Bicycle Riders of Australia and Freestyle Cyclists included in #DeityDunc's chat on sharing the roads and vulnerable road users ... after all they are Australia's true cycling advocates.

But we all know why don't we - for that very reason, they are our true cycling advocates!!!

But anyhoo ... back to me ...

THANK YOU, UPRIGHT BICYCLE RIDERS OF AUSTRALIA AND FREESTYLE CYCLISTS - YOU GUYS ROCK!!! Xxx