Plat du jour: anti-helmet law postcard campaign 27/10/17

Dear Melinda,
As we move towards summer you and I both know a sun hat is of far more value than a brimless plastic helmet. You were in health before - how can you go along with this flimsy helmet nonsense?
Best,
Sue Abbott

Plat du jour: anti-helmet law postcard campaign 24/10/17, 25/10/17 & 26/10/17

Dear Melinda,
It has been said (@BicycleLobby) that "Cyclists care more about their communities & neighbours than car owners." I tend to agree because I know I was more connected when I was cycling than I am now.
Best,
Sue Abbott

Dear Melinda,
I miss my bicycle so much. It is two months today since the Scone Police booked me twice in 20 minutes and I had to walk home. I live 8½ km out of town.
Best,
Sue Abbott

Dear Melinda,
I am considered an 'expert of bicycle use' by the "Bicycle Network." 
Inter alia they called for my 'expert opinion' in their recent national survey of bicycle helmet law. You have heard of them haven't you?
Best,
Sue Abbott

Plat du jour: anti-helmet law postcard campaign 23/10/17

Dear Melinda,
Do bicycles frighten you? Do you feel safer when you put on the recommended hi-vis vest and mandatory helmet? Do you think then, "right no truck is going to kill me now?" Sigh.
Best,
Sue Abbott

Plat du jour: anti-helmet law campaign for 22/10/17

Dear Melinda,

Does it ever occur to you that the safest countries in the world for cycling do not have helmet compulsion? Think France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Japan, Germany, Britain, Ireland, the US just to name a few.

Best,

Sue Abbott

Plat du jour: another tranche of bike helmet postcards

Dear Melinda,
Why are Australian politicians so averse to evidence? Why do you persist with your Big Oil funded cheerleaders? Helmet laws are bad for society.
Kind regards,
Sue


Dear Melinda,
Why is it that I must be wearing a helmet when I am the 'pilot' of a tricycle but not if I am a paying passenger of that same tricycle? And why must I wear one also if I am a non-paying passenger?
Utter nonsense.
Best,
Sue Abbott


Dear Melinda,
I am stuck on the notion that I am safer when I am a paying passenger! Why is this so? What is your political rationale for this position?
Best,
Sue Abbott

Roads, fumes & automobiles

Just a little furry body slumped on the highway.

Globally adored but a dead nuisance in Australia, my heart broke as I passed.

That little koala like so many of our native animals did not stand a chance on the huge enormous 'road project' that is New South Wales.

The current Liberal/National State Government has sold off our valuable and historical public assets across the state to the tune of $9 billion and is now pouring that money into road infrastructure. We quarry indiscriminately, we move mountains all round the countryside, and we cause an inordinate amount of stress to people, animals and plants as we destroy their homes.

That we kill ourselves through road trauma and vehicle emissions is a fact that appears not to alarm our politicians.

That we also kill our native fauna and flora through road trauma and vehicle emissions is a fact that seems to have conveniently escaped them, though the extreme amount of road kill we see on our roads ought to serve as a visual reminder of their glaring political failure to think about transport in terms other than road building.

 Prima facie our addiction to never-ending road construction must stop.

Vehicle emissions on their own cause 40% more deaths than road toll, and whilst politicians may not have turned their minds to the welfare of our fellow planet travellers, academics are raising the spectre that wildlife does not escape the toxic vehicle emission peril either.

The 'failure' of our governments at all levels to "invest in efficient transport infrastructure" instead of roads continues to cause deadly air pollution.

The oil lobby is strong, and politicians in Australia dance to its tune. Consequently barriers to 'efficient transport infrastructure' (other than roads and automobiles) have been strategically inserted into the Australian transport mix, and this approach has neatly ensured a strangle-hold transport monopoly for Big Oil.

That Honda funds a hospital trauma research program is a 'case in point' in relation to Australia’s political commitment to roads and oil.

That bicycle helmets are still compulsory notwithstanding that the only things bicycle helmets are really proven to protect you from are fines (and perhaps police harassment too) equally shines a light on Australia’s political infatuation with roads and oil.

After 57 years of riding a bicycle, more than 40 court appearances resulting in 7 criminal convictions for not wearing an arguably ‘not-fit-for-purpose’ plastic hat whilst riding a bicycle, and with three more court cases pending for same offence, my preferred mode of transport has come to an end.

I have parked my bicycle in the garden shed.

Ostensibly Australia is the poorer for my action because I, like so many other defeated utility cyclists, have now added one more car into this toxic mix of a country.

There is simply no so safe level of air pollution, and if we keep building roads and their attendant infrastructure our future will be as terminal as that poor little koala’s.

Plat du jour: bike helmet law postcards

Dear Melinda,
Please give me an exemption for not wearing a bicycle helmet. I am piling on the weight, shortening my ligaments & generally feeling very miserable ever since the intensive police harrassment. I no longer use a bike - happy?
Best,
Sue Abbott


Dear Melinda,
For 57 years I used a bicycle but you are the politician who finally saw an end to that. We are fatter & less mobile than ever, and still you won't give me an exemption. Please change your mind.
Best,
Sue Abbott


Dear Melinda,
I have put on 3kg since the police started their intense policing of me in Scone. 40 court appearances, 7 convictions, 3 more court matters pending. Get rid of bicycle helmet laws.
Best,
Sue Abbott


------------------------------

This should work ...

Oh sigh.