Bicycle Queensland, RACQ dissatisfied with new rule allowing cyclists to report motorists for driving too closeCYCLISTS will be able to dob in motorists who drive too close to them when a two-year trial of minimum safe passing distances starts on April 7.
Transport Minister Scott Emerson yesterday announced motorists who failed to comply with the new rules would face $330 fines and three demerit points.
Under the changes, motorists will have to give cyclists a metre clearance on roads signed at 60km/h or less, and 1.5m of space on roads of higher speeds.
Mr Emerson said police would enforce the rule, but cyclists could also lodge complaints providing they had supporting evidence in the way of witness statements or video footage.
To make life easier for motorists, vehicles would be able to cross centre lines to pass cyclists when it was safe to do so, the Minister said.
An education campaign about the changes will start next week; however, cyclists and Queensland’s peak motoring body have voiced their concern about the rule.
The RACQ’s Paul Turner said the roads should be shared but education rather than enforcement was the way to achieve that.
“We think that this law could add to the anxiety and road rage between motorists and cyclists,” he said.
“Courtesy between motorists and cyclists is essential going forward, and we’re worried this law may actually prove more divisive.”
Bicycle Queensland chief executive Ben Wilson said the group also had reservations about what the new rule would achieve.
“We think very little is going to change here (as a result of the new rule),” Mr Wilson said.
“We think behaviour is OK 99 per cent of the time. We just need to chip away at that 1 per cent of drivers who are either very inattentive or very aggressive.”
Mr Wilson also expressed concern about increasing fines for cyclists to the same amounts as those faced by motorists.
Instead of being fined $110 for offences such as running a red light or entering a level crossing, cyclists will be slugged $330 from April 7.
“It’s a massive increase in fines compared to what they were,” Mr Wilson said.
“You have to respect the fact there’s children riding bikes, the poor, the disadvantaged. It’s a bit of a kneejerk reaction to put fines on parity when we struggle already to get people to ride bicycles.”
The minimum safe passing distance trial was a recommendation of State Parliament’s Transport Committee, which examined cycling laws last year.
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Bicycle Queensland, RACQ dissatisfied with new rule allowing cyclists to report
