This Mum is downright dangerous! Ban her!

A big tip of the hat to ibikelondon reader Nik who figured that - being on your bikes - most of you wouldn't have seen this incredible photograph in free pubic transport newspaper Metro, last week.

Seven people on one bike is certainly impressive (and I imagine a lot of fun for the kids involved) and must keep Mum super fit.  Some might scorn her parenting choice in terms of exposing her brood to road danger, but surely this is a better option than six slowly fattening children in the back of a (presumably very large) car, adding to the road danger for those outside on foot or on bikes? 

Certainly someone should show this picture to Australian TV show A Current Affair who recently tail-gated a Mum on her bike with a child trailer and filmed her for over twenty minutes without permission through the streets of central Sydney.  Mum was worried she and her daughter might be being pursued by a paedophile as the driver of the car tail-gated her, pulled alongside and then filmed from in front without identifying themselves, merely shouting she was "acting illegally", presumably to illicit some kind of response.   A few days later, the Mum in question, Melea, was even more horrified when she discovered the footage was in fact taken for the national television show A Current Affair and used to slander her and accuse her of purposefully endangering her own child's life.  The programme describes her actions as "crazy, irresponsible and downright dangerous" before going on to create a "crash test" situation to show just how dangerous child trailers are when people drive over them at 60kmph!  Here's just some of the words from the show, which you can watch on Nine MSN's A Current Affair website if you've got the guts for it.

"Road safety experts say it is irresponsible and downright dangerous...""It's a mother taking a risk on our roads that leaves us gobsmacked... that young child is fully exposed to the full impact of a motor vehicle... I can't believe what I'm seeing.
There are cars are buses coming from all directions... ..cars come from behind, mother and child are in the middle of mayhem.
The law has to be changed, that child is at risk.
This is George Street in the middle of Sydney.  The worry when you're down low is that you'll go under the 4x4 or under a bus."

"These little carts are down below the sight-line of a vehicle, and the baby is going to be prone to more of an accident... ..they're downright dangerous and shouldn't be on the road."

It's worth pointing out that A Current Affair is about as comprehensively balanced as the Jeremy Kyle Show here in the UK, or a Petronella Wyatt editorial, but the case is an interesting one all the same.

Firstly, it is - of course - disgraceful that this mother was filmed without her permission for a national broadcast and offered no right of reply.  Secondly, the occupants of the car were willfully endangering the mother and her child by distracting her when she was cycling, and by not focusing on the road ahead.

But most importantly, this kind of thinking is pure victim blaming at its very worst.  Instead of asking why a Mum might be towing a child in a trailer (perhaps she can't afford to drive and park in Sydney, or use the creaking public transport system) on the busiest roads in central Sydney (perhaps, due to a lack of bike lanes and safe infrastructure, she doesn't have a choice.)  The "crash test" which purports to show just how dangerous bike trailers are seems to me show nothing of the sort.  This not-so-scientific experiment simply demonstrates that any bicycle or indeed child-sized object that happens to be in the path of a tonne of metal being driven at inappropriate speeds in a busy urban environment will always come off worse.  Much worse.  (And it is worth remembering that a child who runs out in to the street isn't likely to be decked out in high-vis, Balinese flags and a cycle helmet - are they too to blame if an irresponsibly driven car ploughs in to them?)  Perhaps we haven't gone far enough with our road safety arms race?  Perhaps we should build metal railings at the side of every city road, and keep all children indoors so that we don't have to face the agony of encouraging all road users to take responsibility for their own actions?

We might bend over backwards to accommodate cars in our cities, but that's not to say this should be to the exclusion of all others.  The shock jock 'reporters' at A Current Affair might not like it, but streets are for everybody; people on foot, people in buses, people on bikes, people on horses - whatever - it is down to those who are in control of the most dangerous vehicles on the road to ensure that they take the greatest care of those around them who may be more vulnerable.

Tabloid reports like this one are "downright dangerous and shouldn't be on the road".

Incidentally, and to finish, the Metro story about the Mum on the cargo bike built for 7 people had an interesting sidebar about transport poverty and lack of safe choices on the roads.  I'll leave you to read it for yourself, below, so you can make up your own minds about who is wrong and who is right here.

 Click on the article to enlarge.

For more information on the Australian story see this reposte from politics website Crikey! and this update from the cyclist in question, Melea, herself on the Sydney Cyclist forum.


Share |