Car keys and common sense not close companions  

The world's most famous cyclist is in town to ride the world's biggest individually-timed cycling event around the world's most scenic competitive cycling course. It should be a moment of huge triumph for the sport, the city and the nation, but it isn't.

Sure, Sunday will be brilliant, the Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour always is, even when the south-easter bends trees and bikes, but that cannot compensate for the deaths and maiming of cyclists on the roads in the build-up. The loss of life and limb has been gruesome. And some of the reactions have been even worse.

Every time another cycling fatality or serious injury is reported, the SMS pages of this newspaper and the talk radio phone lines attract a collection of people saying "the cyclists are to blame because they don't obey the rules, are rude and often ride three abreast".

Think carefully about that sentiment. Even if we accept that many cyclists often ride in an arrogant or even illegal manner, do they then somehow deserve to die? Does their selfishness or stupidity permit us to take risks in overtaking? Are we so bloody impatient on the roads that we cannot accept a small delay?

And are these grumbling motorists the same ones who use cellphones as they drive and break road rules as they so choose? If we drive poorly, and I would like to vouch that virtually every Capetonian does at some point, are other drivers entitled to endanger us in their frustration with our behaviour?

All of which leaves aside the fact that in most cases of tragedies involving bikes, the cyclists are pedaling legitimately.

I had a well-publicised accident five years ago going down into Hout Bay. Ironically my mistake, other than being daft enough to be on any Cape Town road in the first place, was to ride too safely. By hugging the left-hand side of the road I clearly encouraged a van diver to try to squeeze past me on a blind corner whereby he clipped my handlebars and sent me flying.

If I had "owned the lane" by being in the middle of it he might have remained patient. Then again, he might not have. Our driving standards are insanely bad. Car keys and common sense are not close companions in this nation.

The cocktail of anger, aggression, speed, impatience, and just plain poor technical skills, is terrifying to behold at any hour of any day on any road. It's a bad enough place to be while encased in metal and airbags, and on a bike you are playing lotto with your life.

Transport MEC Robin Carlisle, a regular cyclist, is rightly outraged by the latest carnage in Oudtshoorn and is talking, as politicians instinctively do, of new regulations. No. A thousand times, no.

In almost every facet of our society we have enough laws and not enough enforcement. The police and the courts already have the weapons to tackle crazy, dangerous drivers if only they had the will, the competence, the capacity, the honesty and the energy.

Some ruthless and relentless efficiency applying existing regulations will do far more than a hundred pages of legislation.

Next year when the Cycle Tour training season begins it will be inexcusable if the cops don't have a special patrolling plan in place from the dawn hours on the favourite routes.

Slow-moving police vehicles with flashing lights are the only traffic calming measures which really work, and they should chuck in some regular roadblocks to catch the homecoming jollers, who are often the cause of early morning accidents.

There is also the usual wistful talk of dedicated cycling lanes. Forget about that as well. It isn't going to happen and even if it did who, of the madmen, will respect them?

It's an often-told story but worth repeating. The Cycle Tour began as a form of ride-in demonstration in 1978 to help make the case for protected cycle routes in Cape Town.

In that sense it has been described as "the most successful failure in sporting history" - those special paths remain resolutely unbuilt after 32 years, but in every other way the event has been a phenomenon.

The Cycle Tour is something of which this city can be immensely proud, especially given the extent to which it is run by volunteers, but the safety of our roads for cyclists on every other day of the year, excepting the race, is a source of profound shame.

It speaks to the parts of our collective psyche, which are selfish, aggressive and intolerant.

It speaks to our disregard for rules and common sense and our lack of respect for life.

And it speaks to our functional incompetence in our inability to deter offenders and enforce the law.