Auckland father-of-three Alec Tang is pleading with drivers to slow down and consider cyclists after he was almost knocked off his bike commuting home from work. Photo / Instagram
Auckland father-of-three Alec Tang is pleading with drivers to slow down and consider cyclists after he was almost knocked off his bike commuting home from work. Photo / Instagram
A cyclist almost knocked off his bike twice on the way home from work has a message for Auckland drivers: "Have some patience and compassion".
Alec Tang shared on Twitter two close calls he had with inattentive and aggressive drivers in Auckland last night.
"Seriously Auckland, I'm about to losemy rag," he wrote.
"I just want to get home to my wife and kids without someone trying to run me off the ruddy road. Can you just stop with the freaking awful, awful driving."
Tang, 38, was cycling up Pitt St in central Auckland after work yesterday when one car driver tried to illegally cross in front of him.
Tang, whose TomTom camera attached to his handlebars captured the incident, had to swerve to avoid colliding with the car, whose driver continued despite appearing to notice him.
Less than 20 minutes later as he rode down Manukau Rd toward his home in Onehunga, still in daylight, a large white SUV came within inches of side-swiping him as it undertook another car in the right-hand lane.
Tang was in the left lane because there is no cycle lane on Manukau Rd, a major arterial route from New Market.
"People get frustrated and impatient and they are just too impatient to wait."
Without dedicated cycleways, driver behaviour was critical, Tang said.
Auckland father-of-three Alec Tang is pleading with drivers to slow down and consider cyclists after he was almost knocked off his bike commuting home from work. Photo / Instagram
"Just recognising that I'm a cyclist. I'm trying to get home to my wife and kids. I'm a person and there seems to be that some car drivers don't see the person.
"They just think this person on a bicycle is a nuisance and I'm intentionally slowing them up whereas I'm one less car on the road, so I'm actually doing them a favour."
The two incidents are not the worst Tang has experienced in five years of commuting by bike to his central Auckland job.
In one case he was passed so closely by a van that his helmet was clipped by the van's wing mirror.
Fortunately Tang did not fall off the bike and was physically uninjured but was so shaken up he complained to police.
Police tracked the culprit using Tang's camera footage and Tang says the driver was oblivious to the incident.
Tang, who grew up in the United Kingdom and moved to New Zealand five years ago, wears high-visibility gear including fluorescent gloves and a bag.
He commutes because it is quicker and cheaper and good exercise.
A bus ride to and from work can take up to an hour depending on traffic whereas his cycle time is 25-30 minutes.
The father-of-three, whose children range in age from 5 to 1, said the angst among about 5 per cent of Auckland motorists was not useful or helpful.
"It's not all drivers, because about 95 per cent of them are fine. The crazy thing is they're not saving any time because you just catch them up at the next lights.
"Being in a car you have this comfort, protection, that if you hit a cyclist you're going to come off better. Patience and compassion is my big thing. And keep that gap."
Some drivers were simply careless, Tang said, but some were aggressive and seemed to relish scaring a cyclist on purpose.
He supports a petition by Cycling Action Network to slow traffic, educate drivers and build better infrastructure and wants a mandatory gap of 1.5m between a cyclist and car introduced.
Last year 18 cyclists were killed on New Zealand roads, more than triple the number in 2016, and 556 were injured.
