Mike Van Niekerk on cycling safety: Someone tried to kill me this week

Mike Van Niekerk has had two frightening brushes with cars in the past week.

Opinion

Someone tried to kill me twice in the past week.

Not the same person and probably not intentionally. But with the same lethal attitude behind the steering wheel of a car.

Last Friday on Tamaki Drive, I was coming back alone towards the city from a training ride, keeping well left in the bus lane just after 7am when a small sedan shot past me so close that the tip of the rear-view mirror brushed past my outstretched elbow.

Just a minor wobble in the wrong direction, unaware that 1500kg of metal was coming rapidly from behind, and I could have been added to the road statistics.

Thanks mate. I tell you what, why don't you put your mum on the side of the road and then drive within a few centimetres of her at 60km/h?
You'd never do anything as insane as that would you?

This morning just before 7am, I was with eight men and one young woman riding together near Point England on our regular Tuesday morning group ride when a minivan tore past, perilously close, horn blaring.

What was that all about? Angry about possibly being delayed five or 10 seconds? Couldn't wait just a little?

Is New Zealand starting to resemble Australia?

In Melbourne and Sydney, where I lived for many years, a significant minority of drivers have an appallingly negative attitude towards sharing the road with cyclists - encouraged by radio shock jocks stirring populist anti-cyclist rage and fallacies about who pays what road tax and stories of lawless behaviour.

I tell you what. If you don't hold it against me when an idiot on a bicycle runs a red light, I won't hold it against you when I see a motorist doing something equally as stupid.

One of my favourite summer experiences is to take a social spin along Auckland's waterfront before breakfast. Suddenly, it feels just a little bit more dangerous.

Several Australian states are trying to cut cyclist deaths by making passing less than 1.5 metres a punishable offence. Maybe it's time we had a look at that here.

* Mike Van Niekerk is the NZ Herald's head of sport