Centennial Park Sydney

Has anyone else run into problems with the Rangers @ Centennial Park,
(Sydney),?
I thought Nazi's were a thing of the past! ....
The 30 km's an hour limit seems a bit draconian to me .. but have a bloke
set up with a speed gun .. thats just crazy!

HappyHoads wrote:
Has anyone else run into problems with the Rangers @ Centennial Park,
(Sydney),?
I thought Nazi's were a thing of the past! ....
The 30 km's an hour limit seems a bit draconian to me .. but have a bloke
set up with a speed gun .. thats just crazy!

If the speed limit is 30km/h, then the speed limit is 30km/h, right?

Don't like it? campaign to have it changed.

On the 'Goodwill Bridge' in Brisbane, badwill rules! I did BikeWeek
surveys this morning and had peds and cyclists lining up demanding
separate paths and whining about the other species/tribe. Neither seems
to relate it to the cyclist/car experience, which is far more
hazardous.

The bridge speed limit is 10 kmh for bikes. The bridge has a big hump,
so 10 is just attainable going up, but you need full brakes to hold 20
going down.

Donga

Donga wrote:

On the 'Goodwill Bridge' in Brisbane, badwill rules! I did BikeWeek
surveys this morning and had peds and cyclists lining up demanding
separate paths and whining about the other species/tribe. Neither seems
to relate it to the cyclist/car experience, which is far more
hazardous.

The bridge speed limit is 10 kmh for bikes. The bridge has a big hump,
so 10 is just attainable going up, but you need full brakes to hold 20
going down.

Donga

I broke the speed limit on that bridge yesterday, and so did about 1000
other women in the fun run.

Tam

HappyHoads enquired -

Has anyone else run into problems with the Rangers @ Centennial Park,
(Sydney),?
I thought Nazi's were a thing of the past! ....
The 30 km's an hour limit seems a bit draconian to me .. but have a bloke
set up with a speed gun .. thats just crazy!

There is a long and rich history to this - if you are interested the
cyclists view is at -

http://www.randwickbotanycc.com/Cycl...nial/index.htm

The unfinished spat re-emerges every couple of years.

The silliest proposal I have seen put forward by the anti cycling lobby was
a consultants report a couple of years ago that suggested changing the
present one way direction round the park for both cars and cyles to have
them counter rotating (that is, so that cyclists and cars could then have
head on collisions). I think I am correct in asserting that someone got paid
for that undoubtedly brilliant but slightly counter-intuitive proposal.

The country really is in the best of hands.

best, Andrew

Andrew Price wrote:
HappyHoads enquired -

Has anyone else run into problems with the Rangers @ Centennial Park,
(Sydney),?
I thought Nazi's were a thing of the past! ....
The 30 km's an hour limit seems a bit draconian to me .. but have a bloke
set up with a speed gun .. thats just crazy!

There is a long and rich history to this - if you are interested the
cyclists view is at -

http://www.randwickbotanycc.com/Cycl...nial/index.htm

The unfinished spat re-emerges every couple of years.

The silliest proposal I have seen put forward by the anti cycling lobby was
a consultants report a couple of years ago that suggested changing the
present one way direction round the park for both cars and cyles to have
them counter rotating (that is, so that cyclists and cars could then have
head on collisions). I think I am correct in asserting that someone got paid
for that undoubtedly brilliant but slightly counter-intuitive proposal.

Apparently, they are now building speed-bumps in "strategic locations"
to deter cyclists from cycling fast. Genius.

HappyHoads wrote:
Has anyone else run into problems with the Rangers @ Centennial Park,
(Sydney),?
I thought Nazi's were a thing of the past! ....
The 30 km's an hour limit seems a bit draconian to me .. but have a bloke
set up with a speed gun .. thats just crazy!

They're generally targetting cyclists in pelotons larger than 15
riders. I've ridden past the Ranger many times going 40km/h plus (not
difficult on a summer afternoon in Sydney) and I was ignored.

Tip: If you ever get pulled over, politely ask the Ranger if you can
see the radar gun. They are not permitted to give you a ticket if they
ascertain your speed, by inferring the difference from their own speed
(ie if they are driving).

In article .com,
"Kimon" wrote:

Apparently, they are now building speed-bumps in "strategic locations"
to deter cyclists from cycling fast. Genius.

I could be wrong but I think the speed humps are only being installed on
the roadways coming into the park. That is what I understood by the
notice in the local rag.
The Rangers have a very difficult job and are, almost 100% of the time,
very generous to cyclists who train there early mornings. They could be
'Nazis' if they wanted to but they are not. They know that Centennial
Park is a safe haven for cyclists who do not feel like dicing with death
on the open roads outside the Park.
After 08:00 am it is just dumb to train in Centennial Park because of
the walkers, joggers, horses, dogs, children, roller-bladers and cars. I
cannot say what it is like in the evenings because I do not go there.
All cyclists know that 30kph is too slow but it is a trade-off with
other activities in a very busy park. It will never be raised - but
could be lowered.
The traffic study of a couple of years ago only showed how close we came
to having a disastrous plan adopted. The local cycling clubs put in a
lot of work to have the plan shelved. It was done by being level-headed
and addressing the real issues. Calling Rangers 'Nazis' is definitely
not the way to have your opinion heard. Plus, the Rangers are told to
enforce the speed limit by management every time somebody gets ****ed
off with cyclists.
The problem is that the dog walkers hate cyclists, the horse riders hate
cyclists and the car drivers hate cyclists. Even the cyclists don't like
other cyclists sometimes - this happens when the once-a-year cyclist
gets blown off the road by a peleton of 15 going 40kph. The peleton does
the right thing by announcing their arrival with a loud 'Keep Left' and
this is interpreted as overly aggressive. It all depends on where you
observe the incident from.
My advice if you want to ride in Centennial Park is:
* get there early
* plan to finish by 08:00
* be nice to everybody you see
* don't scare casual cyclists - especially with kids
* get to know the Rangers
* provide constructive unemotional feedback to the Park management
(start by reading their website http://www.cp.nsw.gov.au/about_us

cheers,
Darryl
(not employed by the Park - just like being there)

darryl wrote:
In article .com,
"Kimon" wrote:

Apparently, they are now building speed-bumps in "strategic locations"
to deter cyclists from cycling fast. Genius.

I could be wrong but I think the speed humps are only being installed on
the roadways coming into the park. That is what I understood by the
notice in the local rag.

I don't think putting a speed hump on a downhill is a particularly
smart or safe idea from the POV of a cyclist, IMO, anyway.

good comments snipped

After 08:00 am it is just dumb to train in Centennial Park because of
the walkers, joggers, horses, dogs, children, roller-bladers and cars. I
cannot say what it is like in the evenings because I do not go there.
All cyclists know that 30kph is too slow but it is a trade-off with
other activities in a very busy park. It will never be raised - but
could be lowered.

On a weekday the park is practically empty until about 3pm. The
weekends are a different matter.

more good comments snipped

The peleton does
the right thing by announcing their arrival with a loud 'Keep Left' and
this is interpreted as overly aggressive. It all depends on where you
observe the incident from.

Sharing a lane with roller-bladers isn't the best idea, but there's not
much that can be done.

cheers,
Darryl
(not employed by the Park - just like being there)

Yes, CP is my "happy place", as well.

On 7 Mar 2006 03:00:47 -0800, Kimon wrote:

[...]

I don't think putting a speed hump on a downhill is a particularly
smart or safe idea from the POV of a cyclist, IMO, anyway.

I've had speed humps on the bottem of downhills, infact I discovered
that the shape of this speed hump turned it into a quite effective
jump. It had 100% the oppisit effect then what was intended.


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