SYD: Toll protest ride Sun 26th

See http://www.mccofnsw.org.au/a/31.html for background and for a PDF of
a flyer. Print a few and distribute them.

For those who didn't grow up in Sydney (like me), you might not be aware
that bikes used to pay 1/4 the toll of cars to cross the Harbour Bridge.
Then the Tunnel came along, and the private company wasn't having any.
So bikes suddenly had to pay 4 times as much.

Now the Cross City Tunnel is here, and the private company requires you
to buy an e-tag, and if it doesn't work will charge you an admin fee
if you don't use their e-tag. The other operators are talking about
following suit - you want to carry 4 of the buggers?

The Cross City think an armband is suitable for riders. I've tried,
and guess what - it doesn't fit on my jacket. The armour gets in the
way or it slides down unless I have it tight enough to be uncomfortable.
Probably be alright if you are some big bloke with a long arm, but not
if you are a shortarm[1].

Plus I don't feel like having to remember to strap the damn thing on
in case I go via the tunnel! I can just see me stopping on the Anzac
Bridge, "excuse me while I strap on my appliance". Or wearing it for the
entire trip.

The ride will stop at the footbridge over the freeway north of the
Bridge, where there will be banners and a group of riders paying toll to
make good TV. We do our slow ride, the photo call, then disperse.

This will likely be the first ride in a campaign. THe idea is to put
pressure on toll operators and the RTA to actually work for a solution,
not just throw it in the too hard basket. With minimal hurt to the
general public.

PROTEST RIDE

"MOURNING THE TOLL"

June 26, 10 am, Hickson Road, The Rocks.

This is a slow ride, a funeral procession, Mourning our Toll. Wear a
black armband or other mourning gear. Low level public inconvenience. Very
High profile.

The purpose is to provide images for TV and ramp up the importance.
Toll issues will be won or lost in the press.
Make pollies worry about "what if we changed the time or the target?"


+---------------------------------------------+
| A FAIR GO FOR MOTORCYCLES |
| A TAG THAT WORKS & A TOLL THAT'S FAIR |
+---------------------------------------------+



Riders are happy to pay a toll
As long as the rate is fair
As long as we are not disadvantaged with fees or inappropriate technology or
forced to compromise safety.


===========================

[1] straight lines 'r' us. All ex-army types, I know what it means...

 

So anyone else heading in to this from the north side?

 

I was a definite yes, right up until the bit where a representative
of the MCC posted this little gem to a couple of other groups this
morning:


"If you ride and CARE how you and your fellow riders are
treated, then read on. If not, your[sic] an[sic] lazy
selfish a$$hole[sic]..."


As I said in an earlier post (On June 8th I said: "I'll be turning
up on every protest ride that I'm in Sydney for") I was perfectly
prepared to show up and do my bit at the protest rides despite
that I'm not entirely aligned with the MCC's position on some of
these issues, but after that little outburst, I'll not have anything
to do with the bloody clowns.[1]

I'm sufficiently angry at that latest bit of activist psycho-
babble from the MCC that I'm borderline ready to start writing
to politicians and assorted businesfolk myself, asking them to
understand that not all bikers are wankers and that they shouldn't
tar all bikers with the same brush that they use for those
fucktards over at the MCC.



So no, I won't be going.



GB, colour me a 'lazy selfish arsehole'.


[1] Even went as far as to print up a hundred copies of the flyer[2]
with a view to passing them out at the bike parking spots up the
road here after work for the rest of the week. Binned them this
morning.

[2] http://tinyurl.com/7gjcu

 

In aus.motorcycles on Mon, 20 Jun 2005 08:32:16 GMT

That's a terrible thing for anyone who says they represent the MCC -
rather than a delegate who represents their club to the MCC which is a
different thing - to say.

If the person concerned said they were speaking for the MCC, then please
let me know who they were, so I can pass the info on to the committee.

If it was someone who is a member of a club and is a delegate to the
MCC, so isn't on the committee and doesn't have any right to speak for
the MCC but only for themselves or their club, and didn't say they were
speaking for the MCC< they are still a damn fool, but I don't think you
can blame the MCC for people the MCC has no control over.

Zebee

 

How to make friends and influence people Volume 12.

 

You tell us, It was Chris Turner.

 

In aus.motorcycles on Mon, 20 Jun 2005 21:14:25 +1000

Chris is not a member of the committee, so can't speak for the MCC. I
believe he is a member of the noise subcommittee. I'll pass the info on
to the committee.

Zebee

 

No need to. Give said person the boot or take him out the paddock to see the
horses. There's always arseholes who can't spell in any organisation. A
good organisation will soon weed them out.

Go on. I'll help you ridicule him.

 

@news.optus.net.au:

What are you, 5 years old... fucking hell.. get a grip dude. Who the
**** cares what some twat has said (the question was rhetorical
obviously, you have your knickers in a twist). I don't agree with 70% of
what other bikers do or say but if you support the cause then attend, if
you don't, take your bat and ball and piss off.. and I would say MOST
people who ride bikes are wankers... why ? one of the reason being thay
are to fucken lazy to get of their arse to attend stuff like this ...
don't get me started on those fucks in Ul.....

--
Trevor S


"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."
-Albert Einstein

 

Sorry Pete, line's gotta be drawn somewhere. I'm up for a
beer or seven afterwards but. Great Northern Hotel in
Chatswood, you can squeeze the hardley in with my car in the
garage if ya like.

GB

 

lazy?... wanker? Perhaps they just honestly don't really care! They don't
HAVE to care you know. There is nothing wrong with that. You can't expect
other people to CARE about what you CARE about just because YOU think it is
important.

Nev..
'03 ZX12R

 

Agreed... this makes them "lazy wankers"... the worst kind..

Agreed again, it's their choice.

Absolutely, emphatically, DISAGREE. Ask the Jews circa 1940's, those
killed by Pol Pot, ask Amnesty, ask those interned in Austalian
Internment camps etc etc etc blah balh blah why they treated like they
where, becase lazy wankers did not give a ****, same thing here different
scale and severity.

I never said I did. I don't expect Car drivers (other people) to care
one shit **** in this instance because that's the way most people are

Armchair bitching, the rest is a combination of apathy , laziness and a
defective personality.

--
Trevor S


"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."
-Albert Einstein

 

The kind that don't share your priorities.
It's a toll. Nobody dies from paying a toll. You don't even get sick.

Did they get upset about toll roads?

Did they get upset about toll roads?

Do they get upset about toll roads?

I'm sure they would relish the opportunity to pay tolls.

Do tell!!

You may not have *said* it, but you sure as hell *typed* it.

Which one is you?


Moike

 

No one's asking you to break the law, John, and I'll be a witness to any
vindicitiveness, tho' the 'no idiots' bit on the flyer has got me worried!

 

I'd like to, GB, but I'm off shopping with a few other out of towners then
trying to get back while the band's still playing at the pub down the
holla.

 

No, it makes them people who don't care about what you care about.

No, if they chose to care that would be their choice, if they don't care you
can't assume that's a conscious choice they have made. Maybe they don't care
enough to even give any thought to the decision on whether to care or not?

Different scale and severity you say... so are you saying that the 1940s
German public's indifference to the way Jews were treated is worse than or
better than the attitude of motorcyclists who don't go to a protest about road
tolls.

Why do they need to care about it just because they're motorcyclists? If
they're unaffected by it, they have no reason to care.

Nev..
'03 ZX12R

 

In aus.motorcycles on Tue, 21 Jun 2005 12:42:50 GMT

I think that's like "have a nice day", verbal noise they think makes
sense.

A bunch of bikers is like a bunch of any other kind of people, can't get
away from idiots!

Zebee

 

OK, I'll admit, that's the *real* reason that I'm not going!

GB, idiot.

 

Sorright. There'll be another protest ride next month, and I'm
likely to have calmed down about it by then!

GB

 

Slight clarification (I did grow up in Sydney):

While the Harbour Tunnel was being built (in the late 1980s),
the Harbour Bridge toll went from cars 20c, bikes 5c
to $1 for both bikes and cars.
For bikes, this was suddenly 20 times as much.

Sydney is far more hostile to bikes now than it was in the 1980s.
I remember when parking on CBD footpaths was simply tolerated,
and there were no "pay and display" meters (which are very anti-bike).