An argument which is often claimed by the Australian cycling lobby is the existence of the Petition for Compulsory Single File is equal to hate speech,  therefore the Petition should be removed from change dot org.  Obviously,  that's a ridiculous position to take,  but it does raise the question  -  why DO they take that position?  What's their end game?

The logic behind the claim goes something like this... 

1. Our Petition is one which incites violence by motorists towards Australian cyclists. 
2. the mere existence of our Petition is tantamount to hate speech,  hence it needs to be removed  
3. the rate of deaths among Australia cyclists has NEVER BEEN SO bad,  and finally...
4. everything,  absolutely everything about cycling is better in The Netherlands,  all our problems would go away if we were more like The Netherlands.

OK,  let's look at the figures then.

In 1991,  after mandatory cycling helmet laws were introduced,  our annual number of cycling fatalities dropped from 98 in 1989 down to an average of 37 per year ever since.  By 2016 the figure had dropped to as low as 29.

• In Australia,  78% of the adult population goes to work in a private vehicle. 
• In The Netherlands that figure is 25%.  But the kicker is 40% of their population are able to use public transport to get to work.
• Australia's population is 24 million people,  in The Netherlands it's 17 million. 
• In 2016 a total of 29 cycling fatalities occurred in Australia,  of which 7 did not involve a vehicle. 
• In 2016 The Netherlands a total of 186 cyclist fatalities occurred.
• In 2016 in Germany,  364 cycling fatalities occurred.
• For 14 years from 1960 to 1974,  the total number of cycling deaths per year in The Netherlands was over 500 deaths per year,  with a peak of 541 in 1972
• Germany's road toll was so horrific due to drink driving,  in 1970 their road toll peaked at 21,000 deaths!

These figures (at a ratio level) are consistently the same,  year in year out.  Even now in 2018 The Netherlands consistently averages 6 times as many cycling deaths per annum as Australia,  with only three quarters the total population.  Hence,  it's fair to ask...  what does it say about Dutch motorists that so many cyclists die there each year,  compared to Australia,  and yet so few of them drive to work compared to here?

Clearly,  this isn't a message the Australian cycling proponents want to hear because it undermines their lobbying power,  and lobbying for increased pro-cycling legislation IS their goal,  but the stats are what they are.  They're facts in other words.

But there's some bad news too....

When it comes to "total road toll" figures,  as a nation, in relative terms Australia is doing better than most but there is some truth our motorised vehicle deaths are unacceptably high (on a per capita basis) compared to other Western World nations which have a great public transport system. For example, people often quote The Netherlands and their high percentage of adults who cycle to work (35%), but most folks overlook 40% of the adult population are able to catch public transport to work. And only 25% of adults go to work in a personal vehicle.

Now, to be fair, it's substantially easier to build a world class public transport system when your total land mass is only 1/6th the size of Victoria! But that being said, there is no shame in us, as a nation, conceding our road toll is still too high in relative terms.

Looking at Germany for a moment as a means of comparison, in 2016 the total road toll was 3,500 while Australia was 1,200. However, Germany's population is almost exactly 4 times that of Australia. On a per capita basis, Germany's total road toll is lower than ours. But that didn't used to be the case. In the late 1960s Germany had a shocking drink driving problem, as did The Netherlands. It was so bad in 1970 the German road toll was 21,000 lives! And for 14 years in a row, from 1960 to 1974, over 500 cyclists died each year in The Netherlands.

Of course, that's all forgotten now and cycling proponents love to quote The Netherlands as an example of how much difference cycling can make to the overall road toll but it's a form of highly selective agenda politics. Last year for example (2017), for the first time ever in The Netherlands, more cyclists died than motor car deaths (but it was still lower if you included mopeds and motorcycles).

The point being, the single biggest difference between the European countries which have a lower per capita road toll than Australia is the public transport system. It's pretty rare to die on a train or a tram or a bus. And if you're going to argue Australia has dropped the ball this past 25 years? You'd have to suggest it's been our investment into heavy and light rail systems as an alternative to road use. It's still fixable but it can't be a pissweak effort. It would need to be a really massive, do it totally right effort.

So, what we're trying to say here, on a regular basis, is if we're going to spend say $100 billion dollars nationally on a public infrastructure program? Bang for buck that money is going to be way WAAAAAAY better spent on heavy and light rail systems instead of cycling infrastructure because, in the absence of that new rail infrastructure, the only thing that's surely going to happen if we shift a gazillion people onto bikes is the road toll will shift from car drivers to cyclists.

You see, that LAST point is something cycling proponents happily overlook, all too often. The secret to Europe's lower road toll isn't cycling, it's their public transport systems. Taken in isolation, their cycling fatality numbers are quite horrific compared to Australia.