"Share the Road" is something that every man, woman and child can do because it is in our own interest. This campaign is directed to us, the people, what we can do to ensure our own safety on the road. The police can do so much. Our engineers can do so much. Our road safety educators can do so much. But we need to encourage ourselves to be more responsible for our own actions.
From a cyclist's perspective, sharing is an all consuming occurrence. Cyclists continually share the road with cars, buses, trucks, semis on all types of streets, roads and highways. Cyclists share bike paths and foot paths with many other user groups such as pedestrians, joggers, dogs, wheel chairs etc. Also the environment in which we travel such as road and path conditions, congestion, other user groups, the speed limit, has a very real effect upon our behaviour.
For a start we can obey road rules. Surely this should not be such a big problem. But it is and cyclists continue to ride wrong way, through traffic signals, no lights at night, no helmets etc. If cyclists obey the rules then they portray a good image and become less of a problem to motorists. Cyclists being responsible for their own safety would set a good example and would encourage motorists to be more careful.
Driving and riding and walking according to the road conditions requires people to think about what they are doing. It is up to us, each individual to concentrate and take extra care where roads are narrow, congested, school children, cyclists, weather and more.
The big question is, how do we educate people to share anything? There has to be something in it for me. There is. The simple joy of giving and getting that we did at Christmas time can be experienced all year round and transferred from the Christmas tree to the road. It's not "get a life", its "give a life". We have the power to give or take away somebody's life.
Out there our larger than life family starts with our kids riding to school. Lets encourage parents to teach them to share safely. Lets encourage drivers to share with smaller and more vulnerable users. The bigger looks after the smaller from a B-double right down to a baby in a pram.
According to some people we are doing well in comparison with other countries. Only 300 people killed on our roads last year just in Queensland. Are you happy with this figure? I'm not. Lets all share the road willingly and happily and direct our road rage to the recycle bin.