Anybody would feel sad for Alastair Mackenzie. His father, Norman, was hit by a cyclist at a pedestrian crossing in St Kilda last week, and later died in hospital from serious head injuries.
Norman Mackenzie was 85. He was out walking his blue heeler pup when he was killed, trying to teach it some road sense according to his son.
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At 85, Norman Mackenzie had lived a long life and was obviously still active; his family must have expected him to live on and eventually die of what kills most of us – old age. His death, like anybody's death, is sad, and its manner, so unexpected, is a tragedy.
In the 10 years to 2015, 444 pedestrians were killed on Victoria's roads according to the TAC. Curiously, one-third of them were aged over 70, and 65 per cent were men. One-third were struck on the near side while crossing the road, 16 per cent on the far side, and 11 per cent were hit while playing, working, standing or lying on a carriageway. Only one was hit by a bicycle – 77-year-old James Gould, who was killed on Beach Road in 2006.
Alastair Mackenzie says he doesn't want his father's death to be in vain: he has called for bikes to be registered and cyclists to be licensed to prove they know the road rules. He no doubt feels that this will prevent whatever happened to his father happening again.
It's a familiar call when a cyclist breaks the law.
But 443 pedestrians were killed by vehicles other than bicycles between 2005 and 2015, most, if not all, registered, and driven by licensed drivers who had "proved" they knew the road rules.
Compulsory licensing and registration didn't prevent those deaths; they don't stop drivers speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, running red lights – and using mobile phones while they do it.
Registering cars and licensing car drivers makes sense: cars are complicated to operate safely, weigh upwards of a tonne and can be driven legally at 100km/h.
People should have to prove they can operate a car safely before they can drive one, and registration should contribute (probably more than it does) to the costs of car use.
But a bicycle isn't a car – it's light, human-powered, and most of us struggle to ride one above 30km/h. Cyclists are overwhelmingly the ones who get injured or killed in crashes involving bikes.
By some estimates, 90 per cent of Victorians aged between 30 and 65 hold a driver's licence: so you can assume that the vast majority of adult cyclists have already "proved" they know the road rules.
Making people sit another licence test before they can ride a bike won't stop what happened to Norman Mackenzie happening again. Only a change in the attitude of all road users could do that.
Matt Holden is a Fairfax Media columnist.
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