Despite that, antagonism is alive and well on our highways and byways, spurred on by a bizarre "law of the jungle" which places truck drivers as apex predator and puts cyclists and pedestrians at the bottom of the food chain.
Take a certain moment in time: From their elevated cabs, truckies can see most of the chaos unfolding on the roads in front and behind. Drivers of smaller vehicles are impatient and irritated by the trucks and do anything they can to get past. If that means cutting off cyclists or running them off the road, then so be it. Pedestrians are barely seen at all, and take their lives in their hands crossing the road.
It’s incredible so much anger and energy can be expended along what, in its simplest form, is just a several-metre-wide strip of asphalt with some white paint daubed on it.
There’s not even a great deal of shared understanding between cyclists and those on foot. Pedestrians are just a nuisance when they walk in the cycleways, and cyclists on the footpath are a real hazard.
About the only thing most road users can agree on is that e-scooter riders are annoying and a menace, wherever they chose to go.
At first glance, it does seem like a lot of money has been spent on cycling projects in recent years. Perhaps a truer statement would be that a lot more money has gone on these recently than in the past. However you look at it, the billions of dollars disbursed on roading still leaves cycling programmes in the shade.
Unpopular as cyclists are with many motorists, there are many benefits to society in supporting cycling, as there are walking too.
As well as the obvious advantages from cycling of decreasing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, it also plays a part in improving our nation’s collective health. Fewer people in hospital in the years to come will help us all.
On top of that, grumpy drivers need to remember that every cyclist on a cycleway is effectively a motor vehicle off the road and out of their way.
And another six ...
The arc of a well-struck cricket ball as it sails through the air and over the boundary is one of sport’s greatest sights.
Lance Cairns, Sir Richard Hadlee, Brendan McCullum, Jock Edwards, Adam Gilchrist, Sir Ian Botham, Colin Milburn and Sir Viv Richards were all strong men in their playing days. But they also had panther-like reflexes, a great eye, a gut feeling for where the bowler would bowl, and exquisite timing.
Black Cap Finn Allen has shown he is more than eligible for that exclusive team with his breathtaking, boisterous and exultant innings of 137 runs off just 62 balls at Dunedin’s University Oval on Wednesday afternoon.
His 16 sixes — accounting for 96 runs of his total — were an international record-equalling number and blasted the Black Caps to victory in the third T20 game against Pakistan and also in the five-match series.
Consecutive sixes over mid-wicket and out of the ground were especially memorable, along with a straight six which seemed almost effortless.
Allen’s innings was tough on the Pakistan bowlers. But pretty much everyone else at the ground was left smiling from ear to ear in delight at the sheer joy of seeing the white ball fly, at hearing the pistol crack of bat on leather, of sharing in a special and memorable occasion.
Thank-you Finn Allen. What a performance!
