By Sandra McKay, State Political Reporter
The (Melbourne) Age, June 6, 1998
"Kamikazes" on bikes have been threatened with legislative action by the Premier, Mr Jeff Kennett, who has ordered a police crackdown on bicycle courier companies..
Mr Kennett said he was sick of the "obscene" behavior of couriers running red lights, swerving in front of cars and pedestrians, mounting footpaths and "generally breaking every road law that exists".
"Sometimes I wish I had a blue light I could attach to the roof of my car and pull these hoons over," he said..
Instead, Mr Kennett has ordered the chief police commissioner, Mr Neil Comrie, to do whatever is necessary to stop the "kamikazes", and said he would not hesitate to introduce fines or force the registration of bikes or cyclists.
Inspector Michael Glinski, who is in charge of Melbourne's central business district, said police had been working for three months on a plan to improve the behavior of bike couriers, and was confident of avoiding legislation by working with the 28 major companies.
Mr Glinski said the biggest problem was tracing the culprits, who were difficult to identify in their standard black riding gear.
A key recommendation in a draft report plan to be considered by the Melbourne City Council on 17 June is for mandatory uniforms.
Mr Glinski said serious breaches of the road rules in the central business district were a growing problem, with 81 penalty notices issued by the bicycle patrol group last month. Ninety-five per cent of offenders were couriers..
The issue came to a head when the Premier narrowly avoided two accidents this week..
But Mr Charles Warr, 25, who has been a bike courier for five years and has come a cropper several times, said Mr Kennett's reaction was "overblown".
"We're just trying to do a job here," he said. "Sometimes you might have to do some things and ride flat-out, but most of the time drivers are more a problem than we are."
Mr Warr said the police had regular blitzes, fining couriers $20 for tailgating, running lights and using tram lines as safety zones. The fines came out of his average weekly commission of $500.
Making a good income was hard work, requiring pedalling from one end of the city to another in 100 minutes. The faster you pedalled, the more you earned.
The fleet managers of two of Melbourne's biggest bike couriers, Dart and Minute Man, which have about 20 riders each, said they would be happy to cooperate with police but were surprised by Mr Kennett's concern.
Mr Anthony Grace of Dart couriers said the pricing schedule allowed
for pick-up and delivery within the CBD in 20 minutes, which should not
require law-breaking. He was unaware of any serious problems.
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