Why cyclists need miracles on their way to work

It's been 16 months since September 14, 2022, when a car swerved into the unprotected cycle lane on Northbourne Avenue and flung Paul O'Dwyer many metres from the road, almost costing him his life.

The 58-year-old hit his head on the concrete kerb, broke his upper spine in several places and was put into an induced coma in hospital, all before 9.30am on a Wednesday.

"Christmas [2022] was hard, seeing Paul's discomfort with the 24/7 rigid neck brace along with the fear of surgery still being a possibility in the future," his wife Joanne Pybus said.

"Our kids felt the heaviness of this possibility too."

Mr O'Dwyer continues to deal with the trauma and was not in a position to be interviewed. Ms Pybus said the mental load of not knowing if he would ever fully recover had affected his healing journey.

"Those first few days after the accident were full of many dreadful possibilities. Will he be able to breathe on his own when he's out of the coma? Will he be able to walk? Will he need surgery meaning he would never be able to move his neck again?," Ms Pybus said.

"There was such elation as he passed each milestone over the week he was in hospital."

She said their lives had totally changed in these 16 months. An unhealed vertebrae meant her husband, who ran his own business, had to drastically scale back his services.

The family also needed to travel to Sydney five times in the past year for neurologist appointments.

Mr O'Dwyer's accident was referred to the Australian Federal Police's major collisions team for investigation. The team found the driver in the middle lane to be at fault for moving into the left lane without checking their blind spot. They concluded this act caused the car behind it to swerve into the cycle lane and hit Mr O'Dwyer.

The couple are veteran cyclists who have represented Australia in international cycling challenges.

In their experience, Ms Pybus said they had encountered drivers who hurled abuses or objects at them and even swerved to scare them while they rode.

"This is not to say this is what caused this accident, but these behaviours creep into our cultural and the psyche of drivers who I worry get in their car and feel an ownership of our shared roads," she said.

The ACT government could have addressed this "belligerence" by building cycling infrastructure they say they support, she said.

"This sends the message that they don't truly believe in cycling as a form of commuting," Ms Pybus said.

More than 900 cyclists have been hospitalised in the last three years with injuries from accidents. At least 265 had been hospitalised in 2023, according to the ACT Emergency Services Agency. Peak times for these accidents were reportedly 8am and between 3pm and 7pm.

This comes as a UNSW study revealed cyclists over the age of 60 killed on the roads had grown from 8.6 per cent of all cycling deaths in 1991 to 45.7 per cent in 2022.

Ms Pybus said she was sick of the delay as protected cycleways would have cost "a fraction" of the $675 million spent on the Light Rail Stage 1.

"We wouldn't ask a car driver to take the longest route to get to work ...," she said. "It's life changing, preventable and annoying how much the government has already spent on planning instead of doing. It's not helping the next person who gets knocked off their bike on Northbourne.

"It's bleeding taxpayers' money."

Northbourne Avenue was recently on the top of a crowdsourced list of ACT roads labelled 'the most unsafe' for cyclists.

An ACT government spokesperson said protected cycleways on the main road were not "in the scope" of Stage 1.

"The surrounding road network was not part of the project and remained unchanged," she said.

The spokesperson also said the government did not support the removal of a lane of traffic to convert to a cycle lane due to the effects it could have on traffic "during a time when there is already disruption associated with major infrastructure projects being built in the CBD area".

The government was building the Garden City Cycle Path which would run parallel to Northbourne Avenue, she added.

Mr O'Dwyer only regained his neck strength in December last year. He has "finally" been given permission to begin physiotherapy. His road to full recovery could still be months-long.

"It's a miracle," Ms Pybus said.