1BRX768 – Squeeze Me

Perth, Australia

26 Mar, 2026 - 3 months ago - on Thelma Street
Heading west on Thelma Street at about 35 km/h.
A car 1BRX768 decided the pinch point was the perfect place to squeeze past me instead of waiting two seconds.
I backed off, but it was still close enough that I could have reached out and given the rear window a polite tap.

These “traffic calming” pinch points are fundamentally flawed.
They’re meant to slow cars to improve safety, but they actually force cyclists to play bumper cars at the narrowest part of the road.

Yes, there’s usually a little bypass lane to the side.
That might suit a 10-20 km/h cruise, but at 30-40 km/h it’s sketchy - you drop off one surface onto another, in the dark, into a narrow chute, weave around, then rejoin traffic.
All it really does is spook drivers and turn a simple pass into a panic event.

It feels like the designer tested it on foot, nodded thoughtfully, and declared “job well done”.
Meanwhile it increases conflict, annoys drivers, and makes riders look like the problem for existing in the lane.

Bad design, bad execution.
A straight section with some speed humps would calm traffic without turning cyclists into the crash-test dummy.

Council: Do Better.