In the centre of Melbourne is a road labelled “Swanston street walk”, its a joke really, there is no walking along it. During the day it is closed to private motor traffic. It is a major north-south thoroughfare through the city for cyclists, who have to share it with trams… and horse carriages… and jaywalkers… and taxis… and courier vans… and delivery trucks… and tourists who accidently drive into it… and motorists who ignore the closure and deliberately drive into it… and tour buses.

Tragically, this morning a woman died under the wheels of one of those tour buses.

It touched a nerve with the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who cycle into or through the city and a memorial service was organised for 17:15 on fairly short notice and despite this and the rain, somewhere between 100 and 200 people showed up.

A last minute decision to leave work early and head into the city to join the memorial gathering for the cyclist killed by a bus this morning. A sudden rain shower, a double-parked car blocking the bike lane and a less than successful overtaking manoeuvre across the tram tracks.

Thumbs up to all who showed up for the memorial.

Thumbs down to the idiots I saw in traffic; on foot, on bike, in car.

…and congratulations to our two newspapers, who seem to be at odds with each other in their reporting:

The Age ::

“She fell into the path of an oncoming Gray Line tour bus”

The Herald Sun ::

“The woman, from Parkville, was riding south when she was hit by the bus, which was also travelling south.”

Truly makes you wonder about the quality of reporting of events that you can’t verify from other sources.