Bicycle Canberra

Bowen Underpass delayed

2011-12-21T10:44:00.001+11:00

The NCA brings word that due to unforeseen works needed at Scrivener Dam, the Bowen place underpass will now be delayed until 2014.The NCA due to cutbacks has had to carefully budget for works in the parliamentary triangle and Lake Burley Griffin area but could find a revenue stream by introducing pay parking.

A large majority of Canberra's public servants work in the parliamentary triangle that drive rather than using public transport or cycle.

The ACT government doesn't have jurisdiction over the Parliamentary triangle which is controlled by the Australian Government agency the National Capital Authority (NCA). They have held numerous consultations on introducing pay parking but has yet to implement it. Canberra has some of the cheapest car parking rates in the world at just under $7 dollar a day average across the city. Building car-parks is not a cheap exercise so what is the true econimic cost?

Donald Shoup professor of urban planning at UCLA, California, USA describes the issues here:

Donald Shoup on the High Cost of Free Parking

He has also written a book about it as well.

Unrealistic cycling culture advertising

2011-11-21T10:19:00.000+11:00

Several ads in the print media and consumer products always seem to show a cycling culture that is unrealistic in Australia with many adds continually showing helmet-less riders.

Recipe Ad.

Cereal Ad.

Real estate Ad.

...and who can forget this issue of the In the City last summer :

Bowen place 'Underpass'

2011-11-08T11:07:00.000+11:00

The Canberra Times is reporting that the final design for the Bowen Street underpass has been release for comment by the NCA. Originally they were looking at a bridge(overpass) and was the preffered option by many respondents to the three designs. The undetrpass was not considered as an option originally but has now been considered as the preferred option as it wont impede on those pesky site lines in the Palimentry triangle.

At last a government agency has taken pedestrians and cyclists seriously for once. The same can't be said for the same agencies response to the Kings Ave overpass which has created poor crossing facilities and infrastructure for
pedestrians and cyclists.

Kings Ave overpass ,cost: $32 million

There is no grade separation for pedestrians and cyclists except for the cyclist riding on an unprotected cycle lane under the bridge. This originally was a three lane roundabout with a high number of accidents so an overpass was a necessary, but it could have been designed better so pedestrians and cyclists are completed separated with grade separation at crossing points.

This intersection in Bogota' shows a different design that keeps the roundabout but with grade separation for traffic, pedestrians and cyclists. Certainly a 'win win' solution.

Embassy's of Cycling

2011-10-07T17:40:00.000+11:00

Canberra is no stranger to embassy's given that Canberra is the national capital of Australia ( a trivia question that many people overseas get wrong) as we have embassy's from countries all over the world.
In the Netherlands they have just launched the Dutch cycling embassy modeled on the Danish cycling embassy which has been going for a few years now.
The aim of these embassies is to bring together the experts like government organisations, non government organisations, consultants and planning experts to promote cycling and communicate cycling solutions. A one stop shop for cycling advocates.
Great Britain has also formed a cycling embassy which would operate differently advising organisations in their own country on the benefits of cycling and cycling infrastructure from knowledge gained from other countries, like the Netherlands. This is important given the demise of Cycling for England .

So to the worlds cycling experts of the Dutch Cycling Embassy, and the excellent video produced and narrated by Amsterdamize 's Marc Van Woudenberg. Lets hope our Government gets in contact soon.

Helmet freedom at Last!

2011-10-01T14:50:00.002+10:00

Well, only if your playing Bike polo it seems or if you are over the age of 17 living in the Northern Territory. This article on ABC online caught my attention. Bike Polo is starting to become a popular sport, having been introduced here from the United States.

I'd say it won't be too long before the powers that be will start to enforce those pesky mandatory helmet laws.
Sadly it is still making the news with the usual for and against on whether the law should stay.
This was in the local weekly mag. , having a go at Canberra cyclists not stopping at red lights and not wearing helmets. Now we wouldn't want riding a bike to appear dangerous now would we. People might actually stop riding a bikes!

I wonder what she would make of those silly dangerous cyclists in other countries that don't have Mandatory Helmet Laws.

Copenhagenize

Amsterdamize

Australia's Best Cycling City Award!

2011-09-19T11:00:00.001+10:00

Now wouldn't that be a good idea. Australia has awards for tidy towns but as I'm aware nothing that recognises a city or town on its cycle friendliness. The CPF has annual awards that does recognise towns though it is more of a local government award. But a national award and title that gives a city or town recognition on the work and funding a city provides to promote cycling would create competition and a willingness by some local governments to invest more in cycle facilities.

Maybe the CPF and the Australian bicycle council could consider this and look to the example of Fietsbond in the Netherlands on the annual Fietsstad with this years feature on cycling to schools in each of the five cities nominated.

Here a couple of those lesser known cities (to Australians).

In the latest Pedestrian and Cycle review for Canberra, the study was only looking at commuting and not cycling routes to schools. Maybe awards like this can help to improve the overall thinking in Australia on what makes a cycle friendly city, one that includes all aspects of cycling not just commuting or cycle racing.

Survey results, Territories lead States

2011-09-01T09:40:00.000+10:00

A survey conducted for the Australian Bicycle Council and Austroads finds that the Territories lead the States in bicycle participation rates. 'The survey was a telephone interview conducted with a random selection of households across Australia. The interviews were conducted during March and April 2011. A total of 9,661
households consisting of 24,858 individuals were interviewed, consisting of around 0.11% of the Australian resident population. Respondents were asked when they and other members of their household had last ridden a bicycle, and if in the past week, how often and for what purposes they had ridden.'
Overall the ACT was second to Northern Territory in terms of participation and transport:

The ACT leads the Australian average on modes of cycling transport for which recreation which is the main reason why people cycle.

Commuting comes next followed by education and shopping. If we were to compare it with the Netherlands we would find a different set of statistics:

Education is by far the highest proportion ,followed by recreational , shopping and commuter travel.

Now these are only survey responses and the ABS census data which was held last month will get a better sense of bicycle use over the last 5 years sadly it won't include education or over uses except travel to work.
There has been far too much focus on commuting rather the overall population in Canberra and the focus needs to be on infrastructure that the majority can use rather the the strong and fearless. The overwhelming statistic from this survey shows the the highest participation in bicycle use is in children an teenagers, so why aren't we building better infrastructure for them?

Infrastructure : Left Turn Slip lanes

2011-08-25T23:52:00.000+10:00

One of the many Car friendly infrastructure Australia has, is the free left turn slip lanes that allow motor vehicles to make a left turn at an intersection without stopping at the signalised intersection or T intersection.

Not so friendly for pedestrians and cyclists. As a cyclist riding on the shared path you are required to dismount at these slip lane crossings and walk beside your bike across the intersection as is the law. If your riding on the cycle lane at these intersections, you are put in a dangerous situation by having to ride in a cycle lane in between motor vehicles. These are marked in green and have mentioned them before.

So what are the solutions if Canberra are truly to become a cycle friendly city as some may claim, well you wouldn't be forcing those riding their bicycles to dismount of cycle in between fast moving traffic.
As it is unlikely in the near future to have separate crossings for cyclists( those riding on shared paths) and pedestrians a solution that is used in other countries of marking a cycle lane next to the pedestrian crossing could be considered.


Possible Cycle lane crossing

Tokyo,Japan

Copenhagen,Denmark

Barcelona, Spain

Another solution would be to have a shared path crossing, which could look like this............

Possible shared path crossing

Australia has adopted a lime green or green colour to mark its cycle infrastructure at crossing junctions for some reason (except Perth) , in Denmark and London its blue, and Germany and Holland its red. The paint is quite expensive and is used only at intersections where conflicts between cyclists and motor vehicles may (and do)occur.
In Sydney they have marked some of their separated cycle paths completely in green, this is despite the Australian Bicycle Council recommending that colour to mark cycle lanes and paths should only be used sparingly as motor vehicle drivers will get too used to the colour and may ignore them. This from a council that is primarily made up of road/traffic engineers.

Sydney's separated cycle paths

I wonder if the Australian bicycle Council has ever been to the Netherlands............

Anyway, I am told that the Australian road rules maintenance group are opposed to such crossings, so cyclists will continue to be treated as second class citizens. Though a discussion paper by the Roads Transport Authority (RTA) NSW has suggested such a new type of crossing, that may not require cyclists to dismount. So we can only hope that common sense will prevail.

Promotion of Cycling

2011-08-17T13:25:00.000+10:00

The City of Sydney is once again showing the rest of the country how to promote cycling culture with its new cycling infrastructure and promotion videos.









When the ACT government started installing Cycle lanes a few years ago there was little if any promotion but rather a warning to motorists,which is important. But many people in the community see cyclists usually in Lycra, male and between the 30 - 50 age group, and having cycle lanes on major arterial roads not that welcoming.
There's know doubt there has been a increase in ridership on these lanes but just imagine if we had listen to the experts and installed infrastructure that the majority of the community could use.

A Mix of Infrastructure

2011-08-08T22:19:00.000+10:00

A recently rode my younger son to swimming lessons on the weekend and filmed the ride. This video highlights the good and the bad infrastructure we have here in Canberra.

There's no doubt that Canberra has some good cycle paths, but it could be a whole lot better..............

Bicycle Music Video Interlude 7

2011-07-09T08:22:00.000+10:00

Bicycle Music video animation, Lanu - Fall feat. Megan Washington

Bicycle infrastructure for all!

2011-07-07T14:34:00.000+10:00

On a recent expedition to an indoor playground against my better judgement by nagging children who didn't want to ride to the local playground, I noticed a family with children riding along a busy highway in the shoulder, which is being upgraded at the moment.

This highway has speed limits ranging from100km/h to 80km/h and I had general concerns particularly coming up to a bridge were the road narrows and the shoulder disappears.

You may think the parents are doing a good job here of educating their children about riding on marked shoulders on 'high speed high volume' roads as a good thing. Depending on there destination there is no excuse for children riding on these type of roads. There is generally a safer solution than riding on cycle lanes with children, either on their own bikes or in child carrying seats.

ACT roads have commissioned a Pedestrian and Cycle Design course for engineers, designers and planners recently which they say 'provides a comprehensive coverage of basic engineering treatments for cycling and pedestrian provision'.

While this course was specifically designed for Canberra's current infrastructure polices there is a few areas of concern. Take for instance 'Designing for the Community' There are seven broad cyclist user types - primary school children, secondary school children, recreational riders, commuters riders, utility riders, touring bicycle riders and sports/training riders' . 'What type of facility one user group may want, or prefer, is determined by a wide range of issues. ' For example, secondary school children who would normally prefer to ride on footpaths during their journey to school, may prefer to travel on road in bike lanes should good bicycle rout and intersection facilities exist and the riders are trained in correct road user behaviour.

It the ACT there is no cycle proficiency tests for school students particularly for the last year of primary school and as the majority of cycle lanes are on 'high speed high volume roads' this is a concern for the well being of children, one the the ACT government doesn't fully understand.
Cycle lanes are good on low volume low speed environments that provide designated areas for cyclists on existing roads and are also used by school students in other countries.

There are cycle lanes on low speed low volume roads in Canberra in the 'mish mash' planned town of Gungahlin. Though some of these lanes look like an afterthought when they could have built good quality cycle infrastructure from the start.

Though both of these roads are at 60km/h and wouldn't give many parents the confidence to let their children ride on these roads to school. maybe secondary children could use these roads safely if they had the cycle proficiency training. A Separated cycle path could easily have been fitted given the width of the road median and natural strips. Many students would like to ride together and this type of infrastructure doesn't allow for that unlike in other places.........

Mark Wagenbuur

This type of infrastructure can be used by everyone in the community not just the strong and fearless.

Why Can't They Be Like We Were?

2011-06-30T16:18:00.000+10:00

Great little film about kids riding their bikes around in Australia 1976, and the lack of things to do in an inner city environment. I used to have a chopper bike like this to ride to and from school, it was my pride and joy.

You wouldn't see kids riding around like this today, sadly.

Getting Ready for Battle

2011-06-20T11:45:00.000+10:00

Is this what is needed to ride safely in Australian cities now days. While I have taken liberties by adding a shield and sword shouldn't we have infrastructure that makes riding a bike feel safe.

www.canberratimes.com.au

When it comes to cycle safety many people state their own experience and don't think about the community as a whole.While we have low rates of cycling in this country, many cycle advocacy groups sometimes make the mistake of just representing their members and not looking at the potential cyclists or future cyclists.
Like many cities in Australia, Canberra has a group of devoted cyclists or bike riders, but there are many that only ride for recreation or for sport and wouldn't commute because of safety issues or the perceived safety issues as some would say.
Canberra's cyclists used to look like this......

The head of ACT Roads while being a cyclist believes that our current infrastructure of cycle lanes on 'high speed high volume roads' is fine for the 'elite commuter cyclist' but there are many in the community that wouldn't agree. You could categorised the Canberra community as a whole for cycling like this.

There would be many in Canberra that would cycle more if there were the facilities to do so, particularity around our car congested town centres and schools.
This photo captures the joy of commuting or cycling to a destination in Copehagen.......

www.copenhagenize.com

Now you couldn't do that on a 1.5m bike lane on one of the many Canberra arterial roads. In the recent Copenhagen Bicycle Account 2008 the cyclist sense of safety rated only a 5 out 10 and that's with cycle tracks, a physically separated curb which is your standard Copenhagen style lane.

While there are better examples of physical separation in Copenhagen the Dutch certainly do it best. Isn't time that Canberra started implementing international best practice and not short sighted tokenism.

Driver Found Guilty

2011-06-02T13:10:00.001+10:00


Obviously these warnings do very little

From the Canberra Times:

Cyclist's death: driver guilty

BY LOUIS ANDREWS, COURT REPORTER

02 Jun, 2011 06:41 AM

A Canberra driver had an obligation to avoid a collision with a cyclist that led to the latter's death, an ACT magistrate found yesterday. The Fadden man was found guilty of failing to keep an adequate lookout for the cyclist, leading to the collision which caused the rider's death last year.
James Keenan, 61, died in hospital last February after spending a fortnight in intensive care with head injuries after the crash on Sternberg Crescent in Wanniassa.( He was wearing a bicycle helmet)
The cyclist fell to the road after colliding with the side of a turning Mitsubishi Evolution driven by Rhys Wilkins, who pleaded not guilty to negligent driving causing Mr Keenan's death.
Both the prosecution and Wilkins' lawyer argued the other party had a duty of care at the time of the fateful incident at the intersection of Sternberg Crescent and Ashley Drive.
Defence lawyer Michael Kukulies-Smith argued the cyclist should have given way to the turning car and slowed down approaching the intersection.
But the prosecution submitted the 36-year-old driver should have taken more care while overtaking the cyclist and turning the corner.
Magistrate Lorraine Walker ultimately found Wilkins, having seen and overtaken the cyclist, had an obligation to keep a watchful eye out for the other party.
The defendant was suspended from holding a driver's licence at the time.
The ACT Magistrates Court heard Wilkins, who was not under the influence of alcohol and was not alleged to have been speeding, was travelling west on Sternberg Crescent on January 29.
The defendant told the court he was on his way to the shops and spotted Mr Keenan riding his bike close to the curb towards the Ashley Drive intersection.

View Large Map
Wilkins said he moved to overtake the bicycle, indicated, slowed and turned left on to Ashley Drive.
At some point before turning the corner he lost sight of Mr Keenan.
''I felt something, I looked in my rear-view mirror, and I saw a guy tumbling over the road,'' he told Ms Walker at an earlier hearing.
But the magistrate noted Wilkins never mentioned looking behind him, in his rear-view mirror or over his left shoulder as he prepared to negotiate the turn.
She said it was open to infer, on the evidence before her, the cyclist was travelling close behind the overtaking car when Wilkins took the corner. She was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt the driver failed to keep a lookout and fell below the duty of care expected of a prudent driver.
The defendant is expected to appeal. Wilkins is on strict bail conditions, which include banning him from driving a vehicle.
He is due back in court for a sentencing hearing in August.

Do we need to change some of our Laws?

A Tale of Two cities.

2011-05-30T00:31:00.000+10:00

A Tale of two cities, one that continues to see cycling in a negative way and another embracing them , well sort of.

The story featured on Perths 7.30 Report last Friday.

What more can you say about our crap infrastructure in Australia and those 'Middle Aged Men In Lycra' MAMILs.

Though Sydney seems to be moving in the right direction with this recent video from Sydney City Council, on the opening of the Bourke Street Cycleway

Well done Sydney, and of course Clover Moore!.

Walk Safely to School

2011-05-22T23:37:00.002+10:00

The 20th of May was National Walk Safely to school Day. This day is organised by the Pedestrian Council of Australia to promote road safety for school children and physical activity. The rates of walking and cycling to school have dropped dramatically in the country since the 70's and 80's partly due to a number of factors one being the perceived issues around road safety.

&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://video.adelaidenow.com.au/1939244674/Gillard-goes-back-to-school"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;VIDEO: Gillard goes back to school&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;
The pedestrian council states that until a child reaches the age of 10 years ,then they must cross a road holding the hand (supervised) of an adult. Now given our relatively high traffic speed limits in residential areas (50km/h) then many would agree that is is a good idea. I note that another organisation, Kidsafe have suggested that 12 years is and ideal age because they can't judge speed and distance of Cars traveling on road. In this article where a child was pushing a pram onto a slip lane pedestrian crossing, was hit by a light truck that didn't give way. Clearly the driver was at fault and also the poor design of intersections like these with slip lanes. What was Kidsafe's response ,that the children, in not so many words were at fault :

‘Children being in charge of other children is not an ideal situation. It’s very dangerous.’’

What price is mobility that would be safe for children. The child would have been told that at a Pedestrian crossing that motor vehicles have to give way. Yet to be sure you have to make sure that the driver comes to a complete stop before crossing, as many don't. But at a slip lane crossing, motor vehicle drivers are supposed to look left and right virtually at the same time which makes it dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists let alone children.

These national day's like 'National ride 2 School day' which I recently wrote about do little to increase active transport to schools, but only to remind us in someway of a time when the majority of children used to walk and cycle to school. The mere term of walk 'SAFELY to school implies that walking can be dangerous so while many parents walk their children one or two days a year maybe or walk in 'walking school buses' really has no affect at all but to reiterate how unsafe our streets have become, particularly around schools.

What would increase active transport for children, certainly better infrastructure, reducing residential speeds to 30km/hr ( school zones less) restricting car use around schools and enforcing road rules like Rule 73 of the Australian Road Rules. Which is ignored routinely

But if you were on you bike then that would be different as a bike is classed as a vehicle under the Road Rules. WTF.

Cycling Dutch Style

2011-05-15T22:42:00.000+10:00

Cycling Dutch style are a group of Australians who are in Holland to look at the worlds greatest bicycle culture and how even today, the bike plays a vital role in everyday transportation.

So as Canberra and many other cities around Australia grapple with ever increasing car congestion and the livability of our cities. What are the solutions for our cities and how do we design a cycle friendly town and city.

Here is the group meeting up with the crew from A view from the cycle, David Hembrow ,his wife Judy and Mark Wagenbuur. You can view the full post here, and more of the tour here.

Following New Yorks Journey

2011-05-14T13:48:00.002+10:00

One of the Films that got me interested in setting up this blog and calling for better infrastructure on our roads in Canberra was the Film by Streetfilms a few years ago, called "Physically Separated Bike Lanes"which looked at the problems of the current cycling infrastructure of cycle lanes in New York city. I particularly like Enrique Penalosa's comment on cycle lanes , 'A bike-way that is not safe for an 8 year old child is not a bike-way, to have them or not at all is the same in my opinion.'

This video has received well over a hundred thousand plays on Streetfilms and You Tube. You can clearly see the issues with cycle lanes on busy roads and how they do not protect the cyclist at all.

Streetfilms could be credited with the change that has now happened in New York, but you also need Government officials with some Political guts to make things happen. Like the New York Transport commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. Who went and visited places like Copenhagen to see for herself what could be achieved with the implementation of good cycling infrastructure.

So what has been the transformation for New York City.............

Like the film's title ,'its more than just Bike lanes'. Canberra could also improve its infrastructure like this, one that doesn't discriminate between the cycling for training, commuting to work, children riding to school , shopping by bike, and the many other uses. As have many other world cities.........

New York

Copenhagen

Holland

Japan

Good practice with some 'cycle chic'

2011-05-05T11:53:00.000+10:00

Riding home through the city (Civic) yesterday, it was good to see some good practice for pedestrians and cyclists around construction zones was being applied. I have blogged about this before and the need for policy to be enforced for traffic management not just for motor vehicles but also for other users.

Good provisions for cyclists and pedestrians

...........with a nice bit of Cycle chic

Also some more shared zones are being used though many drivers still forget that in a shared zone ,Pedestrians have absolute right of way!

Childers Street, City West

My preference is to remove cars altogether from roads like these unless it is necessary for them to be there.

Like here in Helsinki,Finland..

Helsinki,Finland.

and of course here in Canberra


City walk Civic , City East.

..........though there is certainly differing views on that subject.

Australia Post, Delivered by Bike

2011-05-01T09:07:00.002+10:00

Since I can remember the Post has always been delivered by motorbike or by van for big parcels, but it was nice to see the other day the post being delivered by bike, all be it and electric bike. But then again it is quite hilly around our area.

Apparently mail used to be delivered by bike back in the day. Though this is still the so in many cycling cities not to mention Copenhagen......

www.copenhagenize.com

.....some very attarctive posties might I add, but then again it is hard to look good in fluro vests and helmets!

Cycle Safety at Intersections 2

2011-04-09T13:16:00.002+10:00

View Larger Map

Another Cyclist was seriously injured on Northbourne Ave in January at the Swindon intersection, this poses the question again about safety at intersections in the ACT , and whether we have the best design for bicycle safety.
Because of our free left turn slip lanes for motor vehicles, the bicycle lane continues between the car traffic and the motor vehicle has to cross the green marked bicycle lane to turn left.

Here is our lame TV advertisement regarding the green lanes a few years ago , which for 'added safety' the lanes are painted green for better visibility:

Launceston Street, Woden

Even at intersections where there is not left turn slip lanes the through bike lane treatment is employed.

So what is the better solution,well as always Mark Wagenbuur has an excellent video pointing out the Dutch solution, and that they stopped building this type of treatments a long time ago.

To update you on the Hindmarsh/ Melrose drive intersection proposal for safer intersection design, as expected ACT Roads have dismissed the safer solution as it would cause increase congestion apparently.Well we wouldn't want safer cycle facilities to impose on possible car congestion problems now would we.

With the construction of on road cycle lanes on 'high speed high volume roads' there certainly has been a marked increase in the number of serious accidents in the ACT since 2001. That's according to the Aus. Institute of Heath and Welfare report issued last week

For pedal cyclists, the Australian Capital Territory and South Australia recorded the highest average annual rates of increase in serious injury.

Overall cyclist on road are certainly having a tough time in terms of serious injury.

So the call for sharing the road is too simplistic and needs an infrastructure overhaul to make the situation more safer particularly if we want to encourage more people to cycle.

Intergrated Transport Update

2011-04-04T10:55:00.002+10:00

One of Bicycle Canberra's many problems about our cycling infrastructure and policies is the need for better cycling integration with public transport. While there were a few bicycle lockers at the bus interchanges there was virtually nothing along the major corridor routes or at local group centre's.

Though this is common site in the Netherlands,Germany ,Sweden, Denmark and many other cities around the world, with bike parking facilities at bus stops and at major train stations.

Malmo, Sweden

Holland

Well this is a good news story for the TAMS transport department with the unveiling of the Bike park & ride sites. I have been a big critic of car park and rides, as they are expensive (up to $10 000 per car park space),they take up too much room and do nothing for active transport.


Mawson Park & Ride

The Mawson Park and Ride is a great example of this, while there are some bike lockers ,which are under utilized according to TAMS, the car parks are full. To encourage more bicycle use you have to restrict car use particularly in areas like this along major transport routes.

So to Transport for Canberra's New Bike > Park > Ride. I posted the need for better infrastructure along bus stops before and the department has been listening to the Community and have completed some of the new stops with some more to come.

Bike rails and secure Bike cage @ bus stop

Bike rails

As winter approaches this will test some of the fair weather riders but given the spread of the city this is definitely a good policy. What is needed is now some decent lighting along the cycle paths to and from these stops to make them more safe.

Groningen, Netherlands

Cycling Counts.

2011-03-31T13:07:00.000+11:00

The ACT Government from time to time regularly do traffic counts this is done by having a cable stretched across the road connected to a counter device. They can also be used for cycle paths as is the case here at the back of Curtin.

Pedal power along with other groups around the country do annaul cycle counts with volunteers that go out and physically count cyclists passing by. The ACT count by Pedal power only focuses on Civic,though you could argue that Civic is the centre of Canberra, but Canberra has five town centres so it is important to cover all areas. This would be hard with volunteers so using mechanical means would be easier.

One of Mark Wagenbuurs video's show the cycle counting process in Utrecht, Netherlands. Interestingly Utrecht has about the same population as Canberra, though very different lay out. You may see in this video that a part from great cycling infrastructure, they have good public transport as well, with Light rail,articulated and bi-articulated buses.

National Ride 2 School day

2011-03-29T13:35:00.000+11:00

National ride to school was held on the 16 March, though this day in the ACT had received no attention from the ACT Education Department or the ACT Government or dare I say our cycling advocacy group Pedal Power. The recent pedestrian and cycle review which was completed over a year ago yet has just been released by the ACT Government, only focused on the commuting to work networks. Yet Children nationally make up a significant proportion of the cycling community, more so than adults who cycle regularly.

About 30 to 40 years ago ,80% of school students in Canberra used to ride and walk to school ,yet here we are a generation on, the situation has reversed with about 80% of school children being driven to school. This is the same situation around Australia. What has happened over that time?

School Bike parking,1965 (ACT Heritage Library)

Woden Valley High School 1969, (ACT Heritage Library)

Yes there are the arguments about road safety ,stranger danger and that ,parents don't have enough time any more at it is easy to drop them off in the car. So much so that parents are driving past the local schools and dropping them off at schools closer to their work. So there is no chance for children in some areas to walk and cycle to school.

Now there is no law against this as the ACT government supports parental choice ,but what about the rights of the child, is this what children want .Many children when asked would like to walk cycle,scooter and skate to school as opposed to going in the car.

A recent study by the Australian Council for Education Research found that children who traveled to school by car had a remarkably narrow view of their community. When researchers asked car-borne kids to draw pictures of the way they saw their world they drew abstract, isolated images of neighborhoods where the car and the road were the central theme. Traffic lights, road signs, office buildings, shopping centre's and fast food outlets dominated.

This is the current scene at many schools in the ACT during Primary School Start & Finish times.

Children that ride or walk to school are more resilient in the urban environment and are more capable of adapting to changes that happen to them in life. Another recent study on heath and well being by UNICEF has shown that children with more active lifestyles have better numeracy and literacy skills and are generally more happier about there future life prospects.

On average children in the Netherlands are the happiest in the world according to the UNICEF study and their rates of walking and cycling to school haven't changed in 50 years despite the changes in lifestyles, for example, like both parents working. Yes there is a big difference in infrastructure as there is more cycle paths and right of way provisions at intersections ,but many of us here in Canberra live within 2 km of primary schools and within 5km of high schools so there is no reason why more children can't ride to school.

1970's Canberra,(ACT Heritage Library)

Canberra's Big Ride

2011-03-28T14:50:00.001+11:00

Canberra's Big ride was held on Monday the 14th March ,where 1300 people took part in three different rides ranging from 25km to 105km.

Amy Gillet Foundation

This year the ride was combined with the Amy Gillet Ride, which promotes the road safety message of sharing the road and that " a metre matters"

Amy Gillet was tragically killed while on a training ride on a rural road in Germany .

In Australia about 40 people last year lost there lives while cycling and several thousand more were seriously injured or injured. While I agree there needs to be a better understanding between drivers and cyclists on the road, it is a 'big ask' to share roads that are 'high speed high volume' and with only a painted line as protection.
As someone who used to cycle on the Tuggeranong parkway to work, riding along with cars, trucks and buses traveling past at a 100km/h or more was a silly thing to do and had a few near misses. You do have the option to ride on some of the good cycle paths in Canberra but what is needed is more direct routes and more bicycle super highways.

Yet the only option the ACT government is providing is on road cycle lanes on our major highways and arterial roads and proclaiming that they are safe.

The argument by the ACT government is that they couldn't afford to have a completely separated network as the ability to do so has been lost. Yet we are still spending millions on roads and car-parks.
I would strongly argue that the ability to have a separated network is not lost and that what is needed is political will.

There is an argument that the elite riders and commuter cyclists would prefer to use the roads and think the cycle lanes are just fine as there are. So what is the solution in the Netherlands I wonder? They have many elite cyclists and recreational cycling is very popular. I posed this question to David Hembrow ( A View from the cycle path) about elite cyclists and this was his answer:

Dutch racing cyclists ride on cycle paths. They do it for the same reason as everyone else. The cycle paths smooth, direct, take priority at junctions etc. If they were on the roads then their journeys would
take longer. There are a couple of photos here:

Racing cyclists, Netherlands

BTW, cycle sport is incredibly popular in the Netherlands. That's one
of the reasons why while NL has a much smaller population than
Australia, it's produced a lot more cyclists who've won stages in or
worn the yellow jersey in the Tour de France.

Just like for everything else to do with cycling, sport cycling is
very well supported in the Netherlands. I can perhaps explain best by pointing out what our small town, Assen,with a population of just 65000 people, has by way of facilities.
As well as the many hundreds of km of rather wonderful cycle paths in
the area, which are used quite heavily by racing types, Assen has a cycle track racing circuit, a cycle trials circuit, and also several BMX circuits and MTB circuits. There are also a lot of rough cycle paths through the woods which are maintained for the benefit of MTBers.
We have two quite large cycle racing teams based in this area: The world famous Rabobank team (the Rabobank is a bank which started in this area of the Netherlands) and the not quite so well known
Skil-Shimano team are often to be seen practicing on cycle paths near my home. These are top world class athletes - certainly not "beginners".
Like most cyclists, they also use the rather abandoned minor roads in the countryside. Minor roads are almost impossible to use by car.

Racing Cyclists,Netherlands

The Dutch are really keen on cycle racing. Perhaps only the Belgians
have more enthusiasm for this sport.
And as I was talking about Belgians... there has been a story recently in the Netherlands about Dutch racing cyclists maybe using the roads
in the future, but it's a push from the other direction. i.e. from people who are out for a quiet Sunday ride who would rather that large groups of racers weren't on the cycle path with them. Mostly this is
an issue in Zeeland, because it's near the Belgian border and Belgian racers regularly cross the border in large numbers to use the Dutch cycle paths. They come across the border because the conditions are
much better for them on cycle paths here than on roads in Belgium. A few minor problems have been rather exaggerated and I expect this to blow over...

Cycle path ,next to a Major Highway along one of the dike's, Netherlands

Thanks David.

So there is definitely the opportunity to do so here and there are some good examples from around Australia, where physical separation is being applied.

So the safety message of :

...interestingly in the Australian Road Rules it is illegal to come within 2 metres of the rear of a Motor vehicle. Yet a metre matters when passing a cyclist?

The Campaign instead should be:

nothing less for high speed high volume roads.

Surrounded By Cycle Paths

2011-03-10T13:03:00.000+11:00

The newest residential development in Gungahlin ,Harrison Four in Canberra's north has a planning theme 'Surrounded by cycle paths'.Would this mean that they are planning cycle friendly streets :

Reduced speed limits to 30km/h
Cycle priority streets
Cycle/pedestrian right of ways on low volume streets and intersections
Grade separation(underpasses) for busy roads so as to not impede cyclists or pedestrians .
Direct route planning for cycle ways to major facilities like schools and shopping precincts
Shared zone areas (woonerfs) ( max 10km/h) around shopping precincts and no through streets

Well no but what you notice about new developments is each group of residential blocks and even parks are completely surrounded by roads. The default speed limit in the ACT for residential areas is 50km/h. There are several crossing points and no 'no through roads' for cars. People will only choose to walk or cycle if it is easier or quicker to do so and if you don't restrict car use then people will still continue to drive even for short distances.
While I haven't seen the street view details I can imagine they will be the same as any other new development ,take the new suburbs of Molonglo ,Wright and Coombs.
The street view clearly shows that provisions for cyclists have been overlooked and the cyclists are protecting the parked cars.

Planned Streetview

Safer cycling solution as it should have been planned

Now you wouldn't design every street like this though given our default speed limit of 50km/h then cyclist needs to be protected. You will encourage more people to cycle especially children ,women and the elderly.

I took this shot in Gungahlin recently, this is a relatively new development yet only cycle lane was installed when there is plenty of room to install a separated cycle way . In this instance the access street should have been a bidirectional cycleway cars give way to cyclists and drive at a slow speed.

This would be the example as in Holland:

I think the only development that can lay claim to the notion 'surrounded by cycle paths' is Houten in Holland though many other dutch towns are just as impressive.

Canberra Cycle Chic

2011-03-03T20:33:00.002+11:00

Well it has finally happened, Canberra is the newest member of the Cycle Chic genre, with the announcement of a Canberra Cycle Chic Website.

City News ,Article

Trish Smith has taken the plunge and started her website, which of course is based on Mikael's Copenhagen Cycle Chic. It will be good to see the many cyclists other than the lycra clad MAMILS (middle aged men in lycra) that seem to be general 'cyclist' you see. Bike Adelaide recently commented on the style of cyclist he saw on his visit to Canberra recently,

'at least 50% of those I saw choose to ride like the rest of the world does - in normal clothes and without a helmet.

Ahhh.. helmets ,can you be Cycle Chic wearing Helmets? ,maybe not but where giving it a go.

Here's some elegant ladies from the original Copenhagen Cycle Chic.

...........and I almost forgot ,there was a time in Canberra when even before Cycle Chic that women and men dressed in normal clothes to go to work. How normal!

Canberra, 1945

Second class citizens part 2

2011-02-28T11:27:00.001+11:00

Canberra has been overgrown lately and is looking quite green from all the rain but with all the rain the comes the over growth of the grass.

Recently Mowed grass, next to cyclepath

Copenhagen cycle track cleaning vehicles

The ACT Government has had to spend an extra $1.5million on mowing this summer. just to keep up.
Now you'd think in a 'Cycle Friendly City' such as Canberra we would have cycle path cleaning vehicles just like in Copenhagen to keep the cyclepaths clear. Well sadly this is not the case. Most of the debris is left on the path until the wind or rain washes it off. Brilliant!

Cycle path ,Curtin

1.2m footpath ,whats left of it!

Keeping the roads clear

Though when debris and grass clippings are left on a the kerbside of a road ,what you will find is usually the next day, a street cleaning vehicle is deployed to clean the road side. Yet the cycle/footpaths are left in the state there in. This narrows the cycle path even less than what they are now, and also creates a safety risk to the bike rider and people walking by slipping on the wet and loose debris.

Señor Enrique' Peñalosa is coming to town

2011-02-27T14:58:00.000+11:00

Enrique' Peñalosa is making a visit to Canberra , As a follow-up to the recent Time to Talk - Canberra 2030 project, the ACT Government is hosting a free workshop with Mr Peñalosa on Wednesday 9 March from 5.30pm to 7.00pm at the Canberra Business Events Centre, Regatta Point.
Peñalosa will certainly be welcomed though his ideas may not be, particularly for a car -addicted culture town like Canberra. For those that haven't seen or heard of him before (where have your been!) Street films conducted an interview with him a couple of years back.

I have been sending several links to the transport section of Territory and Municipal services (TAMS) and have written a few letters to the Canberra Times about what Peñalosa has achieved in Bogota' and what Canberra could learn. So this is certainly a great opportunity, but when you hear statements from Peñalosa like 'restricting car use ' ,that frightens many-a-politician here. If our politicians only had a three-four year term only like Peñalosa had, then maybe we could get things done.

I have asked the Chief Minister about having a Ciclovia style 'Car free day' ,which would be on a Sunday, his responce is a lack luster ,'we will consider it'. So I won't be holding my breath.

Bicycle music video interlude 6

2011-02-23T23:00:00.001+11:00

This one is from Hungry, filmed during a Critical Mass (Spring 2008) in Budapest - featuring 80.000 bicycle riders.
Tartó Béke (Long-lasting Peace) music video from Kaukázus (band from Hungary).

One of the Best Cycle friendly Cities.

2011-02-19T21:08:00.002+11:00

The Chief Minister Jon Stanhope proclaimed that he would compare Canberra as one of the best 'Cycle friendly cities' in the world, in reply to a question on Chief Minister Talk-back, ABC radio , Friday . He was asked why the Pedestrian and Cycle review which was part of the 2010 - 2016 Sustainable transport action plan now (Transport for Canberra), hasn't been released yet and why are we still putting cycle lanes on 'high speed high volume roads'.

'I would put Canberra up against any city in the world in comparison to its pedestrian and cycle networks. While I haven't been to the Scandinavian countries of Holland and Denmark, nothing I've seen from around Australia comes close. When I was overseas last year (Spain) I also didn't see anything that matches Canberra.'

Reminds me of the saying "In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king" .

While I maybe paraphrasing , this is basically what he said. There is no doubt that Canberra has a good cycle network with a extensive network of asphalt shared path that are used by walkers runners, skaters and bike riders at 2.4metres wide and several concrete footpaths at 1.2m. The addition of Cycle lanes on major arterial roads has been the next phase of the network.

Cycle path ,Lyneham

Cycle lane, Monaro highjway.100km/h

Major arterial road with Bus lanes and cycle lanes , Road speed limit 80Km/h


Footpath crossing a bridge ,Woden

Cycle path, Kambah

So why aren't Canberran's cycling more?

While our use of bicycles to work is higher than the national average most people in Canberran's use their cars because it is more convenient to do so, even for such short journey's to the local shops or to see friends.

Local Shops, Car parks full

There is plenty of free parking , and where there is pay parking it is relatively cheap in comparison to other world cities.
Speed limits are high in residential areas and around town centres, which makes it unsafe for pedestrians and cyclists
Priority at most intersections are for motor vehicles.
Car travel speed times are more important than safety of pedestrians and cyclists.

Lets just remind ourselves what a cycle nation look like and the infrastructure that has made it all happen.

Cycle Education, Canberra

2011-02-12T23:15:00.002+11:00

During the school Holiday's two of my children attended the Kids Road & Bike Safety Holiday Programme
run by Cycle Education. It was interesting to watch and I made a little video of the occasion. After a couple of hours tuition, they rode off on a ride around the suburb, looking at the road environment as they are in a real sense.

Cycle Education provides the only bicycle traffic safety tuition to school age children in the ACT after the Belconnen Traffic centre run by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) closed in June 2007.

The former Traffic centre at Belconnen.

The AFP's reason for closing the Traffic centre was on a report by consultants, The ARRB Group. Their analysis focused on the comparison of two Bicycle education courses. The 'Bike Ed' Course and the Traffic Centre Road Safety Package (TCRSP), were undertaken in 2006. Ironically both courses are no longer running but the consultants reason for recommending the closure of the Belconnen site where the TCRSP was:

“Research found the centre's training methodologies were not in line with many modern
teaching practices. In particular, it was found that training children in an artificial environment
could lead to an inflated sense of confidence, which may be counter-productive outside the
training environment.”

Really ! someone better inform the many European countries such as the Netherlands that they must be doing it wrong. The Victorian and NSW governments still provide such programs run in miniature traffic environments ,the NSW program is called the Community and Road Education Scheme (CARES),which is run by the NSW Police and provide outdoor lessons include bicycle safety checks, basic riding skills and obstacle course, riding on the road environment training track which features a roundabout, traffic lights and other ‘real life’ road characteristics.

What was interesting in the study by The ARRB group that it referenced a number of studies and two that stated:

The literature review also revealed that traffic centres such as that operated by the AFP, have
little to offer children in the development of bicycle and related road safety skills. Scientific
evaluations conducted in Europe in the 1970s and early 1980s revealed that such off-road
facilities did not adequately simulate the real traffic environments and were not effective in
improving the behaviour of children who underwent training; training conducted in the real road
environment was found to be significantly more effective than that conducted off-road (Christie
2000). A more recent study by Hughes and Pietro (2004) concluded that no clear evidence
existed that traffic centres are an effective road safety education strategy, and it was not
possible to support the establishment of such facilities. In addition, such centres may
inadvertently encourage students to become over-confident about their ability to cope safely in
traffic.

Christie's study of 2000 was sighting the effectiveness of off road training facilities for novice drivers and not for bicycle training or proficiency, and shouldn't have been sighted as a reference for the analysis of the two courses. These types of facilities shouldn't be assessed by annual road toll figures, but in children's awareness of traffic and the ability the learn traffic signs and signals in a safe environment. Christie doesn't give a good analysis of the Bike Ed course in Victoria which the ACT Bike Ed course is based on either in another report.
Do artificial traffic environments give a false sense of confidence? I wouldn't expect so as most children and school students would ride on cycle paths that are physically separated from the road traffic. The major issues are at road intersections, particularly ones that are not signalised. That's when in my view ,facilities like the ones below are needed.

This relatively new site at Sydney Park , Alexandria which opened in 2004 is run as part of the Community and Road Education Scheme (CARES).The issue I have with these facilities as that are not are true representation in the sense of existing or new bicycle facilities in the road environment like cycle lanes and separated paths.

The picture of cycle education in the Netherlands highlights the separate cycle facilities in a true representation of a traffic roundabout. They learn how to react in traffic, keep distance and read traffic signs.

Getting back to the Cycle Education program in Canberra which provides good skills, a better quality facility is definitely needed than just a school playground and a traffic roundabout marked in chalk. Some schools have better access to good cycle networks than others and are ideal for school based cycle education but a few central facilities need to built that provides adequate cycle training and proficiency.

Northern Ireland backing Mandatory helmet law (MHL)

2011-02-02T00:17:00.000+11:00

Northern Ireland looks likely to back Mandatory Helmet laws after a vote in the Assembly was in favor 20 to 18. The private member’s bill had been tabled by Pat Ramsey of the SDLP, who is seeking to make helmets compulsory with a £50 fine for any cyclist caught not wearing one.

Tim Edgar of CTC told BBC News: "We want to make cycling as safe as possible, just like the supporters of this bill.
"But there's robust evidence that making helmets compulsory puts people off cycling in the first place.
"That would have a significant impact on the current levels of cycling which we've worked so hard to increase over the last few years.
“Money and time needs to be invested to tackle the causes of road dangers such as speeding traffic,” he continued.
“Safer, well-designed roads must be a priority and children should be given the skills and confidence to use them, through on-road training and practical guidance.
“For a relatively small sum of money, we could give every child the opportunity to cycle safely and enjoy all the benefits that brings.”

Last year in another part of the British Isles, Jersey, politicians rejected 25 to 24 the law for adults, but agreed to make them compulsory for under-18s.

Many politicians argued whether it was the States' place to compel people to wear helmets.
Deputy Phil Rondel said the emphasis should be on teaching people the importance of wearing a helmet, rather than forcing them to.
Deputy Sean Power said: " I wear a helmet 99% of the time, but I don't want to be forced to wear a helmet 100% of the time."
Politicians agreed 32 votes to 16 to make it law for under-18s to wear a cycle helmet.

Canberra noticed a fall in cycling rates after the introduction of the law in 1991 and given the low rate of cycling this was a concern that hasn't been fully realized ,until now. You could argue that cycling commuter rates have been increasing but that has largely been due to some infrastructure improvements, the real concern is the low rate of overall cycling and especially school children/students which hardly cycle at all. Those children and adolescents would be reluctant to start cycling to work or university in the years to come. Many parents I know view cycling as dangerous would not let there children cycle to school or the local park.

Can one have a cycle friendly city with mandatory bicycle helmet laws ,many would argue no and I would be one of them. What we need is to encourage cycling culture, one that doesn't require helmets ,high visibility clothing and lycra. What would that look like I wonder................

Cycling Japanese Style

2011-01-29T20:53:00.002+11:00

My Brother has just returned from Japan where I asked him to photograph some of the Japanese cycling culture . Japan has a good cycling culture and some good cycling infrastructure. He discribes it as thus:

It all looks very idealistic on the surface but it is a bit of a mixed bag. There is a lot of general cycling but there are no helmet laws – it was great to ride casually without a helmet. I did see some serious cyclists who road on the road and had helmets.
Elsewhere cyclists share with pedestrians on a narrow path with a barrier to the road. The difference to Australia is that most people ride slowly and wear work clothes and it is not a race. In suburban streets the speed limit is 40km on main streets and 30km on small streets therefore the streets are shared.

Osaka and around the 1960 expo site – the image looks great for cyclists but this section is only 15km long.

Osaka by Suita station – bikes are not allowed on trains and during the week you can’t park them anywhere you need to use the parking stations which vary in price and can be $5 a day or more

Outside a shopping centre in Osaka, in Yamada it is free is the first 2 hours then a lock goes across the wheels and you have to pay to unlock. Note that no one steals bikes in Japan so you can leave them unlocked.

Himeji, I like this picture because the bike riders outnumber the pedestrians – the covered structure on the right hand side is an underground bike parking station.

The last picture looks like a reverse as the pedestrians should be lined up against the zebra crossing and the
bicyclists on th cycle lane.

In Canberra this seems to be a constant feature on traffic talk back on the local radio that at a zebra crossing the cyclist has to dismount and walk the bike across . The AFP and the RTA would argue that it is dangerous for bicyclists to ride across a pedestrian crossing as car drivers wouldn't be able to react in time to stop and give way.The only danger is to pedestrians so the answer is to separate them so the cyclist doesn't have to dismount.

As would many of Mark Wagenbuur's video's would show. We do have some shared paths right of ways but we could certainly learn from Japan and the Netherlands on this issue.

Second class citizens.

2011-01-20T18:11:00.002+11:00

One of my many 'bug bears' about how cyclists and pedestrians are treated in Canberra is works on replacing & relaying footpaths and cyclepaths. If a road was being relayed/resurfaced adequate signage and detour information would a minimum requirement. Some time ago on a major shared path that I featured here, during the construction of a driveway and replacement of part of the path. Pedestrians ,cyclists and the disabled were forced onto a small part of the road with vehicles speeds at 70km/h , and nothing but some small witches hats as a barrier for a bi-directional path. When I complained about the situation and suggested using at least one full lane of the dual carriageway for pedestrians and cyclists, it was 'Oh that will slow up traffic and we can't have that'.

Just take a look at this pathetic solution here.

No solution but to use the 60 km/h road with not warning signs or detour signs.

.........and the solution used in the Netherlands.

Both are suburban streets ,but in the Netherlands ,part of the road is used for the cyclists and pedestrians to pass safely.
One would argue here, that because there are more cyclists in the Netherlands then using this type of solution is needed, but its all about respect. If you treat pedestrians and cyclists as second class citizens like here in Australia then why would people want to walk or cycle.

Brisbane cycles on

2011-01-14T23:48:00.001+11:00

We know that Brisbane and Queensland have been doing it tough lately. That may be an understatement! So I pulled a couple of photo's out among the many of media shots showing the city from the bike perspective.

Bikes parked along the river just before the peak

Brisbane CBD

Interestingly the Dutch has offered technical expertise to Australia to help out in the devastating Queensland floods with Brisbane flooding problems since the dutch know what they are talking about, but the Prime Minister Julia Gillard has turned it down. Yet another bit of Dutch know how, we are not considering.

Merry Xmas

2010-12-26T11:55:00.000+11:00

Bicycle music video interlude 5

2010-12-22T01:20:00.000+11:00

With reports that the ACCC would issue fines of $1 million dollars!'WTF', to retailers who sell brakeless -gearless bikes known as fixies, lets have a cool music video featuring of course................ fixies!

Bowen Place Conundrum

2010-12-21T11:05:00.001+11:00

The Cycle path (shared Path) around Lake Burley Griffin has been decribed as Australia best half day ride by Canberra's cycle lobby group Pedal Power. It has taken quite some time to finish all the missing links as there as two agencies responsible for different sections, the National Capital Authority and the ACT Government.
One section that is the National Capital Authority responsibility is Bowen Place in the Parliamentary Triangle and is a dangerous crossing of a four lane road

View Larger Map

There are three options proposed by the NCA after consultation with a working group which are.....

Footbridge

Ramp and stairs with traffic signals

Traffic signals only

The Bridge option is the most logical as it will not impede car traffic or pedestrian/cycle access to the Kings Ave bridge. Though as nothing is easy in the ACT , the National Trust and the Walter Burley Griffin Society raised heritage concerns about a footbridge as it would have a negative visual impact on 'Parliament House vista and views across and to the lake, and adverse impacts on the design geometry of the parliamentary vista and Kings Avenue Bridge'.
To view this negative impact you would have to take a helicopter view of the site or from the top of Mount Ainslie which is quite ridiculous. Ped / Cycle Bridges can have a sculptural affect and are used in many cities around the world.

Borneo Sporenberg, Amsterdam

Copenhagen, Denmark

Another option which was looked at early but not considered in the final three options was an underpass which would also be the most expensive. This doesn't seem to worry the dutch as infrastructure spending for cyclists and pedestrian has no known boundaries it would seem, is that why there are one of the healthiest and happiest nations?

Barriers for Cycling

2010-12-19T23:54:00.003+11:00

We have some ridiculous barriers for cycling in Canberra and I mean literally . Just imagine if we put these type of barriers on roads !

The above last two photo's are called 'motor vehicle restriction points' that reduce the pathway width to 1.4 metres at the midpoint of the rails on a 2.4 metre shared path, though I would say that are also cyclist restriction points.
These are quite dangerous for cyclist and I note that Bicycle Queensland recently had stated that these type of barriers are dangerous and had asked the Queensland Road and Transport department to have them removed. But as road traffic engineers who no nothing about adequate cycling infrastructure they obligingly refused.
In the Netherlands motor vehicle barriers look like this......

David Hembrow

They are also used to slow mopeds down while riding on the cycle paths. No chance of impaling yourself anywhere here. Infrastructure that is designed to be respectful of cyclists and not to enforce barriers to cycling.

Jan Gehl in Hobart

2010-12-16T23:20:00.000+11:00

Jan Gehl the well known Danish architect and the guru for making cities for people was in Hobart recently to give his assessment on Hobart's city centre. Very simple make the pedestrian at the top of the transport hierarchy, encourage bicycle use for everyone ,encourage public transport and most important of all is to get rid of cars and car parks .

Jan Gehl also visited Canberra for a short visit and gave the Walter Burley Griffin lecture at the Shine dome late last year. While only spending a day here he took a swipe at our bicycle infrastructure ,the small pathetic bicycle lanes, so that the bicyclist is protecting the parked cars and not the other way round as it is in Copenhagen and many sensible cycling countries.

Jan Gehl, Cities for People

Incidentally the ACT Government issued a Canberra City Action Plan which will see another 3000 more carparking spaces constructed in the city centre. In Copenhagen there are about 2000 car parking spaces for about 2 million inhabitants and here we are constructing more and more carparks. Carparks are expensive and can cost up to $10 000 per surface carpark, $20 000 - $30 000 per car park space in a multi storey carpark and up to $40 000 per carpark space for under ground carparks, and Canberra's car congestion is set to worsen. Why didn't the ACT Government employ Gehl Architects I wonder?

Another day ,another ride to school

2010-12-08T23:38:00.001+11:00

I have been riding my kids to school for some time now and I have wanted to highlight the trip on video. A friend of mine Sophie has just started to ride to school with her kids so it was good to meet up and ride together.

The rates of walking and cycling to school have dropped dramatically in this country over the last 30 years as now more parents drive their children to school. The consequences have been significant in terms of heath and well being. As governments struggle to implement measures, that try to get more children active, I believe a quick history lesson is all that is needed along with some change in policy and more investment in infrastructure.

The rates for active transport of primary school children in the Netherlands, are that ,49% cycle ,37% walk and only 14% are brought and collected by car. This sadly would be the reverse Australia and in most Australian cities today. This is also the same for the United States.

This graph would mirror Australia with the only difference a possibly higher rate of cycling and walking to school in the 1970's. Which was between 70 & 80% and a slightly lower obesity rate.

Some schools in the ACT would be lucky to have more than 20 to 30 bicycle 's in there school bike racks these days. This with school population numbers at 350 to 400 students. Even at high schools the numbers are low. This was certainly different a few decades ago..............

Late 1960's Canberra school bike parking

Yet figures have stayed about the same in the Netherlands .There is a real focus on traffic safety and bicycle proficiency with cycle training and testing of Year 6 students before they start high school.

What you see in this video is the use of cycle gardens , a miniature scale of traffic environments .These are used in many European countries to teach children road rules and traffic safety while riding a bicycle.
This is something that we use to do in Canberra with the Traffic training centres located at Deakin and Belconnen . I took some photos recently of the closed Beleconnen site.

A consultant for the Aus. Federal Police who use to run these sites recommended that these artificial environments are not good for children to learn road rules apparently. Though nothing has been implemented to fill the gap on cycle training and road rules training. A private organization has taking it upon themselves to provide cycle education for children, though at only one location it is only a small proportion of the population.

Better Infrastructure - More Cycling

2010-12-06T14:47:00.000+11:00

Will more investment in better infrastructure for cycling ,encourage more cycling. I believe so and the Australian and local governments need to do more ,but do we have enough tax dollars to go around.
You could argue yes due to the increasing cost of obesity, estimated to be now worth some 58 Billion dollars nationally. Does the saying " if you build it they will come" enough for many governments and councils to improve there cycling and walking infrastructure to lure money from other priorities like health and education.
The Fuel Excise Tax would be a good way to spread the Tax dollars around for transport infrastructure which is estimated at 15 Billion dollars annually, but many motoring groups like the NRMA believe that all that money should be spent on roads for motorized traffic.

Australia was one of the only countries along with Canada to reduce its fuel tax over the last ten years. A view taken by the then Liberal (conservative) Government which believes in lower taxes and small government.They also stopped automatic indexing of the fuel excise according to CPI.

The Netherlands, second to Turkey (though you don't here about great cyclepaths in Turkey) has spent millions on great cycling infrastructure along with Germany, Denmark . Great Britain taxing nearly as much you wonder why they haven't invested in cycling infrastructure, though with the abolished Cycling England don't expect anything soon.

Raising fuel prices by tax is certainly not a popular one and when fuel prices hit $1.75 per litre here, there was an outcry to further reduce the fuel tax.

Last year as part of the Federal government stimulus package , $40 million was provided from the $650 million Jobs fund project. This was then matched by states ,territories and councils to make the total ,$80 million. This provided much needed infrastructure which should be continued as annual funding. Its a small amount by other country standards.

Maybe with increased funding we can get back to the days when cycling was seen as normal....

Canberra ,late 1940's

TED's case' for' and 'against' Helmets

2010-12-01T23:33:00.001+11:00

TED has some great speakers from time to time and is well worth the visit to the site . Here I grabbed a couple of video's one by the well known bicycle ambassador Mikael Colville-Andersen and another by neuropsychologist Kim Gorgens.

The case against............

The case for.............

Canberra Cycle Chic 2

2010-11-29T12:46:00.001+11:00

'Would you believe Canberra has repealed its Helmet Laws' ,well no, but if you were reading the Canberra Times 'In the City' lift out you might think so. There is a picture on the front cover of two people riding bikes without helmets through Glebe Park in The Canberra City. Oh no!

In the City, Models Daniel Saunders & Sophie Luton riding in Glebe Park

This of course would be breaking the law and a $67 Infringement. Sad that this can only happen in the 'media world'. Though if you have a look around in the city there are many people not wearing helmets particularly around the Australian National University. In the ANU the speed limit for all roads is 40kmh or less making it much safer for bicycle riders and pedestrians.
When ever the Police go to enforce the Helmet Law they usually go to the ANU for easy pickings.A shame really. So what are the fines for bicycle use here in the ACT:

So using those regulations how many infringements would be given in this Film by Marc van Woudenberg(Amsterdamize),I wonder?

Marc's original home town was Houten , Holland which is arguably the best designed city for the use of bicycles. Here he features in the video by Dublin Community TV (DCTV) and has some important points about helmets and safety.

Bike vs Car, Canberra 2

2010-11-24T10:48:00.000+11:00

Here is a great little film by Cameron Blyth who for his School Project made this docomentary on :

''Should bikes be allowed to ride on the roads? Should they be licensed? Should they pay registration? Are motorists educated and aware enough of cyclists? Are cyclists educated and aware enough of motorists and road rules?
Everyone has an opinion, some express theirs more than others. I made this documentary to try and calm the waters between cyclists and motorists, and to give motorists and idea of what it's like to be a cyclist.

This argument seems to never end here in Australia. This video also features Brendan Nerdal from Pedal Power who makes a good argument for segregated facilities, so maybe things are finally changing.

You can see ABC's Canberra Stateline, Bike v Cars story here.

Cycle Safety at Intersections

2010-11-23T13:19:00.002+11:00

A Main Intersection close to where I live is receiving some Federal Government Blackspot funding to improve the intersection. Most major intersections in the ACT have 'free' left turn slip lanes. This is to help car drivers from waiting too long at intersections when turning left.

Statistically most road accidents happen at intersections like these involving motor vehicles ,motor cyclists, cyclists and pedestrians. So it is important that there is good design for all users.

This intersection in Woden ,most days it is certainly busy at peak times and very difficult for pedestrians and cyclists to manage. The Woden Town centre is located across the other side of this intersection. Poor design overall of the Woden Town centre has meant that a six lane highway surrounds the town centre block where the shopping centre,Office's, Cinema's and Clubs are located. One road on the north side has had its lanes reduced to four to accommodate cycle lanes though the distance crossing for pedestrians is the same. Most people tend to drive to the Town centre even though it is only a short distance of 1km or 2km for most Woden residents.

What makes this intersection unsafe for pedestrians and cyclists is the free left turn slip lanes as a pedestrian you have to cross the crossing an stand on a small island waiting for your green walk sign. You can wait for several minutes if you miss the traffic light sequence.
If you use the on road cycle lanes as a cyclist there is no physical protection on road speeds of Hindmarsh 80 - 60kmh and Melrose Dr 60 - 70 kmh . The cyclist on Hindmarsh Dr traveling east is between moving vehicles as the cars using the slip lanes turn left and cars going straight ahead. This will be the same on Melrose Dr under the new design.

Car's using the bike lane to turn left

Car blocking cycle lane on Melrose Dr intending to turn left

The ACT government intends to upgrade this intersection but will make it worse for Pedestrians and Cyclists, some slip lanes will be increased and the pedestrians and those cycling on paths will have to a s-bend at the intersection road medians.

People tend not to use this intersection to cross the road now, and cross at areas before an after this intersection which is illegal and unsafe. So this will become worst. There is enough room to construct pedestrian and cycle tunnels, but of course this will be at greater expense. A friend of mine who I have convinced that these slip lanes are dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists made a submission to ACT Roads on this intersection based on dutch intersection design principles.

The Left turn slip lanes have been removed and the result is a much better design and much safer for all traffic. You cold still have on road cycle lanes though the best solution is to have separate infrastructure at 'high speed-high volume' roads like these. ACT Roads would argue of course that this will slow up motor vehicle traffic in both directions, so we wait and see what their response is.

So how do the Dutch do it with the safest roads in the world? Here another great video form Mark Wagenbuur

Improved safety for Bicycle Riders!

2010-11-19T22:27:00.001+11:00

No not improved bicycle infrastructure or reduced residential speed limits and just when you thought it was safe to go for a ride with your AS2063 1996 standard bicycle helmet ,a new Standard bicycle helmet, AS2063 2008, will be enforced from December 13th. The new helmets apparently increase safety ,because riding a bicycle is a dangerous activity! and Australian bicycle riders are so clumsy on bikes they need helmets to protect them from themselves.

These new helmets use a softer polystyrene in the shell, providing more cushioning for the brain, and use straps that will stretch sufficiently in an accident to allow the helmet to come off a rider's head; and also ensure sun visors have enough give so they don't twist a cyclist's head excessively when it hits the road.

So what's going to happen to the many thousand of the old bicycle helmets that have not been sold ? We could sell them to some other country I'd expect, promoting fear and the dangerous nature of riding a bike.

Spare a thought to the struggling Melbourne bike share that has just recently brought in a world,s first Automatic Bicycle Helmet dispensing machine, that subsidizes each helmet to the tune of $13 dollars.

Out with the old in with the new

A study by the Royal Prince Alfred (RPAH) hospital found that among 287 patients for whom information about helmet use was available between 2008 and 2010, non-helmet wearers had five times higher odds of developing intracranial bleeding or sustaining a skull fracture due to falling from a bicycle compared with helmet wearers.
“It is the opinion of the trauma service at the RPAH . . . that mandatory bicycle helmet laws be maintained and enforced as part of overall road safety strategies."

Lets not add in factors like road speed limits and safe bicycle infrastructure as any factors to the bicycle crashes in this study, Hey!

So while we wait for real cycle safety lets Keep the Fear Alive!

Right of Way in Canberra

2010-11-16T17:40:00.002+11:00

One of the newest cycle paths in the ACT ,is the recently finished Mouat street cycle path from Northbourne Ave to the Lyneham Sports centre.

One of the features of this 1km cycle path,was not its cost of over a half a million dollars, but that it has two right of way crossings for pedestrians/cyclists. Generally cars have right of way over pedestrians and cyclists so these type of crossings are a rarity in Australia and are only in a handful of locations in the ACT ,the main one being De Burgh street in Lyneham. These right of way crossings are used to give cyclists priority over cars entering or leaving a sports ground car park.

Now if these were pedestrian crossings under Australian law the cyclist would have to dismount and then walk the bike across. This is the law in many European cities including the Netherlands. That's why you see a cycle crossing next to a pedestrian crossing so that both the cyclist and pedestrian have right of way.

While I would like to see more of these type of crossings ACT Roads is tentatively installing right of way crossings for cyclists on low volume intersections, usually at driveway crossings such as at Mouat street and in very low traffic streets in residential areas. But I would argue that the car should give way more often to promote more walking and cycling. Being stuck in the middle of a busy intersection isn't much fun.

Here is another great video from Mark Wagenbuur with a right of way crossing in the Netherlands, s-Hertogenbosch, at a dual carriageway intersection. Most of the cyclists are secondary school children cycling home from school. The speed limit on this dual carriageway is 50 km/h. Mopeds are allowed to use the cycle paths which is a contentious issue in the Netherlands.

Bicycle music video interlude 4

2010-11-09T09:52:00.001+11:00

Here is the lovely Lily Allen riding her bike. She has been doing it a bit tough lately so best wishes from Bicycle Canberra.

One less bike path

2010-11-07T14:57:00.003+11:00

With the announcement that the Adelaide City Council will be removing the Sturt street segregated bike lane, this will come as a blow to improving infrastructure for cyclists.

ABC online Reports: residents and business owners in Sturt Street in Adelaide say they are happy to see workers removing a controversial city cycling lane.

The separated lane with concrete edging cost Adelaide City Council $400,000 to build and is now costing another $100,000 to remove.There had been many complaints that it had removed city parking and that cyclists avoided using it anyway.
As a supporter of this type of infrastructure this is certainly a disappointment, this will make the case harder in the future for segregated facilities in Adelaide if this is the example used.
So what went wrong I wonder? The loss of parking is always a juggling act when installing such facilities. Australia is a car culture that won't change its ways overnight. So if you can keep as much car parking in the early stages as possible the better it will be received.

This was how the Street looked before the cycle track. The road is certainly wide enough to accommodate such a lane. The road could easily accommodate two way traffic, parking on both sides and a cycletracks (Copenhagen style lanes).

Source: City of Portland, http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=46784&a=190086

But having said that, is this the road for such a facility , does it have high traffic volumes? is it's speed limit 60 km/h and above, what is the cycle lane connecting to ? .All these questions should have been asked at the planning stage. This road connects to the main arterial road the West Terrace, which is five lanes on each side in some parts. I would be putting the Copenhagen style lanes there before Sturt street.

Canberra Walk's the Walk.

2010-11-03T11:28:00.002+11:00

On Monday our, recently returned from holiday, Chief Minister signed the international charter for walking. The Walk 21 International Charter is...

This charter was signed by the Chief Minister coincidental in Canberra's first pedestrianized street of City Walk/Garema place/Petrie plaza in Civic.This road was pedestrianized in 1971 at a time when other world cities were doing the same. The city centre through the 50's and 60's became congested as everybody started using their vehicle for short trips into the city rather than using the bike as they did just a decade before.

The city centre full of cars in the 1950's with little space left for Pedestrians and cyclists.

Garema Place was the first to see this transformation with this picture from 1965

Petrie street ,how it looked in the early 1960's

Petrie Street now turned into Petrie plaza as it looked then in 1975

Petrie Plaza as it looks today

City Walk as it was in the late 1970's after the street was closed to traffic.........

.........and as it looks now.

View Larger Map

Many of the businesses that used to be thriving in this pedestrian space have now closed down because of a down turn in business. This happened because the ACT government let a developer build a huge extension to the shopping mall right next to Bunda street, thus sucking the life out of the pedestrian street. Most of the stores have now relocated to the mall, as well as the cinemas and food cafe's.

About 58 streets in Australia were turned into pedestrian streets in the 70's and 80's and about 48 remain today. some of the reason's for re opening the street to traffic sited the same reasons as what has happened in Civic. It is usually the fault of many local governments for the reason that pedestrian spaces have failed lets hope the same fate doesn't happen in the Civic. I rather be outside than in a huge shopping mall.

Just imagine if they built a shopping Mall in Copenhagen or in many of the cities in Holland right next to pedestrian streets or shared streets.

JackAss cycling!

2010-11-01T09:31:00.000+11:00

That's the only way to describe it. Maybe that's what vehicular cyclists dream of doing in a weird kind of way.

This Trailer is part of The Bike Film festival in Sydney on November 17 - 21. These cyclists will never be content on a segregated bike path,' its the buzz of going for the gap ', 'being at one with the car!'. What ever you call it, all cyclists here get tarnished with this brush.

Canberra Bans Plastic Shopping bags!

2010-10-31T12:41:00.000+11:00

Well not all plastic bags as it turns out. There is a mirrored of views on this subject, like: 'I reuse them for bin liners' ,'People will have to buy plastic bags for bin liners', and that 'reusable bags will cause cross contamination for the checkout operators'. I wonder what we did before plastic bags? People are just lazy these days and don't like change.

I like this video by the Save the Bay (San Francisco) action group and it also features someone on a bike....

The SUV's of Holland & Denmark

2010-10-30T09:38:00.000+11:00

We know that SUV's are the biggest seller of Motor vehicles in Australia, It is also said that you can't take 3 or 4 kids to school and go to work on you bike, or can you...............

and here in Denmark...........

They are now available in Australia

http://www.dutchcargobike.com.au/

http://psbikes.com.au/

http://www.cargocycles.com.au

http://www.kornart.com.au/

http://zigoaustralia.com.au/

Perfect day for a Ride

2010-10-28T09:02:00.000+11:00

Perfect day to ride home from school, on one of the better cycle paths in Canberra we took a nice casual ride home......

and met some school kids riding the other way.....

The 'War' against Childhood Obesity

2010-10-27T13:13:00.002+11:00

The Productivity Commission has released a study into childhood obesity and the various programs and costs associated to help reduce its prevalence. Its conclusion is that these programs overall are having little impact on reducing the levels of childhood obesity.

Canberra Times

There have been several issues raised by various studies as has been highlighted in this report, basically an increase in high energy dense foods and the lack of physical exercise especially in 'incidental exercise' like walking and cycling to school. No surprises there ,you only have to look at the number of bike s in the bike racks at various schools here in the ACT to know that. Back in the day when I attended primary school the bike racks were full, so what has happened over this period of thirty to forty years,. The parents now who were walking and cycling to school are now driving there kids to school.

The perception of safety has become a big issue for most, something that Leonore Skenazy is trying to dispel in her blog ' Free Range Kids'. The ACT is a relatively safe place to ride a bike ,even for school children and even before Mandatory Helmet Laws. Residential road speeds remain quite high compared to European countries as our default speed is 50km/h with some shared zone speeds at 10km/h though rare. That's something we will need to look at if we want to encourage more cycling and walking and also to achieve Vision zero.

Before my kids started school I was not aware of the change in attitudes to local schools and there importance for the fabric of the local community. When the School Closures was announced I received a copy of the report relating to a question that Deb Foskey ( former Greens MLA) asked the newly appointed Education Minister Andrew Barr MLA.Which looked at the number of children within each priority enrollment area (living close to the school) and the schools that they attended.While some schools had low enrollments most of the children in the local area weren't going to the locals schools, but being driven to other schools further away. I like to call them the 'drive-thru' schools. In fact some of these schools, have most of there enrollments from out of area, rather than local children. At morning drop off and pickup there is major congestion.

We also spend millions on school buses to ferry kids around which is heavily subsidized by the ACT Taxpayer and also in NSW, the School buses are free, which is argued that it reduces congestion, though does nothing for active transport. Parental choice in schooling has been the major factor why children are not walking and cycling to school. The Education performance of the school certainly out ways any health and community benefit ,of attending the local school in most parents minds these days.

Australia now matches the US in childhood obesity levels, though other reports have US Childhood obesity levels at one third of children. In any event a worrying statistic. Note the cycling culture countries of the Netherlands and Denmark, you could also add in Belgium and Sweden. I know that Denmark has been concerned about there childhood obesity levels at there current levels, but has now declined amongst most age groups.

While diet is an important factor particularly the consumption of fast foods and sugary drinks. The importance of physical exercise, like walking and cycling to and from school needs more attention from the relevant authorities. The recent Pedestrian and cycle network review only focused on cycling to work. Cycling kids become cycling adults ,infrastructure supporting cycling and walking to school needs to be funded also.
This video highlights the dominance of the car in the ACT and what Holland has been doing to reduce the dominance of the car.

and a video from David Hembrow's blog of cycling to school in Assen, Holland .

Intergrated Transport

2010-10-24T23:39:00.000+11:00

Bike & Ride or Multi-mode transportation is something of a rarity in Australia and hardly ever promoted ,yet this is a normal thing to do in Holland and Denmark. Because of the spread out nature of Australian cities, this can be a viable option as distances to and from work can be beyond the average bicycle rider. This creates the active city as opposed to the other option Park(car) and ride which is expensive and uses a much larger area.

Bikes parked at an old sign near a bus stop

The bus stop above is a classic example, people on their bikes that want to use such a facility are limited by what you can lock your bike to, some simple bike racks/rails would do. There is some facilities at larger Bus stations but you are limited to some bike lockers and a few rails the lockers until recently you had to pay for.

Civic Interchange bike lockers

The problem with lockers is that if you have a basket, child seats or a non standard bike they wont fit. I think they look unsightly, I guess if your riding a couple of thousand dollars worth of bike, then a bike locker is the way to go,but when your simply biking and riding, maybe a cheaper bike is the option.

In the Netherlands you can see the options available ,and in some of the bigger parking facilities the only trouble you have is in trying to find a park and remembering where you left it.

Underground bike parking,Groningen. David Hembrow

Bike parking at Bus stop

Bike parking at train station

School Bike parking, David Hembrow

Hospital Bike parking, David Hembrow

One of the best bike parking facilities that I have seen in Canberra, is in the new Siruis building in Woden, a two level bike parking facility for about a 100 bicycles. The Architect who is also designing the replacement building behind the new Sirius building will also have a bike parking facilitiy for another 270 bicycles. This obviously helps with the buildings green star rating, and secure facilities like these also encourage this use of cycling to work as well.

Electronic Key card entry

Ground level parking, Siruis Building

What is needed is the infrastructure connecting the town centre to be upgraded. Though I didn't see this underpass on the recent priority list announcement.

Shared path underpass,with unsafe barrier.

Bicycle music video interlude 3

2010-10-23T14:51:00.000+11:00

An oldie but a goody! Warning contains nudity.

You can see the making of this video Here!

Milton has a stack on his bike

2010-10-22T09:54:00.000+11:00

One of Canberra's favourite sons crashed his bike into the back of a garbage truck. The Canberra Times Reports:

'Canberra Paralympian Michael Milton is recovering in hospital with spinal, shoulder and rib fractures after a cycling accident in Dickson last week.The five-time Paralympian lost control of his bike along Cowper Street and collided with a garbage truck last Friday.
Milton spent the long weekend in Canberra Hospital in a stable condition, but had no memory of what had caused the accident.
Competing with just one leg, the Paralympic champion has won 22 international ski racing medals and is the fastest snow skier in the world with a disability.
In 2007, Milton also began competing in cycling, winning gold medals at the 2007 and 2008 Australian Track Cycling Championships and overcoming oesophageal cancer to gain selection for the Beijing Paralympic Games.'

This man has certainly had it tough, losing a leg at an early age due to Cancer then going on to win paraolympic gold in skiing and world downhill speed skiing records and then turning his abilities to cycling. If losing a leg wasn't bad enough he then had been diagnosed with oesphageal cancer. He fully recovered after having his oesphagus removed, and then qualifying for the Beijing Games.

Get well soon Michael, you are an inspiration to us all!

Priority works announced

2010-10-20T14:43:00.001+11:00

Last year the ACT government commissioned a consultant to prioritize future works in the Pedestrian and Bike path network. At the top of the list is the much muted Civic cycle loop which the Canberra cycle lobby group Pedal Power has been lobbying for. This is a loop of the city will have physically protected cycle lanes. One section of the the loop will be a shared zone, which is on Bunda street.

Bunda Street ,Google View
View Larger Map

As you know I am a big supporter of separated facilities using international best practice ,yet I am surprised that Pedal Power are lobbying for such facilities as they have said that cycle lanes are a 'safe a practical choice' arguing that 'mere perception that cycle lanes are dangerous doesn't make them so'.

Cycle lanes are used in many countries and in Europe, but there are a set of guidelines for cycle lanes which are used primarily on low volume-low speed roads. Areas that are 50km/h or less.

Cycle lanes are a minimum 2 metre's and are coloured for the entire length not just at intersections. In the ACT and in many Australian cities we have allowed cycle lanes on major arterial roads,highways and freeways without some form of protection.

The Netherlands has over forty years of experience and statistics in improving cycle facilities that are safe for everyone to use ,most roads at 50km/h are physically separated with lower residential speed limits and also in town centre areas. Yet Pedal Power wants to argue that over a short period of 10 years in the ACT, there has been no fatalities recorded on most cycle lanes and only a small number of injures reported.

The consultation was a two part study, one looking at the network priorities and the other looking at behavioral change to get more people cycling. The second study was important in my view to introduce worlds best practice for cycling infrastructure that would guild network upgrades. That study has yet to be released and was only an online survey.

One of my suggestions was taken on board,which was the allocation of network priorities by town centre locations not an overall priority list for Canberra. The first draft had several works predominately in Belconnen and Civic(city centre). Now the Chief Minister (John Stanhope) lives in Belconnen and I could draw some interesting statistics about the amount of works going on in Belconnen lately but that's another story.

Priority projects in each region
North Canberra (including the City)

Civic Cycle Loop - Allara Street to Bunda Street via Parkes Way, Marcus Clarke Street, Rudd Street and Allara Street, Civic: on road protected cycle lane
Bunda Street (Civic Cycle Loop shared space) - Genge Street to Akuna Street, Civic: shared space project*

South Canberra

Brisbane Avenue link - State Circle to Bowen Drive, Barton: on-road cycle lanes
Kings Avenue - Russell Drive to Parliament House, Parkes: on-road cycle lanes

Woden

Accessible street project on Bradley Street between Easty Street and Town Square, Woden
Wisdom Street link - Yamba Street to Carruthers Street/Yarra Glen, Woden: off-road shared path

Tuggeranong

Accessible street project on Pittman Street and Athllon Drive, Tuggeranong
Athllon Drive - Atkins Street to Hindmarsh Drive, Tuggeranong: on-road cycle lanes

Gungahlin

Hibberson Street - Kate Crace Street to Gozzard Street, Gungahlin: shared space project
Accessible street project on Hibberson Street between Hinder Street and Gozzard Street, Gungahlin

Belconnen

Accessible street project on Lathlain Street to Westfield and then to Chandler Street, Belconnen
Chandler Street - Benjamin Way to College Street, Belconnen: on-road cycle lanes

Still more cycle lanes on roads that are considered 'high speed high volume roads' ,interestingly another consultation going on at the moment is a road safety policy 'Vision Zero' which is based on the Swedish policy of the same name. In the Discussion paper it suggests to consider physically separate cycle lanes on high speed roads. Now what constitutes a high speed road is not clear in the document. But a simple graph which has been ignored by many Australian government transport departments is clear and is a minimum standard across many European cities. The cycling countries of the Netherlands,Denmark and Germany well exceed this standard.

Separation Please!

2010-10-14T10:52:00.000+11:00

Sadly on Ride to work day a cyclist has lost his life riding on a major highway in SA. Ridiculously Bike SA and Cycling SA repeated there call to share the road ! On a highway. The call should go out for immediate physical separation of cyclists on ' high speed high volume roads' with grade separation at major highway intersections.

Interestingly in another article a German road safety expert ( head of safety at Mercedes Benz) who has said the higher speed on major highways would be safer also said :

"Authorities would also have to do more to separate different road users, such as cars and cyclists, he said.
''I was very surprised to read on the highway that cyclists have to use the parking shoulder,'' he said.
''In Germany, it is absolutely forbidden for the bicycle to go on the highway. We try to divide the different people, the different partners in the traffic, and it makes it much safer.''

Germany has a much higher cycling rate than Australia and in some cities as high as thirty percent and safer roads despite having virtually no speed limits on the autobahns.

No surprises that the Netherlands has the safest roads and the lowest deaths per 100 000 population. By introducing policies like Sustainable Safety where there is a focus on the vulnerable road users, physical separation at high speed high volume roads is the key.

www.hembrow.blogspot.com

Cyclists in the Netherlands, yes wearing helmets!

Major Highway, Netherlands

Here is a simple video by Mark Wagenbuur that makes the case quite simply ,cycling deaths can be avoidable but its not the helmet laws that make us safer its the infrastructure stupid!.

In a time before Mandatory Helmet Laws (MHL)

2010-10-13T23:58:00.000+11:00

Here is a great little film which reminds me of a time before the MHL, when kids were kids, a time when we were fearless and we rode our bikes everyday to school and on the weekends. Now thats dangerous or so they keep telling us.

Check out the Boy's Mullet, a classic!

Here is some classic photo's from the seventies and eighties , makes you wonder how we survived our childhood with such dangerous activities we use to get up to.

Riding to School

Hanging out after school ,watching a burst water main

Going for a ride on the weekend

These days maybe the safest place is in the living room ....................

Yes sad but true. Maybe when you grow up you then can ride a stationary bike at the gym ,after you drive yourself there first!

Ride to Work day

2010-10-13T00:08:00.000+11:00

Tomorrow is the National Ride to Work Day with events in most major cities across the country. The idea of a national day is to promote commuting to work by bike as an everyday option. While this annual day that has been going on since 1998, what effect has it had on increase bike share use in this country. Well according to the new Australian National Cycling Strategy 2011 - 16 our use of the bike has dropped, though only slightly but given we haven't reached 2% yet its still .1% of stuff all.

There are obviously a number of factors for the slight decline particularly after several investments in cycling infrastructure over that period, though in my opinion not the right type of infrastructure that encourages more people to cycle. If you have a look at the split for cycling for Australian cities, you can see that Canberra leads the nation in mode share for cycling and had the biggest increase in cycling between 1976 and 1981.

So what happened, a major investment and construction of Bicycle paths, arguably the best in Australia which provided safe but not always a direct route to work or other locations. There were several missing links in the network but the focus by the Current ACT Government has been on cycle lanes on roads, like many other Australian cities as a cheap and what they consider, an effective option.

Now I support cycle lanes, but not on major arterial roads with speed limits between 60 - 100 km/h. This approach by Australian authorities is the complete opposite of what is acceptable in the cycling European countries where there cycling rates are much higher,safer and cycling rates continue to increase. Though this is not mentioned in the new cycling strategy particularly from a safety point of view. There seems to be to much focus from the road racing group in my view not to enforce physical separation of cycling infrastructure on the major roads ,primarily because of the conflict with slower cyclists like children riding to school. But then again when you are hit by a vehicle traveling at 100km/h, at least your wearing a helmet to protect you! right.

Monaro Highway ,Canberra

Cycling super highway, Holland

Bicycle Recycle

2010-10-03T23:46:00.000+11:00

No ,this is not a bicycle parking facility, but a place were the old ,tired and unwanted ,unloved bicycles come when their owners have replaced or given up on them. Sad ,because there are some good quality bikes here.

'Millions' to get us on bikes

2010-10-03T23:30:00.000+11:00

The Canberra Times ran a story last week that the ACT Government was spending $2 million to get people on bikes. It is difficult to get accurate spending figures for each year for cycle infrastructure as the funding is for shared infrastructure in most cases and the funding for on road cycle lanes comes out of the roads resealing funding. So when they reseal on a major arterial road they add a bike lane when they remark the lines.

Cycle lane on London Circuit , Canberra

The Government intends to spend $17.3 Million infrastructure for walking and cycling over the period of 2008 - 2012. The ACT Labor Government claims that this is record funding over this period but maintenance takes a huge slice of that budget with very little left to install new paths for several missing links in the network. Focus on cycling infrastructure has been mainly on the unprotected ,on-road cycle lanes ,which are far cheaper to install than physically separated cycle paths. One consultant said to me that you can have lots of poor quality cycle infrastructure or little high quality infrastructure, this with the small amount of funding that is allocated each year.

Last year the Federal Government allocated $40 million which was matched by the states,territories and local councils on cycle paths, shared paths and cycle lanes making that $80 million. This was a 'one-of ' package as part of the Federal governments stimulus during the GFC.

In the Netherlands, Fietsberaad reported that the Dutch government spending is almost a half a billion dollars on cycling infrastructure each year, this in a country of 16 million people and about half the size of Tasmania. This funding has produced the highest level of bicycle use of any country and arguably the best cycle infrastructure in the world ,with somewhere in the order of 30 000 km of cycle paths. Here are some of the cities spending:

While some cities ,depending on size, have spent less than other cities, this in reality is on top of high quality existing cycle infrastructure. Germany and Denmark have also invested heavily on cycle infrastructure and are only behind the Netherlands in terms of bike use.

So using the same methodology for the ACT , over this period 2008 - 2012 on shared facilities for cycling and walking ,the figure is around 12 dollars per person per year. How does that compare to road funding this year:

Yes a 'whopping' 500 dollars per person on road infrastructure this year alone, and why not when the majority of us drive every where. Why invest more in cycling infrastructure when we may get the good idea and use our bikes more often, thus 'really' reducing road congestion.

Helmet Hypocrisy!

2010-09-23T10:50:00.001+10:00

The bicycle helmet debate is continuing to gain media coverage , the latest being the ABC Radio Background Briefing story just this week. There was an opportunity to highlight the issues that mandatory helmet laws have created in this country and that is the culture of fear.
Is riding a bicycle dangerous ? Now that depends on several factors, though the law is generic in its term for bicycle riders like the 'cyclist shall wear an approved helmet when riding a two wheeled pedal vehicle'.

Riding your bike can be dangerous if used in the following manner:


Using your bike at the Skate park


Mountain Bike Racing

BMX racing


Road Racing

Also the danger can be created by poor infrastructure that puts the bike rider in proximity to heavy objects moving at fast speeds, these include unprotected bicycle lanes on 'high speed high volume' roads. During the interview on the Background Briefing story ,the doctor that had been recording cyclists accidents at the RPA(Royal Prince Alfred Hospital), stated that there is a significant difference between cyclists that had been wearing a helmet and those that hadn't. Though from further reading on the RPA's submission to the Inquiry vulnerable road users ,42% of Accidents presented at the hospital involved road vehicles. Why have we in this country ignored the building of safe infrastructure and allowed our officials to risk the lives of so many.

Sydney, M4 motorway

Now I'm not getting in to the debate that a bicycle helmet can cause greater brain injury or not ,I will leave that to the experts. What is clear is that helmets haven't made riding your bike safer in terms of cycling accidents and deaths. In this country we have 35 deaths and several hundred serious accidents and when you compare this to the Netherlands where 7 people are killed and about hundred seriously injured and they don't wear helmets and there cycling rates are significantly higher.

www.amsterdamize.com

The mandatory helmet laws in this country have provided an excuse for poorly designed infrastructure that puts the cyclist at extreme danger on high speed - high volume roads with just a painted line for separation. The argument that we can't afford to build separated cycleways is nonsense.

Bicycle music video interlude 2

2010-09-22T16:30:00.000+10:00

The Bike Song - Mark Ronson! Catchy!

In the Ideal world!

2010-09-20T17:34:00.000+10:00

Some time ago I had an email conversion with the head of ACT roads about the type of infrastructure we are currently building on our major arterial roads and the type of users that it would attract. His commet was,

"In the ideal world you would have a separate off road / direct cycle only network as well as a pedestrian only network but in practice Canberra has not been planned like this and the opportunity to do so has been lost and even if it was argued it still remained it would be at a cost that the Territory could not sustain."

I wonder what the ideal world would look like:

Canberra's Cycleway's

2010-09-19T21:14:00.000+10:00

While I have been a strong critic of on-road cycle lanes on 'High speed high volume roads', you do have the option to cycle on some good quality cycle paths, if they are going to your destination.

This cycle way is near a major arterial road which has a 80km/h speed limit. Pedal Power wants to continue the on-road cycle lane policy and have a cycle lane on this road without any protection. You have to wonder why with such a good cycleway .The only problems is that it is a shared path and there is no lighting at night. Having adequate lighting is a must and several of Canberra's cycleways do not have adequate lighting.

Here is the cycle path on the other side of the road ,which has recently been resurfaced. Also no lighting ,and in winter it can get dark before 5pm ,which is usually the start of peak hour traffic (car) ,so only the keen cyclist rides at these times in the winter months, usually lit up like a Christmas tree with a high vis-vest or spray jacket.
It can get quite cold also in the winter with nights around minus five degrees Celsius and temperatures staying below double figures during the day. But when you look at what people in colder climates cycle through, I guess we shouldn't complain too much!


Cycling through a snow storm ,Copenhagen www.copenhagenize.com

Cycling to school ,in Assen. www.hembrow.blogspot.com

Sydney Cycleways

2010-09-14T11:31:00.002+10:00

The construction of Sydney's Cycleways has the concern of several right wing conservative newspaper journalists and radio shock jocks. While I haven't cycled on them yet, I have been a big supporter of this type of infrastructure as a good way to retrofit existing cities and increase modal share. Sadly a few die hard lycra cyclists are complaing about the cycleways aswell.

Sydney is the city that really hates cyclists particularly on roads and amongst traffic. You will not increase modal share just by installing bike lanes without reducing speeds or having some physical protection. If you look at other world cities with considerably higher cycling rates separation is the key ingredient to promote cycling. Design is critical particularly at intersections as this is the greatest area of conflict.

Now maybe some of the cycleways aren't wide enough from some of the photo's I've seen and are some of the arguments by some cyclists, but when you are taking your family for a ride into the city or taking your child to school or you you just don't feel safe riding on 'High speed -High volume' roads then separation is what is required.

Many other cities have this style of cycleways, and you don't hear their cyclists complaining :

Bogota',Columbia


Montreal, Canada

London, England

Budapest, Hungry


Seville, Spain

Manhattan, New York

and of course ,but not always the design choice in Holland and Denmark:

Copenhagen, Denmark (copenhagenize.com)

Assen, Holland (hembrow.blogspot.com)

Here is a recent ABC Stateline NSW story, on the cycleways issue, aptly named "Lycra Lunacy" ,WTF?

Hogues back in Australia

2010-09-12T22:49:00.000+10:00

Paul Hogan one of Australia's Famous exports ,the one that brought that famous line in Crocodile Dundee ,"Thats not a knife, now that's a knife'. Has been having a bit of trouble with the Australian Tax Office lately about some unpaid tax bills. Something in the order of $150 million dollars at its worst.

So why am I reporting it here, I hear you ask, well before doing the Croc movies he had his own comedy show called , yes you guest it' The Paul Hogan show' a skit show with some memorable characters like 'Arthur Dunger' , 'Bluey the Gut' and 'Leo Wanker'.

Here is a skit I found the other day on You tube ,you can see why the aurthorities here think riding your bike is a dangerous activity! Don't forget to sing along !

Cargo bikes in Canberra

2010-09-12T17:32:00.001+10:00

I spotted this Zigo the other day at Cooleman Court in Weston Creek. I think that this is the bike I will get when I sell my other car.

Yes we are a two car family at the moment! I could make a lot of excuses here ,' like Canberra is two spread out and the public transport isn't very good' but I won't. We have bought a family car recently as we have four children, so it is a seven seater. The Kia Rondo which is the smallest in its class and the most economic according to the NRMA.

Kia Rondo seven seater

So getting back to the cargo bikes ,In Australia and Canberra, many families have the tag-a-long as they are considerably less expensive than the bucket style of cargo bike that you see in Holland and Denmark. Here is Laura, a friend of mine form SEE Change ,on our way back from the farmers market in Woden.

You can see here,riding next to a main arterial road . It has bike lanes but no physical protection, so we stuck to the 1.2 metre wide shared path here. Some of Canberra's infrastructure doesn't support family cycling very well.

According to some of the resellers in Australia of cargo bikes, Canberra is a big market for them, though I haven't seen many about. Many people argue that you can't take your kids to school by bike or do your shopping by bike here in Canberra, and that you have to use a car.

But if you look at what is available, all is needed is the infrastructure to support it.

The Bakfiets two wheeler Cargo Bike,they do a three wheel version as well.

The Christiania Cargo Bike

The Kangaroo, by Winther. I suppose I should get this one being Australian.
I wonder why they called it a Kangaroo ,the smaller two wheeler is also nicknamed after a native animal the wallyroo!

The Bella Cargo Bike.

The Trio Cargo Bike.

The Nihola Cargo Bike,

Yes the Prince of Denmark with his children ,and there is and Australian connection of course.

While price might sway my decision ,all I know is that I want one!

This is Amsterdam and This is my Bike!

2010-09-09T22:53:00.000+10:00

Velocity Copenhagen, a miss for Canberra

2010-09-09T22:43:00.000+10:00

The Velo-city (bicycle planning) conference was held in Copenhagen this year and disappointingly the ACT Government decided not to send any one from the ACT to this conference. I have been recent critic of the current bicycle infrastructure of cycle lanes on 'High speed-High volume' roads in Canberra, which is going against worlds best practice, particularly in Holland and Denmark, the worlds cycling nations.

About a thousand people attended the conference and well over a hundred people from the American cities, they have now realized that current bicycle lanes on major roads do very little to encourage more people to cycle.


Monaro Highway, Canberra ACT

This type of treatment has been the feature of current bicycle planning, it is cheap and nasty. Sadly the Bicycle advocacy group of the ACT Pedal Power have been supportive of this infrastructure even though it supports only one type of cyclist.

It is said that the ACT cannot afford separate cycle infrastructure even though we continue to spend millions of dollars every year on more and more roads. With the future un-certain with peak oil and the rise in health care costs related to obesity, those arguements just do not stack up.

So to Streefilms great video of the recent Velocity conference shot by the Clarence Eckerson Jr. One of the comments made in this film was that while Copenhagen made decisions early on to support cycle friendly infrastructure, countries like America and Australia need to implement this type of infrastructure much quicker than the thirty odd years it has taken Copenhagen.

Helmet Law, the Curse of the Bike Share

2010-08-29T12:31:00.000+10:00

The Age is reporting today that the Melbourne Bike share is in trouble and usage in the last month had declined. This was also from a low starting base to begin with. So the RACV (Victorias equivalent to the NRMA) is considering a number of measures, none of which includes removing the Compulsory Helmet laws. One idea is a fold-able helmet which can be carried in around in a pocket or handbag.

I must admit this is desperation from Melbourne City Council to show that this scheme is worth the millions of dollars it has invested in it.
Bixi the company which makes these bikes must be laughing all the way to the bank. The idea of a bike share scheme is not a silly one, but if your target only is the commuter or people already working in the city then it really is an expensive exercise. David Hembrow makes a good point on his blog that it would be far cheaper to give those that want one ,a free bike.

The tourist dollar is important to any city economy and to exclude them makes no sense at all. The Brisbane City council which will also launch a bike share scheme later in the year , has said that its scheme will be mainly for commuters as well. They must be watching with interest to see what is happening in Melbourne ,but there will be no waving of the helmet law.

This video highlights the use by tourists in Copenhagen to a bike share scheme but it has not always been a success.

Would it work here in Canberra, the city of the car, probably not but there is a bike hire business which is doing well and that is the bike hire for rides around Lake Burley Griffin. Mr Spokes Bike hire hasn't had the difficulty of several different bike locations but still has the compulsory law to contend with. So how do they get around it? Helmet are supplied with the Bike hire and

'The helmets are sprayed with disinfectant after each days trade, BUT, we always advise that people bring their own hair/head cover to wear under the helmet if they have concerns.' Jillian,Mr Spokes Bike Hire

www.mrspokes.com.au/

Interestingly the Pedal Cars are exempt from wearing helmets, but its all about the 'risk' isn't it.

Bicycle music video interlude

2010-08-28T22:25:00.000+10:00

A cool music video from michele lugaresi , featuring a bike of course!