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.
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?
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 assecond 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.
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 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..............
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.........
