Unrealistic cycling culture advertising

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'

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

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!

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!

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

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

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.