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MASSBUG NEWS 2008

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Sydney cyclists rewarded with a free breakfast

NATIONAL RIDE TO WORK DAY BREAKFAST

Wednesday 15 October 2008 7am-9am
Hyde Park South

Sydney cyclists can score themselves a free breakfast on Wednesday 15 October from 7am - 9am at Hyde Park South as part of National Ride to Work Day celebrations.

The City of Sydney and Bicycle NSW event will also include free newspapers and magazines, fete stalls with information about cycling and the chance to win a $500 bicycle package.

By cycling to work on National Ride to Work Day Sydney commuters can join with thousands of others in discovering a healthier, happier way to get to work.

City of Sydney CEO Monica Barone said the breakfast is a reward for the thousands of cyclists coming into the City Centre each day.

"These cyclists are reducing Sydney's traffic congestion, helping the environment, saving money on petrol and improving their own health and fitness," Ms Barone said.

"It really makes a lot of sense which is why we've committed $20 million towards new separated cycleways in 2008/09 and we've budgeted almost $70 million over the next four years for bicycle related works.

"National Ride to Work Day gives cycling the prominence it deserves and helps new cyclists feel more comfortable knowing they are not alone," she said.

The City's Sustainable Sydney 2030 Strategy aims to increase the amount of cycling trips by 500 per cent by 2017 by building more than 55 kilometres of European style separated cycleways and more than 200 kilometres of cycle paths across the local government area.

Work is currently underway on a separated cycleway on King St in the CBD due for completion in mid 2009 while planning work is progressing on a separated cycleway on Bourke St linking Woolloomooloo and Zetland.

Counts conducted by the City of Sydney show the number of cyclists riding in peak times on key routes into the City has increased by 400 per cent during the past 10 years. The Harbour Bridge, Oxford Street, Ultimo Road and Pyrmont Bridge have all seen large increases with a four-fold increase in cyclists on the Harbour Bridge since 1995.

JUST THE DETAILS: NATIONAL RIDE TO WORK DAY BREAKFAST
Wednesday 15 October 2008 7am-9am
Hyde Park South
Freebies: Breakfast, competitions & giveaways (first come, first served)
More details: Phone (02) 9265-9333 or visit
http://www.ride2work.com.au or http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au

Cyclists - there's not enough of them

Terrorgraph online poll...

"Poll Results

Thanks for voting, here are the results so far:

Are cyclists a problem on Sydney roads?

Yes - there are too many of them.
42% (1743 votes)
No - they have every right to use the roads.
57% (2334 votes)
Total votes: 4077
This poll started on Friday, May 09, 2008"

Figures at 11pm, Friday 9 May, 2008.

Vote now vote often - http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/yoursay/

Crash hits Kersten's Olympic bid

Date: May 9 2008

Jacquelin Magnay

AUSTRALIAN officials are looking to delay a series of race-offs between Shane Kelly and Ben Kersten, for the remaining spot in the Olympic team following the 50-rider pile-up in Sydney yesterday.

Commonwealth Games champion and world silver medallist Kersten, 26, was in the group of riders felled when a car deliberately slammed on its brakes in front of the large peloton at Mascot, after earlier menacing the back of the bunch.

Kersten said he thought he was OK after the early-morning drama, albeit angry at the driver, who had sped away. However, following a medical examination by his chiropractor, he was found to have suffered whiplash and shock. Kersten said his clothing had tyre marks all over it, his arm was stiff, his hip badly bruised and his ankle sore.

"I am still angry about it," Kersten said. "[The driver] did a lot of damage, and really there were so many variables that went our way that if only one had been different, it would have gone so horribly wrong."

Kersten was due to race off against Kelly in less than a fortnight for a berth in the Olympic team sprint event, but Cycling Australia spokeswoman Gennie Sheer said the event will be delayed until early June.

Olympic silver and bronze medallist Kelly, who is attempting to reach his fifth Olympics, has his own injury woes after falling off his track bike in Adelaide earlier in the week and suffering a possible dislocated shoulder.

"I will have to modify my training a bit and try and have a gentle ride tomorrow and see how I pull up," said Kersten, who now has to source another road bike after his $9000 carbon fibre machine was smashed. "I am not that easily deterred and I am prepared to mentally deal with it and try for my Olympic spot. But every day counts and this is not what you need "

Kersten battled through the Court of Arbitration for Sport for the right to compete in the 2004 Games but, despite eventually being selected, he was sidelined by the coach during the competition.

Kersten was the only Beijing contender involved in yesterday's drama, although the bunch contained some of Australia's best cyclists.

Gymea's Kate Nichols had only returned to riding last week after a long recovery from the 2005 car crash in Germany that claimed the life of Australian teammate Amy Gillett. Yesterday, it was feared she may have suffered further damage to the wrist she injured in the 2005 crash, though X-rays showed there was no break. Her father, Olympic gold medallist Kevin Nichols, was in the bunch as well as Olympic silver medallist Michelle Ferris.

Ferris was at the front of the peloton and careered into the car, hitting its rear windscreen. "We were all in the left-hand lane and this Ford Falcon came from the middle lane and swerved into the front of the bunch and braked suddenly," she said. "We were doing about 40 kmh. There was nowhere for me to go and I went straight into the back of his car, and other riders went into me. My chin [hit] the back window and my bike was totalled."

CA chief executive Graham Fredericks said the incident highlighted the need to educate road users. "I am horrified by what happened this morning and urge everyone to remember the road is there to share," he said.

http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2008/05/08/1210131165533.html

Mass hit and run

Tensions mount between cyclists, motorists

PM - Thursday, 8 May , 2008 18:22:00

Reporter: Karen Barlow

MARK COLVIN: The fraught relationship between motorists and cyclists came to a head in Sydney today in a mass hit and run.

Survivors say it was extremely lucky that no-one died when an impatient driver turned in front of a pack of 50 cyclists and slammed on his brakes.

Travelling at about 50 kilometres an hour, many of the cyclists crashed into the car and into each other. A semi-trailer following the cyclists also locked up and jackknifed and it was lucky not to rear-end those that had fallen.

Among the injured, the race rider Kate Nichols who was injured while training in Germany three years ago in a crash in which another of her team mates died. Also hurt today, two Olympians and an aspirant Olympian.

As we go to air tonight the driver has not been found but the survivors want police to charge him.

Karen Barlow reports.

(Sound of bike pedals spinning)

BEN KERSTEN: That doesn't turn any more…

KAREN BARLOW: Track cyclist Ben Kersten is going through the damage to his $12,000 road bike.

BEN KERSTEN: They're all bent in…

KAREN BARLOW: It's now worth nothing.

BEN KERSTEN: The wheels don't turn any more…

KAREN BARLOW: His body fared better but Kersten has an Olympic trial event in 2.5 weeks to clinch his ride to Beijing and this early morning accident has set him back.

BEN KERSTEN: I got home and I couldn't move my wrist and then I booked into the chiropractor and by the time I got there I couldn't hop on the bed, I couldn't twist, and I said, I've got whiplash …

KAREN BARLOW: It was a social ride, something that happens twice a week for fun. But Ben Kersten explains how everything changed for the 50 or so cyclists in the pack at 6:45 am.

BEN KERSTEN: A motorist totally unprovoked was swerving in and out of the group and eventually jumped in front of the group and just stopped. And we were doing about 60 kilometres an hour so it was just a dominoes effect. Everyone ran completely into the back of him and went over the top of each other and into the middle of the road. There was trucks screeching and turning and then by the time anyone could figure out what was happening here he'd taken off.

KAREN BARLOW: 1984 Olympic gold medallist Kevin Nichols was near the front of the pack and saw it all happening, including catching the driver's number plate.

KEVIN NICHOLS: I yelled out for him to stop. He actually pulled over and I stopped in front of him and I thought, hang on this is not a good spot to stand given just what's gone on behind him. I moved out of the road. After I moved out of the road and I looked back and, to check on Kate because I knew she was a fair way back in the group, saw her on the ground, turned around to go back to her and he just took off.

KAREN BARLOW: Did he give any sort of reaction? Did he say anything?

KEVIN NICHOLS: I asked him what the hell was going on. He gave some sort of smart alec response out the window and then of course, as I said, he took off.

KAREN BARLOW: His daughter Kate Nichols survived an horrific German road racing crash three years ago that killed champion cyclist Amy Gillett. Kate Nichols was injured in this morning's hit and run.

KATE NICHOLS: I've had some x-rays and thankfully I don't have any breaks but I've got a lot of swelling and bruising all over and grazes and a bit of pain right now.

KAREN BARLOW: This must have been particularly traumatic for you given what you went through in Germany.

KATE NICHOLS: Yeah, I've had a long battle for a return and I've been currently suffering a lot of illness and getting back from injuries and it was actually my first bunch ride back in a long time. So it was not good timing for me, motivationally, psychologically. But I'm going to do my best to get back out there.

KAREN BARLOW: Another of the injured is Olympic silver medallist Michelle Ferris. The whole front section of her bike slammed into the back of the car.

Kevin Nicholls and the other cyclists say it was lucky no-one was killed today.

KEVIN NICHOLS: Deliberate, premeditated I would say.

CYCLIST: Unprovoked, totally unprovoked.

KEVIN NICHOLS: Totally unprovoked and premeditated response. We're looking forward to seeing what the police outcome is.

KAREN BARLOW: The mass hit and run highlights the choked and angry roads in Australian cities.

While not defending any hit and run action, the President of the motoring body NRMA, Alan Evans, wants cyclists to reconsider riding in peak hour.

ALAN EVANS: Look, I have to say this as someone who rides a bike - I wouldn't get on a main road where a car is doing 80 kilometres an hour in peak hour or indeed non-peak hour because I know that the mix of the two is not safe.

People have got a responsibility to make sure when they see someone in an unsafe situation to take avoiding action.

The problem we've got is crowded roads where people might not see cyclists and cyclists who are, you know, not probably recognising the inherent risk of what they're doing.

KAREN BARLOW: But injured cyclist Ben Kersten says all road users need to calm down.

BEN KERSTEN: It is war and it's sad because this is where I choose to live and every other place I choose to train or go to train, there's no issues. And over here it's just, every time I go training I think, okay, is today going to be the day that someone is going to run over me for just for fun.

MARK COLVIN: Injured Olympic rider Ben Kersten ending that report from Karen Barlow.

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2239488.htm

A random act of road rage has damaged cyclist Ben Kersten's Olympic hopes.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2008/05/08/2239525.htm

And the less sensationalised Terrorgraph rendering of events

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23664646-5014104,00.html

Subway would make bridge plan obsolete

Date: March 12 2008

Linton Besser Transport Reporter

CONTROVERSIAL plans to duplicate the Iron Cove Bridge have been rendered obsolete by secret State Government proposals for a metro-style subway under Victoria Road, a local group says.

Plans released by the Roads and Traffic Authority provide little quantifiable justification for the $150 million upgrade of Victoria Road, said Alex Elliot, from the Victoria Road Community Committee. "The Government and the RTA refuse to release any traffic modelling or analysis," he said. Late last year the RTA lodged a preliminary environmental assessment for the project with the Department of Planning. As well as a new bridge, it plans new bus lanes and bus bays along the congested artery.

In its submission, the group suggests the $150 million budget for the project be transferred instead to the Ministry of Transport, because "Sydney Buses will be accountable for reliability and efficiency of bus services not the RTA".

They claim the entire proposal no longer makes sense, with revelations the Government is considering a high-frequency underground train which "will replace buses on the Victoria Road corridor".

"The current RTA proposal has no knowledge of this new direction and therefore will become a 'stranded' investment, bypassed by a different strategy," it says.

The group has even suggested a number of alternative scenarios, including a "clip-on lane" for pedestrians and cyclists, and sacrifice the existing walkway for a dedicated bus lane.

The document it has presented to Planning criticises the RTA application for having "little analytical support" and lacking a study of future traffic demand.

"The traffic modelling claimed to have been done covers only existing demand and not future," it says. "Traffic modelling needs to support 25- to 30-year forecasts in residential and employment activity … [and] needs to be available to the community.

"[We] believe the proposal so lacks supporting objectives that the RTA should … go back and start the whole process again."

Alec Brown, a spokesman for the RTA, said yesterday that modelling had been done, but that it "will be further refined through the environmental assessment process and, when finalised, will be made publicly available during the display of these documents".

Earlier this year the RTA was forced to release a 2006 report under freedom-of-information laws that revealed motorists could expect only a 50-second improvement in their journey to the city.

The report was based on an earlier version of the project, estimated to cost $44.8 million. It has since been expanded with new traffic arrangements in those suburbs, bus bays and an outbound bus lane, and the project budget tripled.

http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2008/03/11/1205125911499.html
Wednesday, 12 March 2008

Pedal pushers consider power of the hour

Date: March 12 2008

Jennie Curtin

STAND BY for Earth Ride. The success of Earth Hour's international expansion has motivated those working in other areas, including the folks at Bicycle NSW. After all, the environmental benefits of bike riding are well known, so why not push for worldwide pedal power?

The chief executive officer of Bicycle NSW, Alex Unwin, saw a golden opportunity. "We have already been in touch with cities around the world, including London and New York, about ways we could work together to encourage bike riding," he said. "In addition, we share a view with Earth Hour about the importance of community engagement."

Whether any venture will be called "Earth Ride" is still up in the air, although Unwin said it was being used at the Bicycle NSW office "and it might be helpful in communicating our ideas globally, as Earth Hour has done".

Unwin is a great supporter of community events as a means of changing people's behaviour. Results from the national ride-to-work day back up his view: research in Victoria showed that 34 per cent of "first timers", those who cycled to work for the first time on the 2006 ride-to-work day, were still doing it five months later.

And the number of people taking part in the ride has been increasing dramatically each year. In NSW, the 2007 tally was up 500 per cent on the previous year. Nationally, numbers went from 30,000 in 2006 to more than 90,000 last year.

Unwin said many employers had recognised the need to accommodate commuting cyclists. Companies including Macquarie Bank and Fairfax Media, publisher of the Herald, now have bike storage, lockers and showers. Macquarie Bank has 250 spaces at its premises across the CBD. The bank's head of corporate real estate, Michael Silman, said it was increasing in popularity. "There's certainly more people cycling than, say, five years ago."

When Optus moved its 6500 employees to Macquarie Park last year it realised that many would choose to cycle. The company has more than 300 bicycle parking places plus change and storage facilities and its internal transport website has local cycling maps and information on cycling routes across Sydney.

In the 2007 national ride to work day, Optus had the highest number of workplace participants in NSW. Lend Lease, a NSW sponsor of the ride-to-work day, has the usual lockers and change rooms and it also has a secure bike cage, so staff can ride in one day and out the next - leaving their bikes at work overnight if necessary.

For the company's cycling co-ordinator, David De Wolfe, cycling to the city from Summer Hill is more than a mode of transport. "Whilst cycling is often a quicker and cheaper way of travelling to and from the office, I find the health benefits to be the most significant. I am generally more focused and active on days that I cycle," he said.

Mark Pountley is an ex-commuter as he works in the suburb where he lives, but he used to cycle a 40-kilometre daily round trip to Dee Why for work. He still does a lot of bike riding, as does his wife, Liz, whom he met on a nine-day ride around country NSW in 2002. Continuing the family tradition, he has just bought his one-year-old twins, Rachel and Emma, their own grand wagon to hitch to dad's bicycle. Pountley is a late convert to the Earth Hour cause but will be switching off this year. "Last year I thought it was a pretty short-term view, just an hour, but I realise now it's more educational. It isn't just that hour, it's more for the longer term."

Lisa Purser, Castlecrag

Tell us what you're planning for Earth Hour and what you'd like to see happen on March 29. Email eco@smh.com.au

http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2008/03/11/1205125911560.html
Wednesday, 12 March 2008

Pat Farmer says cyclists need help to "legitimise" their place on the roads...

28 February 2008

"BICYCLE riders should pay registration fees to help legitimise their place on the roads and pay for infrastructure and safety campaigns says the Federal Opposition spokesman on sports, Pat Farmer..."

More... http://www.cyclingresourcecentre.org.au/news_item.php?item=28

Bicycles and the roads : Should cyclists be registered?

Yes. It will legitimise their place on the roads - 21%
No. Things are fine as they are - 79%
Total Votes: 737 Poll date: 06/02/08

Note: Bicycles are already "legitimate" vehicles and cyclists "legitimate" road users, see the RTA website for details. Forward thinking government attempts to rein in carbon emissions would see cyclists paid out of the government's carbon tax for staying out of their cars, in the same way that private health insurance companies once offered rebates for sporting equipment that encouraged healthy activity. Maybe Feral MPs should be encouraged to... participate in the framing of Liberal Party policies on Greenhouse, Health and Cycling.

More... http://www.bfa.asn.au/bfanew/pdf/publications/BFA_Fact_Sheet_01_Health_Benefits_of_Cycling.pdf

The RTA produced a document on how to FORECASTING DEMAND FOR BICYCLE FACILITIES. Easier than gazing into a crystal ball if attempting to discourage cyclists use and promote car use, with all the lucrative petrodollar campaign funds that flow.

Policies likely to positively affect bicycle use that can be identified include;

Policy variables likely to negatively affect bicycle use may include;

Models to forecast bicycle use may include variables from these lists as well as non-policy variables such as weather, some socio-demographics and some geographical variables..."

AP-R194
AUSTROADS
FORECASTING DEMAND FOR BICYCLE FACILITIES
p 3

AEC funding and donations disclosure

http://fadar.aec.gov.au/

EIGHTH ANNUAL BICYCLE FILM FESTIVAL: Call For Entries

30 January 2008

Hi All

EIGHTH ANNUAL BICYCLE FILM FESTIVAL: Call For Entries Deadline: February 19th http://www.bicyclefilmfestival.com

We are looking for films with a strong theme or character of bicycles. This includes all mediums and styles such as animation, experimental, narrative, documentary and music videos.

The BFF is held in over 15 cities around the world including Tokyo, New York City, Los Angeles, Milano and London. In 2007 the BFF was attended by up to 100,000 people.

It is a celebration through film, art and music. The BFF has been fortunate to have included the works of well known artists including Jonas Mekas, Michel Gondry, Mike Mills and Jorgen Leth. We showcase the emerging artist as well.

The Bike Film Fest looks to be a lot of fun in 2008. For more info and the entry form go to: http://www.bicyclefilmfestival.com

All cities have been selected and dates for NEW YORK are May 28-June1. All dates will be set within the month.

PLEASE PASS THE WORD AROUND Poster Pdf here: bff_submissions_poster_2008_US.jpg

Thanks Brendt Barbur Founding Director Bicycle Film Festival

Bikes Strike Back!

11 January 2008

Bikes Strike Back!

I hope everyone saw that after yesterday's attack on cyclways by the NRMA, < http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/money-wasted-on-cyclists-nrma/2008/01/09/1199554742667.html > today's SMH has
* a fantastic Op-Ed piece by Clover Moore;
* a follow up article by yesterday's journalist Alex Smith, and
* seven great letters, including from City of Sydney's Councillor Shayne Mallard, BikeSydney's Lester Ranby, BikEast's Jim Hope and ex-BNSW board member John Holstein.

Thanks to everyone who wrote letters to the paper (and to Alan Evans, NRMA) - the more letters they receive the more they print, so even if you didn't get published, it helped.

Fiona

--

Cycling the way to go in this overcrowded city

Clover Moore

January 11, 2008

THE NRMA, unsurprisingly, claims that few cyclists use the Epping Road corridor each day. The NRMA, like the big oil companies, has a vested interest to protect, and it is depressing that private car use in Sydney is still rising, with vehicle kilometres travelled increasing at twice the rate of population growth.

We are past the day when we have any choice but to pursue alternatives: oil is running out and global warming is increasing at an alarming rate. Our streets are becoming impossibly congested, polluted and unpleasant to use. The health costs, in respiratory disease and obesity, to name but two, are well-documented.

Many people choose cars over bikes because they can get directly to any destination. Get on a bike, and you'll be lucky to find continuous safe passage.

Cyclists are expected to levitate through impassable gaps in the network and risk their lives inches from tonnes of speeding metal on car-dominated roads.

Despite this, nearly 1.5 million bicycles were sold in Australia last year, 40 per cent more bikes than cars. And this is the eighth year in a row that bikes have outsold cars.

At last year's C40 Large Cities conference in New York, I cycled with the mayor of Copenhagen. In the Danish capital 40 per cent of people use bikes to get to work and study. International experience shows that if you provide the facilities, people will use them - but it does not happen overnight.

Our top need is for a clean, efficient, sustainable and integrated transport system that includes cycleways and mass transit to move the million-plus people who use the city daily to their destinations.

Recent research by the City of Sydney indicates that Sydneysiders would be more likely to cycle if there were dedicated cycle lanes and better awareness by motorists of bicycle safety.

Even under the present, less-than-ideal conditions, the Roads and Traffic Authority has reported a 45 per cent increase in bicycle traffic in the CBD in the three years to 2005. The city's own counts show that about 500 cyclists use Oxford Street each weekday between 7am and 9am - a sixfold increase over the past decade.

While there are major recreational cycleways - such as the Sydney Harbour route and the planned Alexandra Canal path - the city's cycle strategy aims to create an effective and accessible network with major routes less than five minutes' cycle from every residence.

It also includes strategies to increase community awareness about the benefits of cycling, to provide better signage and safer, separated cycle lanes. We are encouraging end-of-trip facilities including the provision of parking, storage, change and shower facilities - which progressive firms like Lend Lease are now providing in their headquarters.

On the other side of the harbour, North Sydney Council has its own proposals for getting cyclists safely to the bridge, and local governments across the metropolitan area are looking at ways of creating a cycling network that can get people to work, recreation and educational destinations.

According to the British urbanist Charles Landry, the average US male devotes more than 1600 hours a year to his car - driving it, sitting in traffic, parking it. Adding in the time spent working to pay for it, for petrol, tolls and other charges, he calculates that same person spends over 18 per cent of his life on his car.

Sydney people have surely got better things to do with that 18 per cent of their lives.

Clover Moore is Lord Mayor of Sydney and the independent state MP for Sydney.

--

Bike lanes dangerous, cyclists warn

Alexandra Smith

January 11, 2008

NSW spends less per person on cycling than any other state, resulting in cycleways that were poorly planned and often dangerous, bike lobby groups warned yesterday as the Government denied that under-used bicycle lanes were a waste of money.

The motoring group NRMA has accused the Iemma Government of wasting millions of dollars on building cycleways that attract few cyclists, including a new bicycle lane on the choked Epping Road, which the NRMA says will in effect cost $300,000 for every cyclist who uses it.

A $60 million cycleway was also built next to the Westlink M7, but cycling groups say it is barely used because of its location.

A BikeSydney spokeswoman, Fiona Campbell, said the Government had an "opportunistic" view of cycleways and expanded them where it was easy to build, rather than where they were needed or wanted.

"This government builds things but not with the intention of them actually being used," Ms Campbell said. "!NSW is lagging so far behind the rest of Australia and the Western world that Sydney is often described as the worst place to cycle."

Figures compiled by the Greens show NSW will spend $7.6 million - or $1.20 per capita - this year on "bicycle-specific programs". This compares with $3.16 per capita in Queensland, $4.93 in Western Australia and $3.89 in Victoria.

The Cycling Promotion Fund said Paris, London and New York had ambitious bicycle infrastructure projects to ease congestion and promote a sustainable urban environment, but Sydney lagged behind in its cycle programs.

Despite claiming to be pro-bike, the Iemma Government has no plans to replace the general manager of the bicycles and pedestrian branch of the Roads and Traffic Authority, sacked by Michael Costa when he was roads minister.

The Greens MP Lee Rhiannon said the NRMA had an agenda to redirect funding away from cycleways in favour of road building. "The NRMA's anti-cycleway campaign is a crude attempt to boost money for road building. It's time the NRMA leadership came into the 21st century and recognised that encouraging more cyclists is an easy way to reduce road congestion," Ms Rhiannon said.

"The NRMA's submission to the RTA is grossly misleading. Half of the M2 cycleway has been removed and the Epping Road cycleway has not been completed so it is not surprising that bike use is so low on those routes."

Ms Rhiannon said cyclists were often forced onto busy roads when bike lanes ended.

"Cycling in parts of Sydney can be extremely dangerous because there is no integrated network of cyclepaths," she said.

A spokesman for the RTA said: "The RTA takes a balanced approached to providing for the needs of all road users, including cyclists, motorists and public transport users. There are now more than 3900 kilometres of cycleway in NSW.

"There has been an average of 233 kilometres of cycling facilities provided each year, and more than $291 million committed towards bicycle programs by the NSW Government, since 1999."

--

SMH Letters - Join up the cycleways and the pedallers will come

As Alan Evans well knows, cycleways are underused because they mostly start and finish nowhere ("Empty cycling lanes cost millions: NRMA", January 10). If the disparate strands of Sydney's cycleways were to link up cyclists would take to them in droves. I am a member of the NRMA and a cyclist. If it was safe, I would cycle much more than I do and thousands of Sydneysiders feel likewise. I am appalled that the NRMA is against cycling and will reconsider my membership.

Tom McGinness Randwick

Taking advice from the NRMA about road building is like asking Coke for advice on obesity.

R. Fisher Downer (ACT)

Where has the NRMA been? All over the Western world urban people are increasingly turning to cycling for transport and recreation. Sydney City Council research shows people want to take up cycling for environmental, health and economic reasons but are reluctant because of the lack of safe, coherent cycling infrastructure. This is where the NRMA's rubbery financial figures fall down. The cycling infrastructure that today's governments are finally building is an investment for generations to come. As an NRMA member I should point out that in any one week I drive my car, catch public transport, walk to work and ride my bicycle. Our road infrastructure must be understood in a balanced and sustainable context if it is to serve Sydney for generations to come.

Councillor Shayne Mallard Sydney

Would the NRMA apply the same logic to rural roads? Only small numbers of cars use the road to Ivanhoe, for example, so why should we spend money on a road for them? What price do we put on heart disease and serious injury and death from motor vehicle accidents? I would presume it is more than the cost of a few hundred kilometres of cycleway.

John Holstein Northmead

In 2007, the NSW Treasurer, Michael Costa, boosted the annual state budget for roads to a record $3.7 billion. Of that, Costa and the equally myopic NSW Government allocated barely $7 million, or a pathetic 0.2 per cent, to bicycle-specific programs.

Yet this 99.8 per cent of road funding for cars and trucks is simply not enough for the incensed Alan Evans and the NRMA.

Jim Hope Coogee

The Epping Road cycleway is still under construction and will have few users until it is completed. The NRMA would have been better using figures for the cycleway around the north of Sydney Airport, which is teeming with cyclists who are able to speed past the gridlocked cars at a standstill on Qantas Drive every morning. The NRMA may have an interest in campaigning for more cars on our roads but more cars is not necessarily in the best interests of its members.

Lester Ranby Newtown

As motorists, NRMA members need a breakdown service for their cars but, as cyclists, they find themselves members of an organisation that continually opposes safe cycling facilities and incites motorist hatred against them.

My household solved this problem by joining the RACV, for it is a little-known fact that residents of NSW and the ACT have a choice of road service organisations. The RACV has increasingly turned its attention to public transport, pedestrian and cycling issues; it even provides a breakdown service for bicycles.

Terry George Watson (ACT)

07 January 2008

Australian drivers the worst: Evans

Date: January 7 2008

Samantha Lane

THERE'S nowhere that Cadel Evans feels less safe on his bike than in Australia.

The runner-up of last year's Tour de France has four weeks in Australia before he hits the European cycling circuit and attempts again to win the world's best-known bike race in July.

But the part-time resident of Barwon Heads, on Victoria's Bellarine Peninsula, who has ridden every day during his sabbatical, has been abused by motorists and is bemused by just how much aggro exists on the roads.

Yesterday Evans participated in the third Amy's Ride, commemorating the death of the Australian cyclist Amy Gillett in a road accident in Germany in 2005.

"Honestly, the scariest part of my job is riding on the Great Ocean Road, which I live on, between Christmas and New Year," Evans said.

"I've cycled in every continent in the world, other than Antarctica, and it's incredible. Drivers in America and Australia just have attitudes. I don't necessarily say attitudes towards cyclists, but towards other road users … . people just don't realise the danger they're causing other people."

In Evans's experience, the worst offenders come from the ranks of very young and very old drivers. He despairs that cyclists have to contend with people throwing bottles and driving dangerously close to them.

His worst nightmare is a car towing a trailer wider than the vehicle. "They're shocking. I've nearly had my leg torn off so many times because of that, and people are just completely unaware of it."

Sydney Morning Herald, 07 Jan 2008, http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2008/01/06/1199554485613.html

-- GilbertGrace4 - 06 Jan 2008



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