Peddling priority

• Clay Lucas
• March 24, 2009, The Age

In 1993, when vicroads was developing its first guidelines for how to build bike lanes on Melbournes roads, cycling to work was a marginal activity.

According to Bicycle Victoria, as few as six roads engineers rode to work at VicRoads' offices in Denmark Street, Kew. Today, VicRoads is upgrading its bike storage facilities so that 50 can ride.

When the road builders start riding their bikes to work instead of driving, it's clear something different is happening.

That was confirmed yesterday with the launch of the Victorian Cycling Strategy, a $115 million Brumby Government plan to get more people cycling.

Melbourne, it must be said, is working from a very low base: when the Australian Bureau of Statistics took its last census in 2006, just 1.3 per cent of Melbourne's population cycled to work.

In the three years since then, in the city's relatively small inner core, cycling has boomed.

A Melbourne City Council report issued in October showed that bikes as a percentage of vehicles in the CBD between 7am and 10am had risen from just 4 per cent in 2006 to 9 per cent last year.

Roads Minister Tim Pallas yesterday said that the Government's new cycling plan was about cycling's emergence as a "mainstream" activity.

"We are mainstreaming cycling as a legitimate transport mode," Pallas said at the launch of the cycling plan, in a beautiful little corner of Northcote, next to the Merri Creek — prime cycling territory.

In suburbs such as Northcote, Brunswick and Fitzroy, up to 13 per cent of adults now ride to work.

But in outer Melbourne, cycling remains distinctly marginal: in the city of Brimbank, which covers suburbs such as Sunshine, 0.2 per cent of journeys to work in the CBD are made by bike. In Glen Eira, covering Caulfield, it is 1.7 per cent.

It is clear there is a long way to go to reach the 30 per cent figure put forward by Bicycle Victoria yesterday as an aspirational figure for inner Melbourne. Premier John Brumby said at yesterday's launch of the bike plan that the new strategy aimed to boost cycling all over the state, which was in everyone's best interests.

"(Cycling) is good for your personal health. It will get your blood pressure down, it will get your cholesterol down. It also takes pressure off the public transport system and our road system," he said.

Brumby also said his Government was "elevating cycling as an essential core element of our transport strategy".

"Cycling is now an essential part of the transport plan," the Premier said. "That is a big shift from where we were a decade ago, where really what funds were available to cycling were just an add-on."

Certainly, money has been spent on cycling by his Government, if only in relative terms. During the Kennett era, Bicycle Victoria estimates $2-3 million was spent each year on cycling. Labor immediately boosted spending to $9 million.

Now, it has boosted spending levels again, to $18 million a year.

The reaction from Bicycle Victoria to yesterday's plan was

little short of euphoric. "This is a history-making document," said Bicycle Victoria chief executive Harry Barber. "For the first time in Australia, bike riding has been formally recognised as part of the core transport system."

The era of "discrimination" — where bike riders were lucky to get a few left-overs when roads were built — had officially ended, Barber said.

So, what will Victorians get for their $115 million?

Key to the strategy's success will be how well it helps free up the gridlock in central Melbourne, by encouraging more people to ride in.

The strategy will concentrate on establishing a better bicycle lane network within a 10-kilometre radius of the CBD.

Significant commuter routes will run both straight out of the city centre and across the city; William Street and La Trobe Street are to be the primary routes into and through the CBD.

The strategy will also see VicRoads put bikes into major transport projects "as a matter of course". A spokeswoman for the roads agency said yesterday that this had already been the case, although yesterday's bike plan had formalised it.

Other new bicycle projects that will be completed as part of the bicycle strategy include extending the Federation Trail off-road bicycle path from Millers Road, Altona, to Williamstown Road in Yarraville.

In Northcote, a bike crossing of the Merri Creek will be built by Melbourne Water as part of an upgrade of the existing pipe bridge over the creek. In Kew, there will be a new bicycle crossing at the intersection of Willsmere Road and the Anniversary Trail.

In Hawthorn, the Gardiners Creek bike path will be widened from the velodrome to Toorak Road in Kooyong.

In Footscray and Yarraville, the completed Federation Trail will connect Williamstown Road to Hyde Street. And Williamstown will become better connected by new paths to the Melbourne CBD and Docklands.

In Balwyn, there will be bike lanes on Balwyn Road, and cycle routes will be extended in Kew and Camberwell to make getting into the city from the east easier.

In Geelong, the Swanston Street link between Barwon Terrace in South Geelong will link to Eastern Beach Road in Geelong.

A range of other bike lane projects that had already been announced were included in the plan, which has been almost a year in the making.

The plan will, the Government says, increase access to cycling for all living within this 10-kilometre radius. And this area will, in turn, link to cycling networks that will be built up within the six "central activity districts" nominated as part of the Government's recent planning strategy, Melbourne @ Five Million: Box Hill, Broadmeadows, Dandenong, Footscray, Frankston and Ringwood.

In all, the plan will see new 23 bike paths around Victoria completed in the next 18 months, and 33 bike cages built at train stations around Melbourne.

The only losers from the plan, according to Bicycle Victoria, could be the middle suburbs that fall between the 10-kilometre city centre and those central activity districts.

All of this work is also likely to lead to renewed conflict with councils, which are likely to often have different — more local — agendas to the plan outlined by the State Government.

Yesterday the Premier said Victoria needed the plan to achieve success in helping more people to start getting fit, and cycling was a great way.

"We are losing more people from the non-communicable diseases than we are from the communicable diseases for the first time in our history. These are all the lifestyle diseases.

"The best way to counter a lifestyle disease is to keep fit and to keep healthier. And you can do it walking, you can do it running, or you can do it cycling."

And Melbourne's overcrowded trains and roads needed help too, he said.

"Every one of those people who is cycling into work in the morning could be someone who is using a car, could be someone using public transport," he said.

Brumby promised a lot from his cycling strategy. "It's an extraordinary roll-out of cycling tracks across our state," he said.

While it has been a big decade for the profile of commuter cycling in select parts of Melbourne — and for recreational cyclists — the big challenge now is to make cycling a possibility for more Melburnians.

GEARING UP

THE cycling plan is based on five strategic directions: building networks to connect communities, encouraging cycling, reducing risks, and better integration with public transport and land-use planning.

It aims to increase the number of cycling and walking trips in inner Melbourne by 15,000 and "grow cycling" in the rest of Victoria by 2020.

Within that framework, the plan's priorities include:

?Significantly improving the on and off-road cycling network within 10 kilometres of the CBD.

?Completing cycling networks in the six so-called "central activities districts" — Footscray, Broadmeadows, Box Hill, Ringwood, Dandenong and Frankston.

?Completing cycling links in regional centres.

?Developing bicycle facilities as part of road and rail transport projects.

?Safe cycling programs in schools.

?Campaigns to encourage cycling.

?A review of cycling accidents, and the creation of counter-measures.

?Launching a "look out for cyclists" safety campaign.

?Establishing a public bike hire system for Melbourne.

?Installing 33 bike cages at train stations by the end of 2009.
 

Interesting to note that this article (below) counts as one of the top 5 readers most viewed stories on The Age, 23 Feb 2009.

• Clay Lucas
• February 23, 2009

NEW bicycle commuter routes and the inclusion of special lanes in all large-scale road projects are expected to be part of the first major bicycle plan for Melbourne since the early 1980s.

- Boost for cyclists
- Focus on CBD
- $2bn road-building plan

The Government has been working on its bicycle strategy for several months, but delayed its release because of the bushfires.

In the strategy, now to be launched next month, $18 million a year will be spent over the next six years, with a renewed focus on priority routes into the city centre.

Bicycle lanes on William Street and La Trobe Street will be bolstered as part of the plan, to make cycling in the CBD safer.

A cycle plan was needed for those who wanted to use their bicycle as a transport mode, rather than for recreational, tourist or sports cyclists…

VicRoads has also confirmed it is investigating reducing the speed limit in the CBD to 40 km/h, to improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians.

The plan will also mandate for the first time construction of bicycle lanes into the state's $2 billion road-building program.

A letter from Roads Minister Tim Pallas to cycle lobby group Bicycle Victoria sent late last year stressed that the strategy would focus on making bicycle lanes an integral part of all new road building.

A cycle plan was needed for those who wanted to use their bicycle as a transport mode, rather than for recreational, tourist or sports cyclists, Bicycle Victoria chief executive Harry Barber said.

"In the past, bike plans have been muddled because they tried to be a recreational plan or a bike tourism plan," he said. "But we want this to be a transport plan for bikes."

Political statements do not protect those still riding the roads

• Debra Mayrhofer
• November 21, 2008

IF YOU drove by a sombre memorial to a fallen cyclist every day, would you become more aware of bike riders, or would you decide that cycling was clearly a dangerous pastime and vow not to try it? This is the question being debated by the cycling community after the recent death of a cyclist in Swanston Street.

Roadside memorials are not new and have stimulated various discussions about the use of public land for private grieving, their effectiveness as a reminder of the permanent consequences of momentary lapses in judgement, and even their potential to create hazards by distracting road users.

While no one has suggested such memorials actually deter people from driving or riding altogether, a particular type of roadside memorial, the Ghost Bike, has some cyclists spooked. The worry is that Ghost Bikes could frighten off the people they are designed to protect.

Research conducted in several countries consistently shows that for cyclists there is safety in numbers. Californian researcher Peter Jacobsen found that doubling the number of cyclists on the road tends to bring about a 30% reduction in cyclist crashes with motor vehicles. Tripling the rate of cycling cuts the accident rate in half.

Conversely, discouraging people from riding bikes makes a city's streets more dangerous for all cyclists, and this is where the debate over the role of the Ghost Bikes begins.

One of the biggest barriers in Australia to people taking up cycling is the perception that it is a hazardous activity. This is despite a decrease in the number of cycling fatalities. It would be a tragedy if the perception of risk outweighed the health, economic and environmental benefits of cycling.

The Ghost Bikes first appeared in 2002 as a street art project by San Franciscan artist Jo Slota, a cyclist, who began painting abandoned bikes white in situ. He said: "When a bike gets left out and is stripped, it becomes evident after a while that it's abandoned. Bikes in this state of limbo stand out to me as a form of urban road-kill, and I paint them to acknowledge their passing."

Bicycle activists appropriated the idea and in 2003 the first Ghost Bike signifying a cycling fatality appeared in St Louis, Missouri. It was an old bike, stripped of parts, with its skeletal frame painted white and attached to a street post.

Coincidentally, 2003 saw the birth in the US of the Ride of Silence, another memorial activity, which has now spread to many other countries, including Australia, in which cyclists ride in a silent, slow procession to honour those riders injured or killed in traffic crashes each year. The Ride of Silence has also been criticised for highlighting the negative aspects of cycling, rather than focusing on the benefits.

So far the white Ghost Bikes have appeared in 66 countries, including Australia. Most recently, a Ghost Bike commemorating the death of 32-year-old Carolyn Rawlins materialised near where she was killed in September, at the corner of Bourke and Swanston streets.

Generally the bikes are locked to objects near sites where a cyclist has been injured or killed and will often have a plaque with a cyclist's name and a message on it.

Unlike the typical roadside memorial, which is usually purely personal, a Ghost Bike is a political statement about vulnerable road users and is often erected by pro-cycling organisations. Sometimes the Ghost Bike is erected under cover of darkness; sometimes members of the project will gather for a memorial ride to the crash site. A short ceremony may conclude with a "bike lift", a cyclist send-off in which mourners raise their bikes above their heads and are silent.

The Seattle-based GhostCycle.org group collected statistics on 140 crashes in 2005 and in one fell swoop set up 40 Ghost Bikes bearing "Cyclist struck here" signs at crash locations around the city. The group said its aim was "to educate drivers on how dangerous it can be for everyone involved when they don't share the roadways". But critics say the campaign's focus on danger possibly dissuaded some potential cyclists from taking to their bikes.

Another problem is that while the Ghost Bikes are striking, both as pieces of street art and memorials, there have been instances where they've been erected without the permission or knowledge of the victim's family.

This overriding of personal grief by political purpose has made many cyclists uncomfortable with the concept.

It's easy to make a dramatic statement — it doesn't take nearly as much effort as committing to long-term campaigns for better cycling conditions and safer roads. Successfully lobbying for separated bike lanes or other safety devices at the site of crashes would be a more enduring and effective way to honour the fallen and lay those ghosts to rest.

Debra Mayrhofer is a Perth-based writer.

Tricycles provide extra stability

And are a great alternative to bicycles for people with balance problems or are physically disabled in a way that prevents them from riding a standard bicycle.

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Bicycling Victoria Cycle light review

Article from Ride On, reviewing a wide range of front and rear lights available for your bike.

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From The Sunday Times

March 8, 2009

How to cycle to work and look chic

How to transform yourself from action biker to sexy executive via a quick change in the loos

Ruby Warrington

Jay Hunt, the glamorous, blonde, 41-year-old controller of the BBC, is a Wonder Woman. Jane Shepherdson, the British high street’s favourite fashion impresario, is another. We’re not only talking about their business prowess. Both women cycle to work, and in the words of Hunt, this involves a “Wonder Woman lifestyle involving a ridiculous transformation, where I try and look like a credible executive out of two panniers”.

We all know cycling is cheap, green and keeps you fit. Yet the thought of breaking into a sweat before you’ve even got to the office is enough to put most of us off, not to mention all that thinking ahead when it comes to your working wardrobe. The dilemmas! Squeeze your handbag into a rucksack and risk a sweaty back, or put it in a wobbly wicker basket on your front handlebars and risk having it stolen? Dress normally and hope your nice trenchcoat doesn’t get caught in the spokes, or brave cycling shorts and hope you don’t cycle past anyone you know or — worse — fancy? Then there’s the whole faff of showering at work, and the challenge of turning hair that’s been under a helmet into something approaching a style.

Commuting by bike needn’t be an ordeal, however. Three high-flyers talk us through their Wonder Woman routines.

NAHID DE BELGEONNE

42, owner of Good Vibes Power-Plate studios

“I started cycling a year and a half ago, and I’m a bit of a pootler. Luckily I run my own business, so I can arrive at work in my own time. I get up at 6am to avoid the traffic, and go through parks if I can. My bike is pink with stars on. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. It’s a little large for me, but I like that because I feel protected. It’s a bit like driving a Range Rover — I’m nice and high up.

I’ve had a huge shopping basket screwed to the back, which is where I carry my outfit for that day. I roll clothes loosely to transport them so they don’t get creased, and I keep outfits at work as a backup. I actually built an extension to my office to house clothes and shoes, because I ran out of space at home.

I have a core uniform to cycle in — an American Apparel unitard, or leggings and a vest, which I can throw things over the top of, maybe a Phillip Lim shirt with a Lara Bohinc belt. Often, I’ll wear a tunic on top, then swap my leggings for tights, add a great pair of shoes and I’m done. I always wear boots on the bike to protect my ankles. Mine are by Anna Sui — they’re like biker boots, but more elaborate. I’ve stopped cycling in heels as I was ruining them all. You put the pedal in the instep, which pushes against the heel and loosens it.

I also have a small, on-the-go make-up bag with eyeliner, kohl, lipstick and a pair of tweezers, and at work I have a stack of stuff. I’ll sometimes have a quick shower when I get in, but if you leave home in good time and pootle like me, you needn’t get sweaty. You’ll feel warm because your muscles are working, but, generally, a hot flannel, a bit of perfume and you’re away.

To keep warm, I wrap myself up in a three-quarter-length Vivienne Westwood coat. If it’s raining, I’ll just wait for it to stop, but we don’t have that many downpours. If it’s spitting, I’ll wear a beret, and there’s an amazing Japanese hairdresser around the corner where I can go for a blow-dry if I need it.

I still think of my daily cycle as exercise, even though I’m not really going for it. I believe in being active — if you sit down all day at a desk, that’s the body you’ll end up with — and cycling is a credit in my activity bank for the day.”

CRISTINA BELMONTE

36, account director, Camron PR

“I cycled semiprofessionally at university in Madrid, and then in Colombia, where I went to live after I finished my studies. It was very dangerous cycling there. They don’t know what health and safety is, and I had a really bad accident with a lorry and nearly lost my leg. I stopped cycling competitively after that, but I’ve always cycled for transport.

I’ve had my current bike since 2004. It’s a really good one, very expensive, and weighs only 4.5kg, but I never wash it and I had the seat changed for a beaten-up old one to deter people from stealing it. I live near Canary Wharf and cycle whatever the weather — my attitude is that once you’re wet, you’re wet! My journey to work takes me along several canals, which can get quite muddy, so my cycling outfit is pretty grungy — a pair of jogging bottoms I’ve had for 10 years that have lost all their stretch, an old T-shirt and a big puffa jacket with something reflective on top. Because I’ve had an accident, I always wear a helmet.

People think you have to be very organised to cycle to work, but I’m not at all. I decide what I’m going to wear when I get up — it only takes two minutes — and put it in my bag. I have a big rucksack, and I fold my clothes in tissue paper to protect them. I normally wear dresses because they’re easy to pack, and have about 25 that I rotate. I don’t wear a lot of shirts because they get creased, and I avoid silk, too, although I love wearing it. I’ve thought about finding a dry-cleaner close to work, so I can drop something off in the evening to be pressed and pick it up to wear the next day. I keep shoes and a good coat in the office, as well as my make-up and deodorant towels, which I use to freshen up with.

If I have an event in the evening, I go to Vidal Sassoon for a blow-dry. And I always wear heels — mine are by Paco Gil, Moschino and Miu Miu, and there are always three or four pairs under my desk.

It’s not that complicated to cycle and still look smart. People think you get all hot and bothered, but if you’re fit, a 30- to 40-minute cycle ride won’t make you sweat — especially if you give yourself plenty of time and go at your own pace. Because of the recession, I’ve noticed more cyclists out on the roads, and still only one in 10 are women. But it’s good exercise, saves you money and gives you freedom from the stress of public transport. For me, it’s the best way to travel.”

VANESSA CHILTON

38, gemologist and co-founder of Robinson Pelham Jewellery

“My husband persuaded me to take up cycling 10 years ago, and I do it mainly for the exercise. Of course, it saves on the congestion charge, too. He’s a real enthusiast and has cycled all the way to John O’Groats on his handmade bike, but I’m more of a fair- weather cyclist. My journey from Pimlico to the studio in Fulham is probably about six miles, and only takes me 25 minutes — but if it’s really raining, I’ll try and get a lift in with somebody.

I have a two-year-old son, and mornings are hectic to say the least. It’s rare that I’ll be organised enough to pack my bag the night before, so I decide what to wear when I get up. I don’t have an iron in the office, so I have to fold my clothes loosely — they don’t get creased in the space of 25 minutes, though. My make-up also goes everywhere with me. I don’t keep anything at work because I don’t see the point of buying two of everything.

As well as my rucksack, I recently invested in a pair of panniers to carry my files and laptop in. My cycling outfit, which doubles up as my gym kit, consists of a pair of three-quarter or full-length leggings by Sweaty Betty or Nike, a fleece, reflective jacket and a helmet. It all needs to be nice and tight, as I don’t feel safe if there’s anything flapping about, and I believe in investing in nice things.

When I get in, I freshen up in the bathroom and get changed. I wear a lot of dresses. My favourite at the moment is a petrol-blue one by Jaeger, and I love The West Village, Zara and Paul & Joe. Shoes tend to pile up under my desk, so I bring the car in once a month to do a bit of a clearout.

My day consists mainly of meetings with clients, so I always like to be wearing our jewellery. It’s the best way to market the product. The girls and I will raid the safe in the morning, and wear earrings, a necklace, a bracelet and ring — the bigger and more colourful the better. If I have to transport jewellery on my bike, I’ll always wear it. It’s much safer that way.

I find cycling very relaxing — it’s lovely to be able to start the day with some time to think. But if I’m not in the mood, or I have an event after work, I’ll leave my bike at home. Cycling every day isn’t something I beat myself up about.”

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