The report has been handed down on food delivery rider safety, but we could ride a fleet of cargo bikes through the gaps.
Campaigning For A Better Environment
For more than eighteen months Bicycle NSW has pushed for improvements to food delivery rider safety. This is because these bike based workers ride in the locations people of all ages need to travel safely and can’t.
Travel Needs To Safe For All Riders
From home to shops, restaurants, high-streets, businesses, schools and back by the most direct route possible. Food delivery riders cycle these routes with added time pressures, often in worse weather or in the dark – but when you map their routes, they travel where all of us need to go.
Unfortunately, instead of recognising food delivery rider deaths and injuries as a ‘call to action’ for improving road infrastructure and road safety education for motor vehicle operators as well as riders, many in government and the media have resorted to victim-blaming. Bicycle NSW recognises that SafeWork doesn’t control these aspects of road safety, but to make no mention of them in the report seems ridiculous.
Safety Language
To talk ‘safety language’ we developed a bike rider’s hierarchy of controls that represents the most effective to least effective ways to keep bike riders safe.
The report mentions inadequate hi vis, unsafe footwear, and wearing a cap under a helmet amongst other safety behaviours that need to change but does not describe how the lack of safe infrastructure or the safety behaviour of other road users that contributes most to crashes will be remedied.
“What is completely missing in this report is the Duty of Care requirement we are all trained in at work, where everyone is responsible to keep each other safe,” said Bicycle NSW.
“Nothing a rider wears offers ‘magical’ protection from a motor vehicle, and the most effective measures to keep people safe are entirely missing from this report”, said Bastien.
Bicycle NSW encourages members to write to your Council and local MP about infrastructure gaps in your area. Food delivery workers are riding the same roads you need upgraded - and a social media message with pictures is a great way to highlight the issues we all face.
