Car-dominated streets damage kids In an excellent Conversation article, Mischa Ketchell discusses the decline of cities as spaces for children and the joyous ‘Kidical Mass’ community pushback. Across Europe, streets are being reclaimed for a day as community spaces for walking and cycling. This in turn is persuading local governments and planners to reassess streets for…
By Graham Marshall I started to ride to work in the city on a casual basis when I first moved to North Ryde about ten years ago. I was encouraged by the excellent bike path along Epping Road which made it seem safe and a good way to get extra exercise. After a while, I…
Unforgiving climbs and iconic Australian pastoral vistas Bicycle User Groups (BUGs) are local groups of bike riders who get together for social riding in their area. Many BUGs also organise a longer trip away to destinations like the Alpine Region. Jindabyne and The Snowy Mountains are often targeted by endurance cyclists for their unforgiving climbs…
Blaming pedestrian behaviour for crashes ignores evidence and decades of bad planning. When it comes to collisions between vulnerable road users and motor vehicles, Australian traffic laws are fatally flawed. Speed is the culprit, not phone use by pedestrians. But firstly, to clarify, a vulnerable road user (VRU) is anyone not in a car, bus…
Dashcam footage captured the moment a bike rider was intentionally hit by a driver in Melbourne this week. Robert Clarke, 59, suffered grazes and bruises. It is remarkable that he wasn’t very badly hurt. The video can be viewed here. Trigger warning. (Source: ABC News) The driver who took this footage deserves our thanks “Big…
And it’s coming back clean! History comes in waves. As the City of Sydney’s electrification of transport strategy illustrates. Even the name evokes the marvel of the Victorian industrial age. But now it’s driven by the climate emergency and powered by 100% renewables. So, from an environmental perspective, it’s great to see progress on a…
Painted bikes on roads do not a cycleway make. City of Canada Bay Council’s claim that it plans to modify (and not remove) the section of new bicycle path at Heath Street, as reported in City Hub, is misleading. This is because it has chosen to include bike stencils on unprotected roads in its definition…
City of Canada Bay Council to remove the Heath St Cycleway Canada Bay Council declares best practice bicycle infrastructure ‘unsafe’ (Image: Bicycle NSW) For no good reason You may have read that, as cycleways go, Heath Street Cycleway is top notch. However, on Tuesday 28 March, City of Canada Bay Council (CCBC) voted to have…
One metre still matters but awareness and enforcement of Minimum Passing Distance legislation has stalled. Where’s the shoulder? Photo credit, Drive Magazine Minimum Passing Distance legislation (MPD) states that drivers must give bicycle riders at least one metre space in 60 km/h zones and 1.5 metres above 60km/h. But we know this isn’t happening. The…
If you see a bicycle rider going too fast on a shared path, tell them to slow down! This excellent video from Northern Beaches Council alerts different path users to their responsibility to share the path safely. https://youtu.be/DrevqKZzGvU (Source: Northern Beaches Council). For more information about issues with shared paths go to Shared paths –…