Rooman

New VicRoads rules for cyclists

2009-11-05T15:53:00.004+11:00

New VicRoads rules for cyclists

VicRoad changes include new rules relating to helmet and seat use for bicycle passengers and rules for cyclists turning from, and stopping in, bicycle boxes at signalised intersections.

IMPORTANT ROAD LAW UPDATE - PLEASE NOTE: The road rules for cyclists are changing in Victoria.

From 9 November 2009, there will be new rules for cyclists in Victoria.

The changes include new rules relating to helmet and seat use for bicycle passengers and rules for cyclists turning from, and stopping in, bicycle boxes at signalised intersections.

More than 1,000 cyclists are injured in crashes with motor vehicles each year.

These new rules will help improve their safety when riding with traffic.

If both cyclists and their passengers wear helmets, the risk of head injury is reduced in a crash.

Bicycle boxes allow cyclists to wait ahead of traffic at signalised intersections so drivers can see them more easily.

The new road safety rules will come into effect on 9 November 2009 and it’s up to every road user to know them, before they leave home.

THE CHANGES:

Seat and helmet
A bicycle passenger must wear an approved bicycle helmet and sit on a proper seat when riding on a bicycle.

Area reserved for cyclists (bicycle box)
A driver must stop at the first line of the bicycle box while a cyclist must stop at the second line, within the bicycle box. See diagram right.

Turning at intersections
When turning at intersections with a bicycle box a bicycle rider:

if turning left, must be in the left lane of the reserved area
if turning right, must be in the right lane of the reserved area (where there is a bicycle box in the right lane). If no reserved area is present a standard right hand turn can be performed by signaling and turning from the right hand turn lane. Alternately a rider may perform a hook turn from the left lane.

What you have to do
If you are a bicycle passenger, make sure you are wearing an approved bicycle helmet and sitting on a proper seat.

If you are using the bicycle box ensure you keep clear of the pedestrian area.

What else can cyclists do to increase safety?

use lights at night at both the front and rear of the bicycle

Road safety reasons
Cyclists and their passengers are some of the most vulnerable road users. More than 1,000 cyclists are injured in crashes with motor vehicles each year. These new rules aim to improve their safety when riding with traffic.

If both cyclists and their passengers wear helmets, the risk of head injury is reduced in a crash.

Using a proper seat keeps the bicycle more stable and lessens the risk of crashing.

Bicycle boxes allow cyclists to wait ahead of traffic at signalised intersections and to get a head start on motor vehicles. This way cyclists can be more easily seen by drivers.

Click here to view the VicRoads Frequently Asked Questions.

For more information visit the VicRoads website at www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/roadrules or call 1300 360 745

CYCLING PLAN TO BLAME UK DRIVERS BY DEFAULT FOR ALL CRASHES

2009-11-02T09:17:00.004+11:00

from eCAN

CYCLING PLAN TO BLAME UK DRIVERS BY DEFAULT FOR ALL CRASHES

20 September 2009- UK Ministers are considering making motorists legally responsible for accidents involving cyclists or pedestrians, even if they are not at fault.

Government advisers are pushing for changes in the civil law that will make the most powerful vehicle involved in a collision automatically liable for insurance and compensation purposes.

The move, intended to encourage greater take-up of environmentally friendly modes of transport, is likely to anger some drivers, many of whom already perceive themselves to be the victims of moneyspinning speed cameras and overzealous traffic wardens.

Many will argue that it is the risky behaviour of some cyclists - particularly those who jump red lights and ride the wrong way along one-way streets - that is to blame for a significant number of crashes.

However, policy-makers believe radical action is required to get people out of cars and onto bicycles or to walk more. Only 1%-2% of journeys are at present made by bike.

Read more here:

Cycling Safety Videos

2009-02-21T11:19:00.004+11:00

New Video Clips help cyclists

The Cycling Promotion Fund and the Amy Gillett Foundation launched a series of video clips designed to improve road safety in Melbourne 20th February as part of the Sustainable Living Festival.
The dramatic increase in bicycle rider numbers over recent years has lead to large numbers of relatively inexperienced bicycle riders. These video clips provide bicycle riders and would be riders with practical tips on how to avoid common hazards when riding in traffic.

The Videos cover four vital aspects of Cycling and interacting with traffic, they are

1. Dealing with Intersections
Intersections can be tricky for all road users but particularly bicycle riders. Here are some tips on how to tackle intersections.
2.Heavy Vehicles & CyclistsOur roads are increasingly busy and bicycle riders have to share the road with cars, trucks, buses and trams. Sharing the road with larger vehicles in particular requires awareness, skills and strategies
3.Dealing with car doors
Bicycle lanes are great in providing some marked space for bicycle rider on busy roads. Unfortunately many bicycle lanes are located near parked cars which can become a real hazard
4.Cyclist VisibilityBicycle
Riders are often not on the radar of motorists. Here are some tips to increase your chances of being seen by motorists.

Here are the Vids:

GECKO ON WALL STREET-The SOLUTION

2008-09-30T08:04:00.009+10:00

The Gecko's of Wall Street should Pay First BEFORE Congress does any bail-out

Before any Congressional bail-out, something must first take place... not after, BEFORE.

All those responsible for designing and implementing the incentive schemes for sales of Sub Prime Mortgages and for creating an environment for the wholesale dumping of loan packages against securities that did not support value or capacity to repay on default should re-pay all bonuses into the proposed USTreasury Dept.'s Liquidity Bail-OutFund, IMMEDIATELY... I mean all bonuses and profits derived from them post bonus payment.

All the culprits assets should be immediatly frozen no matter where in the world they have secreted their greedy gains away and be re-directed to the Liquidity Fund... hey who knows there might even be surplus that can be directed into health care, education, sustainable transport and greenhouse gas mitigation ...

Oh and in terms of an equitable distribution of liability and tracking the schemes they put in place to create this mess, so they could run away smiling and expect the Feds to prop them up...

(The 700Billion dollars they are calling for now is an obscene abuse of pot calling kettle black.. they are crying (sniff) "we stuffed up so help us keep going so we can keep doing what we have always done, been gready and made people suffer".... NO enough is enough....take the money back from the burrows of the Geckos and their pals, so go after it, get it back)... Well, in this day of electronic records and data storage, all transactions in the past 10 years are trackable, right back to the scheme designers... and thus it is easy peasy to allocate the proportionate liability to those who most benefited and ran...(away leaving the bomb craters)

Congress, first, give the US Federal Justice Department and the FBI some nifty delving work they can get their teeth into...

Go to it Capital Hill, before they spend it all on girls, resorts and cheap thrills in defence contract purchases for foreign governments... its not too late... and then only then, should Congess and other governments around the world think (slowly) about a bail-out...

The greedy have had their day, just like carnivorous practices of big busines's persuit for massive heyday corporate profits and the persuit of executive salary bonuses for failure have had their day...

Congress...don't let the tail pullers wag your body...get on with it and have the guts to go for the creators of this mess NOW not after....their (ummm OUR) money is sitting in their banks now, take it back before you even think about giving them any more!!!

Je suis un radiodiffuseur

2008-09-17T17:28:00.008+10:00

...finally... the YarraBUG Radio Show hits the airways...

last Monday at 10am six stalwart bike buddies occupied Studio 1 at 3CR Community Radio in Melbourne and flicked the switch to commence broadcasting a weekly offering to give the cyclist in you a voice in the media maelstrom.

PIC. 1 The Broadcast team from YarraBUG LtoR: Emma, Rob, Val, Steve, Chris & Sonya

The YarraBUG Show is a production of Yarra Bicycle User's Group, with assistance from Yarra City Council's Community Development Grants programme.

YarraBUG's radio program intends to promotes urban cycling as a viable means of transport, provide support to campaigns to improve cycling conditions and awareness; promotes Yarra's cycling conditions, demystifies cycling technology and helps to reveal the diversity of cyclists from children to commuters to lobbyists.

In short, the YarraBUG radio program will encourage people to join in the sheer fun of bicycle riding and sustainable transport.

The show is not only for cyclists, as we'd also love non-cyclists to be in the audience!
I would like to thank the the City of Yarra for the assistance given to YarraBUG via their Community Grants Program to fund the show.

We would also like to thank 3CR Community Radio for their strong support to get the show on air and to 3CR's hardworking staff, especially Elanor, Nicole, Leanne, Bree and Juliet.

YarraBUG is based in the Melbourne inner suburbs of Abbotsford, Alphington, Burnley, Carlton North, Clifton Hill, Cremorne, Collingwood, Fairfield, Fitzroy, Fitzroy North, Princes Hill and Richmond.

YarraBUG advocates on behalf of cyclists for improved cycling conditions with organisations, such as City of Yarra, VicRoads, Bicycle Victoria and many other groups.

YarraBUG is particularly interested in hearing from cyclists who may not be residents of Yarra but who commute daily through the area.

Both cyclists and residents local knowledge, resources and skills are important in creating
awareness and a safe cycling environment in Yarra.

A Bicycle User Group (BUG) is a community based organisation set up by cyclists.

There are a number of different sort of BUGS, such as those defined by a geographical area or workplace or by place of education eg University/TAFE College.

The role of BUGs can be to provide a forum for cyclists to meet and discuss local bicycle issues, work with local government to improve cycling conditions, promote all types of cycling,
assist others to start cycling and arrange and participate in social rides.
YarraBUG program presenters are Emma, Rob, Sonya, Steve, Val and Chris
Yarra Bicycle Users Group: Mondays, 10 - 10.30pm on 3CR Community Radio

and streaming LIVE on the web at http://www.3cr.or.au/ and on the radio at 855AM in Melbourne.

Tune in, , we would love to hear your suggestions for content and if you have material fort us send us contributions through YarraBUG

If you wish to help keep us on air, you can donate, sponsor or subscribe to 3CR and support our show, call 3CR during business hours at (+61) (0)3 9419-0377 they will happily accept your subcription and earmark donations and sponsorship to our show's budget... we are non-profit and rely on your support to stay on the air for you- so call 3CR and be a supporter, they will then send out all the great station show bag materials to you.

Safe cycling, happy listening and remember..LIFE IS BETTER ON A BICYCLE

350.org: Because the world needs to know

2008-06-27T09:04:00.005+10:00

350.org VIEW VIDEO

The solution is not more efficient cars for personal mobility, its using bicycles, walking and being less arrogant about "business as usual"- The world has to do things differently if we are to survive. 350 is a reachable and sustainable number of parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere. Do something about getting there and below while you can...stop driving a car, walk more, ride a bicycle to the shops or work or school, turn off your lights at home, use less heat, wear more clothes, grow your own vegetables and fruit, because if we rely on big business and governments to do it they won't... they want your money at the expense of this planet... so tell them... 350 is the only way out...leave it too long and we are all stuffed !

A Car Free World

2008-06-20T17:14:00.006+10:00

Have we really sat down and weighed the damage we humans do with cars over the benefits they have brought?

I challenge anyone to show that mankind is better off because we have a 2 tonne lump of steel in our driveway for personal mobility and convenience.

Most trips we do with these dinosaurs can be done with a better outcome for us and our planet by alternative sustainable means ( just think if next time Joe Suburban wants a chocolate chip ice cream Joe actually did a walk to the shop to get it instead of driving the 300-500m). hey!! even ride to work, Joe's sizable butt may disappear, the Joe fuel bill will drop to near zero and Joe's time will be better spent getting healthy instead of fat in a 4 wheeled cocoon stuck in a polluting gridlocked line of metal coffins there and back.

Better still if Joe sold thecar/s Joe would save a fortune in household running costs, use the money for a great holiday, some continuing education for Joe's self or partner, even donate some of it to educate a child in poverty or even plan a better retirement plan... look at what Joe pays each year in car registration and insurances, plus fuels and repairs. In Australia that is about $250 per week for the average family car according to Choice. Can we really afford to keep up this madness... I said here that business as usual can't go on...

Now what do we do about it?

OK in Portland Oregon at the moment is the Car free Cities Conference, details are here.

This is part of the activity of the World Car Free Network.

They have been telling us for years that motors cars as personal mobility tools are absurd and there are better alternatives.

On their resources page are heaps of links to research papers on point. I ask you do yourself a favour and have a look.

Some of the choicer items I reproduce below, as I know some of you may not want to follow the links just now... but they are too important to ignore.

Here we go:

American Ground Transport
by Bradford C. Snell, 1974
This proposal for restructuring the automobile, truck, bus and rail industries stemming from the original 1974 U.S. Government Report, looks at social consequences of monopoly. It shows that excessive economic concentration can restructure society for corporate ends. As an illustration, it describes how General Motors, Ford and Chrysler reshaped American ground transportation to serve corporate wants instead of social needs. The study concludes with a discussion of feasibility and a review of alternative means of implementation. It suggests, for instance, that reorganization into smaller, independently competing units is feasible for at least two reasons: America's ground vehicle industries performed better when they were independent and less concentrated; and the more advanced transport industries of Europe and Japan are largely organized in this fashion. (LINK to ENG HTML)

Freesources
compiled byWorld Carfree Network's International Coordination Centre

ON CARFREE DEVELOPMENT
Car-Free Development
(Module 3e of the "Sourcebook for Policy-Makers in Developing Cities," by Lloyd Wright, GTZ, 2005)
More than 170 pages covering a range of issues around car-free development, including an overview of worldwide car-free activities (e.g. car-free days, car-free housing, large-scale pedestrianisation), an outline of project implementation processes and a listing of car-free resources, including information resources and funding opportunities. This document has been developed under GTZ's Sustainable Urban Transport Project and is part of the "Sustainable Urban Transport Sourcebook for Policymakers in Developing Cities." This and all other - at present - 22 modules of the Sourcebook are available from the GTZ SUTP project website at http://www.sutp.org/ after a quick registration process.[PDF, 16MB]

Car-Free Housing in European Cities
(A Survey of Sustainable Residential Development Projects, by Jan Scheurer, ISTP, 2000
This research on carfree and car-lite housing development was part of a PhD project investigating the contribution urban ecology, community and mobility management innovations in residential neighbourhoods can make towards the sustainable transformation of our cities. The paper looks at projects in Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Hamburg, Vienna, Freiburg and Cologne.[HTML, external link]

HOW-TO GUIDES
Action Ideas
by World Carfree Network
Originally compiled as a list of suggested actions for World Carfree Day 2000, this list includes many suggestions which are easily and readily adaptable for anyone who wants to fight car culture. Ranging from activist to family-fun oriented, with ideas for those working alone or in groups, this list remains a great resource and a compilation of some of the best actions we have yeat heard of as well as the newest suggestions.[English - HTML]
An Activist's Guide to Exploiting the Media
by George Monbiot
The only chance we have of reaching people who haven't yet heard what we've got to say is through the media. Whether we use the media or not, our opponents will, says the author of this witty and useful booklet. He then briefly presents the media people and their life problems, and sums up our advantages. In four lessons he teaches you how to invite the press to your actions, how to organise the events so they can be media-covered, how to give interviews and what to do after you've done all this. In one word, a handy step-by-step manual that will turn you into a media star practically overnight![English - HTML]

The Bluffer's Guide to Conference Organising
by Car Busters & Tinerii Prieteni ai Naturii, 2000
Culled from our experiences in organising Towards Car Free Cities II, held in Romania, April 2000. Includes information on how to chose a venue, get payment, organise actions and much, much more.[English - HTML]

Depaving the World
by Richard Register
A cute little how-to for those of us who feel strong enough in the muscles department. Register prompts us not to waste time anymore and do what the road builders always fail to do - to depave what doesn't have to be paved. Treating small depaving projects, medium-sized projects and depaving for the ambitious separately, he gives a concise lesson on how to actually do the hard work, where to get the tools and where to haul all the black shite you dig out. Marvellous for activists who are not afraid to put on a fake 'Public Works' costume and dig for the 'black gold' that's buried in every street! "Start small, think big. Think it through, then swing that pick."[English - HTML]

Pour en finir avec la société de l'automobile
by Marcel Robert, Carfree France, September 2005
"Marcel Robert nous montre que le choix de vivre sans voiture peut e^tre fait aussi bien au niveau collectif qu’individuel. Ces choix deviennent urgents au fur et a` mesure que nous mesurons les conséquences de nos modes de vie sur notre environnement. La question n’est plus de savoir si ces choix doivent e^tre pris, mais quand nous aurons enfin le courage de les prendre."The book is also available on-line at Carfree France. [French - PDF, 0.8MB]

Road Raging: Top Tips for Wrecking Roadbuilding
by Road Alert!, March 1997
The out-of-print road fighter’s bible, with 17 chapters filled with solid, practical information on everything from writing press releases and organising affinity groups to building tree camps and digging tunnels. Written by Road Alert in 1997. This text version lacks the valuable diagrams that accompany the tripod and tree camp sections.The book is also available on-line at http://www.eco-action.org/rr/. [English - HTML]

Kathimerini,

an Athens-based English-language newspaper.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_ell_1657623_24/04/2004_42096
-->

THOUGHT PIECES

The Automobile and Décroissance
by Denis Cheynet
Although they have been revealed many times over, the misdeeds of the automobile are never truly heard and absorbed, and their exposure is stifled by an ideology that absolutely does not want to hear about them. In a world that professes to be rational and logical, the car is the most emotional and the most aberrant tool there is. Automobile growth cannot be sustained in the long-term and is also not even feasible in the present, due to the fact that only a privileged minority of humankind benefits from its economic development. If we would like that life be possible on Earth in the decades to come, our only solution is to thus abandon this scourge. At the same time, we must put into question, in a deep and radical manner, the causes which have made the car ideology dominant in industrialized countries. The elimination of the automobile should be effected by reducing our consumption of materials and natural resources, reducing the transportation flow, and a re-evaluation of our goals.

[English - HTML]

AUTOSTOP
by Ivan Illich and Jean Robert, 1992
Based on quite accurate observation of the damaging impacts of current transportation and with regard to the historical development of the transportation industry, this study proposes a new way of using private cars. Every car with a free seat must stop when asked. A law restricts licenses to drivers who produce passenger-miles and earn income by doing so. Everyone who is not a driver will be chauffeured, and all drivers are available as chauffeurs. Can a simple judicial judgment turn the way we now think about economic "goods" topsy turvy? Without any technical innovation, can a society transform its social and physical environment? Can a small change in the character of transportation lead to a moral reevaluation of place?[English - HTML][Deutsch - HTML]

Car Culture and the Landscape of Subtraction
by Philip Goff, 199?
A little frightening piece of writing to remind us that what used to belong to the public to enjoy has turned into car roadways. Hand in hand with the auto industry, modernist urban planners and architects, dehumanised traffic engineers, and demagogue developers are seen guilty for this negative development. Many of humanity's most pressing problems can be traced to the overuse of automobiles, and unchecked suburban development. Until something in human behaviour is curbed, our decadent lifestyle will continue to decimate communities and cities, and precipitate the ongoing destruction of the natural world.[English - HTML]

Dirty from Cradle to Grave
by John Whitelegg, 1993
Only 40 percent of an average car's air pollution is emitted during the car's "driving" life stage. The other 60 percent results from other life stages: the extraction of raw materials, the transport of raw materials, the production of the car, and the disposal of the car. Cars emit 56 percent of their pollution before they ever hit the road, and 4 percent after they are retired. Thus efforts to decrease air pollution by getting "old, polluting" cars off the road to only replace them with new, "cleaner" cars are misguided - as such efforts have focused on pollution emitted solely during the driving stage and thus have missed 60 percent of the problem. We advocate an end to the production of new cars, an end to road building, and also to take existing cars off the roads in favor of walking, bicycling, and tram and train use.[English - RTF, 4KB]

The Elephant in the Bedroom
by Stanley I. Hart and Alvin L. Spivak, 1992
The Elephant in the Bedroom (The one thing we must do to save the earth) is a book on-line. It describes "the condition of society and the economy as affected by our dependence on the automobile. Dependence created by heavy subsidies: parking, operating space, costs to local government."[English - HTML]

Energy And Equity
by Ivan Illich, 1974
Ivan Illich’s brilliant, classic, mind-blowing essay argues (among other things) that high speed is the critical factor that makes transportation socially destructive, that we have become dangerously overpowered by our technology. He calls for a society based around low-speed transport, having found that, at speeds faster than 15 mph, equity declines, the scarcity of both time and space increases, and the human and natural environment are degraded. Illich thus finds a contradiction implicit in the joint pursuit of equity and industrial growth.[English - HTML]

Hypermobility
by John Adams, 2000
Mobility is liberating and empowering, Adams argues. But you can have too much of a good thing. Adams maintains that society will be more dispersed, polarised and crime-ridden, as well as less democratic. People will become fatter and less fit, the world will be more dangerous for those not in cars and anonymous, less culturally varied and convivial. He discusses why the society is, and increasingly will be, hypermobile. He sees the primary reason for this in the politicians not asking people the right question. Instead of presenting people with the real consequences of moving too much, they keep on pretending that there are no such consequences. Only when the right questions are asked, the right answers will be found.

[English - HTML][English - RTF][Francais - HTML][Francais - RTF][Italiano - HTML][Italiano - RTF][Espanol - HTML] [Espanol - RTF]

The Importance of the Car to the Modern Economy
by Anonymous M11 (UK) campaigner, 1994
A critique of the automobile as a part of a larger class-conscious critique of capitalism. It dissects “Fordism,” which raised labour productivity through assembly-line-based industrial production methods and provided the basis for mass consumption. Addresses the freedom of movement introduced by car ownership as a false freedom, a formal freedom, a representation of freedom which becomes a necessity that reduces the freedom of others. Also looks at the contribution of the automobile to social alienation and powerlessness.[English - RTF]

Motorism
by Daniel James, 2000
This short article explains why so many people spend so much time of their lives driving. It identifies the driving forces behind mass motorism as different forms of dictatorship and political propaganda, be it Hitler's fascism, Stalinism, Thatcherism, or Fordism. The car in James' view is a device of mass obedience, and motorism is an ideology rather than an individual's choice. If we recognise this, James argues, we are in a position to discard it.[English - RTF][English - HTML]

The Myth of the Efficient Car
by Prof. Frank Fisher, Director of the Graduate School of Environmental Science at the University of Monash, Australia, 1997
This article, originally published in Engineering World (Feb/Mar 1997), takes a holistic look at the car to reveal it as one of the greatest failings of the economic rationalists governing our society. In terms of energy, time and money, it is too great an inefficiency to perpetuate.[English - RTF][English - HTML]

Social Ideology of the Motorcar
by André Gorz, 1973
"Unlike the vacuum cleaner, the radio, or the bicycle, which retain their use value when everyone has one, the car, like a villa by the sea, is only desirable and useful insofar as the masses don't have one. That is how in both conception and original purpose the car is a luxury good. And the essence of luxury is that it cannot be democratised. If everyone can have luxury, no one gets any advantages from it. On the contrary, everyone diddles, cheats, and frustrates everyone else, and is diddled, cheated, and frustrated in return."[English - RTF][English - HTML][Francais - RTF][Francais - HTML][Italiano - RTF][Italiano - HTML][Espanol - RTF][Espanol - HTML]

Time Pollution
by John Whitelegg, 1994
Although time-savings provide the principal economic justification for new road schemes, the expansion of the road network and the increase in traffic does not seem to have given people more free time. This is because pedestrian time is not evaluated, because cars are deceptively time-consuming, and because people tend to use what time savings they do gain to travel farther.[English - RTF][Enlish, HTML]

HISTORICAL ANALYSIS
The Secret History of Lead
by Jamie Lincoln Kitman, 2000
New York lawyer and writer, in this 24-page expose which appeared in The Nation (March 20, 2000), documents how some of the world's largest corporations -- General Motors, Du Pont and Standard Oil of New Jersey (now Exxon-Mobil) -- got together and put lead, a known poison, into gasoline, for profit. They steadfastly denied the environmental and health effects; covered up, suppressed, fought and unfairly maligned the safer, competing fuel additives; overstated the benefits of lead as an "anti-knocking" agent; funded, underwrote and controlled all scientific research on lead for more than four decades; and threatened and defamed independent scientists who would eventually debunk the companies' pro-lead views.[English - RTF][English - HTML]

Taken For A Ride

A good Discussion and Study Guide to accompany the documentary about the destruction of public transport and rise of the automobile in the United States.

STUDIES & REPORTS
Evidence on the Effects of Road Capacity Reduction on Traffic Levels
by Phil Goodwin et al., 1998
In most locations, road capacity will not be increased sufficiently to provide for unrestrained growth in car use. For this reason, there will be increasing pressure to ensure that the best possible use is made of existing road capacity. In addition, greater attention is being focused on the role of road capacity in policies intended to reduce traffic growth, and, in some locations, to reduce the present amount of traffic. Reallocation of a proportion of road capacity - either to favoured classes of vehicle traffic, or to non-vehicle use - is therefore of major policy interest. This summary report of a large empirical study reviews a number of cases of road capacity reduction, and comes to a conclusion that measures which reduce or reallocate road capacity, when well-designed and favoured by strong reasons of policy, need not automatically be rejected for fear that they will inevitably cause unacceptable congestion.[English - RTF][HTML]

Measuring Transportation Traffic, Mobility and Accessibility
By Todd Litman, Victoria Transport Policy Institute, 2005
This article compares three approaches to measuring transportation system performance and discusses their effects on planning decisions. Traffic-based measurements (such as vehicle trips, traffic speed and roadway level of service) evaluate motor vehicle movement. Mobility-based measurements (such as person-miles, door-to-door traffic times and ton-miles) evaluate person and freight movement. Accessibility-based measurements (such as person-trips and generalized travel costs) evaluate the ability of people and businesses to reach desired goods, services and activities. Accessibility is the ultimate goal of most transportation and so is the best approach to use.[English - PDF]
The Ten Myths of Automobile Dependence
By Peter Newman & Jeff Kenworthy, World Transport Policy & Practice, Volume 6, Number 1 (2000)
The myths about automobile dependence are analysed and dismissed as no longer having the inevitability they once had. The myths relate to wealth, climate, space, age, health and social problems, rural life styles, the road lobby, land developers, traffic engineering and town planning praxis. Only the tenth one seems to continue to have an inevitability due to entrenched practices which should now be updated and replaced.[English - PDF]

FACT SHEETS & STATISTICS
Pollution Issues
Thomson Group
This website contains articles on various pollution-related issues, including automobiles. A decent source of facts and figures.Website (English)
Statistics
by World Carfree Network
Statistics, statistics. A few of the facts and figures that can help you get your message across to the audience, stun and amaze your opponents and shock the uninitiated.[English - HTML]
Transport and the Economy: The Myths and the Facts
European Federation for Transport and Environment, 2001
T&E's excellent booklet takes on ten myths about road building. Should be slipped under the doorsteps of any politicians who thinks that road building helps economic growth.[PDF, 2.6MB][PDF, no pictures, 295KB]All T&E reports

GRAPHICS AND PHOTOS

Carbusters Graphics Book
The Carbusters Graphics Book is now online, bringing together some of the best transport-related illustration. These images are available for use by local groups, for any non-profit use! If you also have some graphics to share, please send them to info@carbusters.org.Browse pictures

GO TO IT JOE!... You won't be alone, but if the Joe's of this world don't start using cars less ... we are doomed, sooner rather than later... Do It Now Joe, you owe your kids kids, if they survive long enough to make it!

The Cost of Climate Change

2008-06-09T22:18:00.010+10:00

What We’ll Pay if Global Warming Continues Unchecked

The cost of inaction on climate change is clearly defined in a report commissioned by Natural Resources Defense Council (The NRDC). Based on modelling of the findings of the 2006 Stern Report this outline clearly is a wake up call if you aren't already wide awake.

Although it shows outcomes for the USA, it is alarmingly frank enough for any reader to see the consequences (for the whole planet) of ignorance and inaction and a "business as usual attitude".

Any business or government which ignores this report is guilty of gross incompetence and would (I will go so far as to say) be committing not only a crime against humanity, but a crime of wholesale criminal activity , a crime of the most perverse and rapacious kind against our world, this planet Earth.

This is more than an inconvenient truth , it is reinforcement in a graphic and scarey way which means our children will have a very different Earth on which many will struggle to survive.

Alarmist isnt the word, facing the truth is more like it, owning up to what we have allowed and continue to allow.

Act now, tell your politicians and business connections to wake up to themselves, tell your friends we humans can't continue with business as usual, we have to find a new way to survive on this Planet or get off it... if we dont it will kick us off!

Did you know that rising sea levels places more ocean weight on magma chambers beneath oceans and forces volcanoes into action, continents to move and the earth to rip apart, yes the Earth is fighting back at us, at our climate change inaction.

The Earth is responding as a single, integrated system to climate change driven by human activities. Global warming is not just a matter of warmer weather, more floods or stronger hurricanes, its a wake-up call. It may be no coincidence that one outcome of increased volcanic activity is likely to be a period of falling temperatures, as a veil of volcanic dust and gas reduces the amount of solar radiation reaching the surface. Maybe the Earth is trying to tell us something. It really would be worth listening before it is too late.

The next great extinction will include human kind. It's within our capability to stop it in our lifetime, we can act to allow human kind a longer period of existence on this planet Earth than the short one we have mapped out for ourselves. After 4.5billion years of slow change on Earth, through the planet slowly becoming habitable and our lifeforms building to sophisticated and thinking, reasoning beings, we now have a situation where the dominant thinker on this planet is responsible for its imminent destruction as a biosphere that will sustain life as we know it.

We are at the stage where Modern Humans and their Ancestral forebears who have for the last 3 Million or so years enjoyed an oasis in a desert of Space's emptiness, rock and gases, but we have transformed this gem in the last 100 years into a doomed dying ecosystem.

Read this report, and act... you owe it to yourself and your children and hopefully if they live to survive The Climate Change debacle... so will their children and beyond for eons to come.

Don't be part of the problem anymore, be a catalyst for change and a solution

Can I Ride it to School Mom ?

2008-04-30T14:41:00.004+10:00

Oh so spot on,

many thanks to Rick Smith and his "Yahuda Moon & The Kickstand Cyclery" here for this inciteful statement.

Mom's you don't need to use big 4WDs to get your kids to school, grab a bike and ride with them, teach them, remember the acronym HEARTS (for Healthy Excercise and Activity, Ride to School.

Plain of Jars

2008-04-27T12:01:00.005+10:00

THE MYSTERIOUS PLAIN OF JARS - LAOS PDR

View YouTube Video here

If you get the chance to travel to Asia and want to contribute to a nation recover from its journey in this world's (human-driven wish to bring change, through violence, & agressive) self interests of others, please visit the Plain of Jars in Laos PDR.

The video gives an idea of the pain the locals have suffered through war and being the most heavily bombed place on earth. With all that torment, the Plain of Jars is there to reveal one of the greatest mysteries of mankind's existence on this planet. Scattered across the plain are thousands of huge urn like vessels, believed to be around 2,000 years old.
Why they are there is an ongoing mystery and we are in awe of their size and what their purpose was. Many scholars believe they may have been used for storage of food, water and even brewing "lao-lao" a rice wine.

UNESCO is undertaking studies with Laotian scholars and visiting archaeologists. The work is both huge in scale and massive in mystery.

Large lids have been found near some to add to this view, many have human remains and were possibly used for burial urns, or perhaps adapted to that purpose.
The Plain of Jars is a must visit, it has 136 archaeological sites and it has been open to tourism since 1992.
Whilst much of the plain is still inaccessible to tourism due to unexploded ordnance (from the tens of thousands of bombs of the "Secret War"of the USA's CIA against North Vietnam's use of Laos to deliver its military machine into South Vietnam).

The ongoing clearance program which may take another 90 years to see through, is continuing as scholars and tourists, and locals alike, go about their daily routines to help recover the knowledge and history of these massive testaments to human, endeavour , ingenuity and survival in the face of adversity and pain. over the eons.

Visit if you can, immerse, and contribute.

The Plain of Jars is there waiting for you.

As you watch this video, listen to the words of Michael McDonald's song, "The Plain of Jars" - it is moving and links into the awe of the place.

Kasai Underground Bicycle Parking - Edogawa-ku - 2

2008-04-24T09:28:00.001+10:00

A sensible solution to Bicycle parking for Commuters - in Tokyo it costs less than $1AU ( about 97Yen) per day to use this Underground automated bike storage system set up in Edogawa-ku. Place your bike on the entry guide, swipe your card, the bike is sent below to an automated storage level, on return, swipe your card, the bike returns from its rack below by the elevator in 22 seconds. Neat Quick Secure

Kickstand Cyclery - The LBS for Daily Velo Zen

2008-04-07T14:57:00.005+10:00

Yehuda Moon refreshingly delivers the daily dose of sense and contact we can share with the noble bicycle. Whilst locally we could all do with an LBS like Kickstand Cyclery, we do have one here. Support Yehuda, like Ferris Bueller, they don't come along often, but when they do, they deserve an audience.

Thanks Rick West/Yehudamoon.com & comicsbyyehudamoon.com and your fine friend Yehuda .

Awareness Test

2008-03-27T17:24:00.007+11:00

Awareness Test - Watch more free videos

Terminology Folly

2008-03-04T08:46:00.006+11:00

Thank you Copenhagen Cycle Chic, a neat summary for those who have issues about people who ride a bicycle.

Demystifying the terminology for drivers and shedding some real light on the elegance and reason why it makes sense to ride a bike, Terminology Folly is a must read.

The sister blog here, adds to the view with stats and facts and behind the scenes of riding a bike.

Ride a bike more and drive a car less often, the view from a bike can be fantastic.

Vale "Captain Bike"

2008-02-05T10:55:00.000+11:00

World's most famous bike mechanic Sheldon Brown has passed away.

Sheldon Brown died last night of a massive heart attack.

News is up carried on the Harris Cyclery web site , where he had worked.

His bike tech pages on the shop website are some of the bike world's most visited pages, linked from thousands of websites.

Sheldon will be sadly missed.

Xavier Rudd / Better People

2008-01-15T10:26:00.001+11:00

Heed the message... better people...good to do !

Australia Week 08 (Sam Kekovich)

2008-01-10T16:53:00.001+11:00

Love it... serve lamb, serve flathead, serve beer, serve prawns, serve whiting...serve it up

NEW INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION SPOTLIGHTS ETHICS TO INCREASE CYCLING

2007-12-24T14:32:00.000+11:00

Embracing ethics as the means for increasing bicycling
around the world, a new international organization, One Street, is
cultivating novel ground for the bicycle advocacy movement.

Through One Street's on-call support and web site, leaders learn how to present bicycling as a top solution for climate change, health crises, oil wars and deadly street designs that threaten people around the world.

Ethical management is blended with coaching and resources for campaign planning and communications.

These basic services are free to any leader of any
organization working to increase bicycling
- non-profit, for-profit, government, local, state, national and international. One Street's website offers free resources on ethics and management as well as common bicycling issues:

Trexlertown Velodrome 1993. Stephen Pate Crash

2007-11-10T08:59:00.001+11:00

Awesome racing at Lehigh, (watch this You Tube Video) stay with it till the final race is a show of guts and determination to not let the bastards beat you.
Track racing is awesome, try it, may cost you a bit of skin now and then, but the introduction to fear, elation, exhilaration, tactics, working with others and a shared cameraderie and building a huge appetite for pizza is living. It is often said cycling is the metphor for life... on the track that is too true!...

Brake on Clearway

2007-10-15T11:24:00.000+10:00

The long awaited Bayside link to the existing Beach Rd early morn weekend clearway is on hold AGAIN!, Bayside leader reports that at last week's special meeting, Bayside councillors voted 5-2 to reject the proposal (and gave no reasons- and hid behind
Section 89(2) of the Local Government Act 1989 in a closed meeting - and it is dubious that s89(2) had any real bearing on any matter for discussion other than they could use it to to conceal and someone's dubious anti cycling agenda).

This resolution is contrary to the strong support by the Consultative committee review panel to Council, their report is here in this agenda note from Council. It appears to have been totally ignored by this committee resolution to not have a trial. So much for experts and wider views. The trial was a strong necessity and widely supported by the community and the review panel.

It was a proposal for a trial. A sensible trial, to link up with Kingston and Port Phillip to make Beach Road safer for weekend early morning riders by removing parked cars in the left lane and lowering the need for riders to ride into the right lane and slow vehicles. Made pure common sense, when the numbers on the road riding approach 8, 000 in summer weekend mornings. But the Council fathers in their wisdom have pandered to their own parochialism and 20 or so locals who have moaned about having to move their spare SUV's and Boat trailers and construction trucks building new mansions off Beach Rd on weekends for 4 hours a day from 6am to 10am... poor bubbies. The local press hasnt helped by running a very negative campaign over the last year especially ignited by the death of James Gould( here is my comment on that death and the Coroners findings). However sad that was, it was avoidable and if anything lent massive weight to the need for greater safety on this the busiest cyling boulevarde in Melbourne , if not Australia on every weekend of the year.

Again the Leader headline didnt help with Anya Murray's (9th Oct) headline , another sensational grab of "Cyclists Demand" & "Weekend Clearway" etc), no the cyclists havnt demanded , they are making a positive suggestion for a trial, and, No, they dont want a weekend clearway, just a few hours each Sat and Sunday to assist the peak load and improve safety.

The sooner a trial is conducted the sooner sense will descend upon this situation. I feel the Council is scared it will be a runaway success and lead to massive attraction beyond the huge numbers we see on Beach Rd now, perhaps a case of too much success for local businesses means those councillors will lose their influence from their wealthy property developer friends and the rest of the locals will actually get better road conditions, safer roads, better lifestyle and a healthy respect for sharing the road for all moving traffic not the parked spare SUVs, boat trailers and building container obstructions that are the current danger.

THE DUTCH GOVERNMENT TAKES A STAND -- AGAINST CARS, FOR BIKES

2007-10-08T14:19:00.000+10:00

THE DUTCH GOVERNMENT TAKES A STAND -- AGAINST CARS, FOR BIKES (from our friends across the ditch at CAN)
22 September 2007-

Dutch government has taken a trend to promote
eco-friendly cities a step further than its European neighbors by
announcing firm measures to discourage cars and driving.
The plan was outlined in the 2008 budget presented this week, and the
capital Amsterdam -- a leader in the drive -- and other Dutch cities
will use a "no car" day on Sunday, an annual event, to press home the
message.
In the traditional speech from the throne read out by Queen Beatrix, the
centre-left cabinet said it would raise taxes on diesel fuel and
vehicles using it. Laws are also being drawn up to make taxes dependent
on how much pollution a vehicle emits: the more polluting, the higher
the fee.
Unhappy, the Dutch car industry association RAi is trying to rally car
owners to protest plans, which are sure to have majority support in the
country's coalition system. RAi says the government measures will cost
drivers 500 million euros (700 million dollars) more per year.
But a number of cities, like Amsterdam, want even stricter action
against cars. Among these are Eindhoven, The Hague and Leiden which have
ignored drivers' complaints and joined Sunday's "no car" day.
On Sunday, streets inside the ring road that circles Amsterdam will be
closed for incoming cars and open only to cyclists and pedestrians
between 9 am and 5 pm (0700 GMT to 1500 GMT).
The capital hopes to show out-of-towners that they can leave their cars
outside the city and travel in via public transport or taxis, which will
still be running Sunday.
Amsterdam, where half the residents do not even have a car, is also
hatching other plans to clean up the air and unblock congested roads,
including a tax on sports utility vehicles (SUVs), Jeeps and other big
cars that run on diesel fuel.
Parking meters will be connected to vehicle tax records and drivers will
have to punch in their license plate numbers. The price of a space will
be calculated on how much pollution the car creates.
"The technology is available," Tjeerd Herrema, an Amsterdam city council
member in charge of transport, told the Het Parool daily. He wants to
introduce the system in the course of next year.
To back the measures, Amsterdam will build large car parks inside the
city for residents and just outside the ring road for visitors, linked
to the city's "park-and-ride" public transport system. Plans call for
doubling spaces in the outside lots to 2,300. At the moment, visitors
pay 5.50 euros per day to park and get two free public transport
tickets, which the municipality wants to increase to five per car.
Inside Amsterdam it now costs 3.90 euros an hour to park in the city
centre from 7 am to midnight everyday, except Sunday morning during
church service hours, but prices are set to go up.
The city also wants to improve public transport and increase the number
of green spaces in the centre, and Herrema is pushing for trams and
buses -- which now stop around 1 am -- to run all night.
The move to go "greener" has seen several European cities like Paris and
Lyons in France, Barcelona, Geneva, Oslo, Stockholm and Vienna stock the
streets with city-owned bicycles for cheap rental -- a step behind
bike-friendly Netherlands which pioneered the idea of bicycle sharing in
the late 1960s.
But Amsterdam has not forgotten its numerous cyclists, who are almost as
much of a tourist attraction as the 17th-century canal houses. The city
is setting aside 70 million euros for the capital's bicycle riders over
the next four years to pay for improving bike lanes, creating more
bicycle parking spaces and cracking down on bicycle theft.

Across the Atlantic, it seems NYC is getting the message, they had lots of studies into the opportunities and plenty of clashes and evidence on Video of it and positive direction comments like this, and now finally mayor Bloomberg is taking some refreshing steps for the Big Apple, as reported here.

Meanwhile closer to home our urban areas in the expanding city catchment of Melbourne are doing scant little to help things as Crowlie so succinctly puts it here!
Seems the local Melton Council thinks bikes are just for fun, that they are not worthy of inclusion in Council plans in any other way as legitimate transport choice, and thus ignores providing for cycling in its transport infrastructure plans in any thing other than a token way.

There is a myth, (debunked here) that bicycles are toys, and we grow out of them and drive vehicles for transport. This is rapidly being overcome by National governments like the dutch and major city governments, like NYC and in some ways Melbourne, but at a rural and smaller urban centre local government level, it is too often re-inforced because of small minds, closed attitudes and other personal agendas that just might mean someone has to take responsibility for spending some money or making a decision that may offend a few red-necked supporters.

It's about time some small minds woke up and took a whiff for the smell of the roses that could exist in the lives of people they claim to serve, not the exhaust fumes and angst they subject too many of those same people to now!

The A, B, Cs of Health-How to Boost the Riding-Health Cycle

2007-09-28T12:55:00.000+10:00

(Or, how to make the best of life's opportunities when the certainties of taxes and death are inevitable... )
Governments and Commerce don't seem to want to let go of their drive for profits and taxes, as they mean bigger business and bigger government.

So before they get too far ahead of themselves, (and the world just might take it all back and say sorry mankind you stuffed up ), we can say, meanwhile think about this...
Pharmaceuticals dont want to cure, they just want to "manage", Food producers dont want to produce traditionally healthy food for humans, they just want to maximise profit from poor substitutes that deliver huge profits from Human Interferred foods, (Bleached Wheat, GM modified, Highly refined Sugar, chemically extracted oils etc) , the lazy just want a pill to cure their obesity because Pharmaceuticals have one to exploit that!

Well we can do something about it, its called healthy choice.
Making healthy choices is expounded by many, but heeded only by those who have got the message, for the other's, well good luck.

Many of us have been sold the line that all can be cured by a pill. But really, that's a cop out if there ever was one. Pharmaceuticals have their place when life is seriously threatened in a triage sense, otherwise, we can do a lot more for ourselves, our planet and our future if we choose wisely when we have the ability to do so.
We can choose not to buy or consume Human Interferred Food, we can choose not to smoke, we can choose not to have dangerous sex, and we can choose to excercise.
I saw an excellent summary on how healthy excercise and food can combine to ensure the ABC's of life are maximised for our benefit.
It is Health: How to boost the riding-health cycle By Joe Beer - Check it out.
He talks about the building blocks of overall physical and mental outcomes, and that they build on each other. You need health to have fitness and you need fitness to have performance, simple as ABC. Bit what ABC's do you say?

The ABC's mentioned are, Absenteeism, Brain health and Coupling!
Whoah you say, WTF?, yep

A- Absenteeism, companies and employees alike benefit from a healthy work force... simple forget exploitation for profit, have healthier people working for you, they are happier, miss fewer days, your enterpise benefits in better productivity from absentee minimalisation and on-the-job application is maximised. Riding a bike is a way to achieve the ABC's of health , and great benefit to employees and employeers from raised fitness levels reduced absenteeism and it gives a dollar payback to companies on investment in bicycle facillities for employees.

B- Brain Health, it goes like this - 'anima sana in corpore sano' - that is, a healthy mind in a healthy body . The brain needs excercise, if you ride your bike, it will get both physical and mental excercise. Simplistic in itself, research establishes as fitness levels increase depression and mental illness reduce.

C- Coupling, ahem, ie couples who ride bikes are fitter and it is reflected in their relationship. Well one of the additional benefits of cycling is the tendency of it to help your spouse or partner also to become more active. Data shows that highly active older men are three times more likely to have a similarly active spouse. Married men and women tend to exercise more than those who are single. It is unclear if this phenomenon also applies to younger age groups, but a person who regularly makes time for exercise may show those around them how easily it can be dovetailed into the day (and night!).

Riding can make you a better worker, improve your mood and help to encourage those around you.

Get out and ride today - it does you and those around you a lot of good.

BENCHMARKING REPORT-Correlation- Cities with High rates of walking cycling and excercise have lowest rates of Obesity, Diabetes,& High Blood Pressure.

2007-09-21T10:16:00.000+10:00

THUNDERHEAD ALLIANCE RELEASES FIRST BENCHMARKING REPORT

6 September 2007- Bicycling and Walking in the U.S., the Thunderhead
Alliance's first biennial Benchmarking Report released August 29th, clearly links the decline in bicycling and walking and the surge in numbers of adults and children who are obese. The report was released to Thunderhead's network of bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations and government officials throughout the country.

The report compares, for the first time ever, bicycling and walking
levels, investment in bicycling and walking, and public health. The
findings reveal major disparities between cycling and walking levels,
traffic fatalities, and federal funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects.

"Most public health advocates already preach the benefits of biking and
walking," said Sue Knaup, Thunderhead's executive director. "This report
clearly demonstrates that cities and states with the highest rates of
cycling and walking almost always have the lowest levels of obesity,
high blood pressure, and diabetes."

Knaup also noted that the data contained within the report can be very
useful for advocates working at local and regional levels. "If you've
ever stuttered when an official demanded data to back up your claims, or
wished for state-by-state data at your fingertips, the Benchmarking
Report delivers," she said.

The report provides detailed data and illustrations on bicycling and
walking in 50 states and the 50 most-populous cities. Measurements
include bicycle and pedestrian staffing, funding, written policies, and
bike-transit integration, among others.

Thunderhead has released the biennial Benchmarking Report along with a
template press release that can be modified for use at the local level.
To download the report visit:

For more information about Bicycling and Walking in the U.S., contact:
, or call 415-513-5281.

[from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the U.S. National Center for
Bicycling & Walking]

Richard Dawkins - The Big Question: Why are we here?

2007-09-20T13:34:00.001+10:00

Why are we here?...

according to the Dalai Lama our purpose is to be "Happy", I'm all for that, the underlying question of "why" has eluded theorists and philosophers for eons...but I say, what does it matter!!!. This is not a question it is a statement...it doesnt matter, because we ARE here!...
We are here , NOW, this is our time, just as when you were a child and you had a puppy and as you got older it aged and then it died, it was part of your life, you learnt from it about some of life's truths and maybe became a better person able to deal with your way of life and plan your future...that is it, we are here because?, we are...your dog was here because it was... and we will move on, then after us will come more of us or maybe fewer if we continue to either pollute this planet or some other change in the universe causes our planet to change such that our lifeforms cannot continue and humans become extinct ( if we dont relocate down a worm hole in time and space etc)... so we are here, "while we are here" is the better "expression" while we are here, we love, eat, laugh, think, cry, and propagate, sure some of us do more or less of these things, some do a lot more... but while we are here we can !

so all I say is let us all "can" away and enjoy our time, do what is good for you and us and our planet and ponder how important it is to have in our thoughts now, the future of our progeny and their progeny... the future of our human race and our world on this rock in time and space...

we are here becaue we are... face it... there is no other driving force, no other higher being that is responsible for it, but we can think...that is one truly amazing attribute of life that is amazing. In the words of the Moody Blues, "I think therefore I am...I think!"

woohoo, gotta love that.... we are here...lets love it some more and love one another a bit better...love our planet a bit better, love our fact of existence and love that we can ride bikes and breathe and eat,love and enjoy our lives...ahhh!, yes love that we can be HAPPY... the Dalai Lama got it right...

oh and if your arnt sure why we are here... check this clip out ... it might help you understand this question..it may not...but its part of the journey..ride on!

Technique: How to ride safer in the city

2007-09-14T11:48:00.000+10:00

(a great piece from Bike Radar, with warmer weather coming downunder, its timely to repeat this for commuters and utility bicyclists - especially those in crowded Sydney... Stay Alert...Be Visible, Predictable and Legal)

Technique:

How to ride safer in the city
By Richard Peace

City Riding (Robert Smith)
Heavy urban traffic can seem like the most forbidding of environments for cyclists. But a few simple rules help make it safer: Stay alert, follow the traffic rules, stay alert, look out for HGVs and stay alert.
There's simply so much to look out for and quick decisions need to be made all the time as you fight your way through traffic. However, being aware and acting correctly in the circumstances you find yourself in will make light of most potential problems, from parked HGVs blocking your lane to pedestrians dashing into your path.
In fact, the traffic-clogged city can be where you most appreciate a bike, coasting past the rush hour traffic and dotting around town without having to worry about car parking fees and traffic wardens. To enjoy it you just need to Ride Right in the city...(read the rest here.......)

[USA]Bicycle Intersection Safety Index research

2007-09-13T23:46:00.000+10:00

(Pics added by me as I like them)

Excellent summary by Forester on the US's the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) research, and its questionable suggestions and methodologies here.

I've reproduced it in its entirety, as it has its application in what not to do in other places where such research has yet to be undertaken or is currently under way, such as in Australia... take heed folks, the roadway is a dangerous place but it needn't be and it needn't be made more dangerous by beaurocratic incompetence.

Posted by: "John Forester" mailto:forester@johnforester.com?Subject=+Re%3ABicycle%20Intersection%20Safety%20Index%20research biketransengr
Wed Sep 12, 2007 5:52 pm (PST)
The FHWA has just released papers describing the research concerning the development of a method of estimating, or rating, the safety of an intersection for bicycle travel (and another for pedestrian travel also, bureaucratically lumping the two modes into the same classification).

These can be downloaded from the URLs listed:Final Report - <http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/pedbike/pubs/06125/>http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/pedbike/pubs/06125/ User Guide - <http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/pedbike/pubs/06130/>http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/pedbike/pubs/06130/TechBrief - <http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/pedbike/pubs/06129/>http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/pedbike/pubs/06129/
I have just read the bicycle sections of both the report of the research methods and the application manual.

My first reactions are as follows:
Research method
The authors propose to use the frequency of avoidance actions taken as a stand-in for the much less frequent collisions (collisions are a specific type of crash, the only type of crash being considered here), on the basis of observational practicality.
However, they do not, apparently, consider whose fault produced the need for the avoidance action.
Suppose we observe a cyclist running a stop sign and then weaving frantically to stay out of the way of the through traffic. There certainly was avoidance action by the cyclist. And, quite possibly, none by the motorists, who had insufficient time to take much avoidance action.
Such was the sequence of events when I attempted a left turn from a Palo Alto sidewalk bike path, miscalled a bike lane. Does the presence of avoidance action, in a typical stop signed intersection, taken by the cyclist indicate that the intersection is particularly dangerous? Or does it simply indicate incompetent behavior by the cyclist? So far as I can see, the research takes no notice of this issue.
The authors attempt to validate the connection between the frequency of observed avoidance actions and the subjective evaluations of many people viewing short sequences taken from the observational record, including bicycle activists, planners, engineers, and others.
Frankly, I question the competence of many of these people to make such an evaluation.
There was no indication of any standard of operation to be applied, and in the absence of such a standard the evaluation was purely subjective according to the biases of each evaluator, and we are familiar with many such biases.

Resulting Application Manual
The relevant pages are 11 - 18 of the Manual, in particular pg 11, which contains the Bike ISI models (through, right, left), with definitions of the variables.

The subsequent pages illustrate some of the variables.

Low score, 1, means safe; high score, 6, means dangerous.

Through travel ISI = 1.13 + 0.019 MAINADT + 0.815MAINHISPD + 0.650TURNVEH + 470(RTLANES*BL) + 0.023(CROSSADT*NOBL) + 0.428(SIGNAL*NOBL) + 0.200PARKING

Right turnISI = 1.02 + 0.027MAINADT + 0.519RTCROSS + 0.151CROSSLNS + 0.200PARKING

Left turnISI = 1.100 + 0.025MAINADT + 0.836BL + 0.484SIGNAL + 0.736(MAINHISPD*BL) + 0.380(LTCROSS*NOBL) + 0.200PARKING

Note specially, that TURNVEH refers only to vehicles that might make a right hook collision; RTCROSS applies only for a right turn from a left-side bikelane; others are almost self-explanatory.

Look at the peculiarities of these models.

For straight travel, signals have no effect on safety, except that if there is no bike lane they increase danger.

Crossing traffic volume has an effect, which one would expect, except its effect occurs only when there is no bike lane, and is not cancelled by the presence of a traffic signal.

The presence of right-turn-only lanes increases the danger if there is a bike lane, but not in the absence of a bike lane.

When crossing an intersection without assigned priority, it is important to be able to view the crossing traffic, and that view is affected by the presence of parking on the cross street, yet PARKING fails to consider that.

We know that the most frequent motorist-caused car-bike collision is the motorist left turn, yet there is no variable for left-turning vehicles.

For right turn, the relevant variables are MAINADT, CROSSLNS, and PARKING. MAINADT is given 40% more weight than for through travel, which seems peculiar.

The number of through lanes on the cross street is given the high weight of 0.519, which seems counter to knowledge.

The right-turning cyclist is concerned not with the number of lanes, but with the traffic in the outside lane and its ability to move over to the next lane to its left.

If the number of lanes has any meaning, one would expect more lanes to decrease danger rather than decreasing it.

Furthermore, the right-turn ISI fails to consider the volume and speed of the traffic on the cross street, surely a valid variable.

For left turn, more peculiarities. Same direction motor traffic volume has an effect, and is noted. But the presence of a bike lane is given very high weight, 0.836, but the effect of a bike lane pertains only before any movements are made in preparation for the left turn.

Furthermore, the number of lanes to cross in preparation for the left turn is significant in the model only if there is no bike lane, whereas once the preparation has been started the bike lane is left behind and only the number of lanes to cross is significant.
Furthermore, the presence of a signal makes the left turn operation more dangerous.
And there is no allowance for the known safety feature when making a left turn of the presence of a protected left-turn signal phase.Given both the research methods and the results, I assign no credibility at all to this work.
That's not quite correct.
I assign negative credibility to this work, on the basis that it appears to be based on the actions and opinions of incompetent cyclists, further establishing that our highways should be designed for incompetent operation by cyclists.

John Forester, MS,
PEBicycle Transportation Engineer
7585 Church St.Lemon Grove, CA 91945-2306619-644-5481 http://www.johnforester.com/ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Internet People! - The Meth Minute 39

2007-09-12T12:33:00.001+10:00

neat, they are all here and they keep coming... is the power in the internet?, or the people using it, or the use itself?...one thing that is interestingly more obvious, when you want fact,truth or verification and less crud, you just may have to pay for it...otherwise, with the free stuff out there from all sources its more likely opinionated spin from overt and covert agenda's...and of little value to you in the end. Discernment is key... but if you seek some daily truths in your life ride a bike, that noble machine packs more truth about life for you than any news bulletin.

How do you protest?

2007-09-09T15:21:00.000+10:00

The rantings by substandard journalists at the Herald Sun recently have renewed the consistent feeling amongst utility bicyclists that the print media has a distinct anti cyclist bias and has a fixed long term agenda that runs counter to the ocasional motherhood style article they drop in to suggest that cycling is good for you, the environment, the economy and the world.

They want two bob each way obviously, but repeatedly trot out absurd contributions and rehash old news tainted with bias and rhetorical embellishment.

On the interweb forums there is comment on the need for a protest ride to urge the Herald Sun and its ilk to see the folly of its Bicyclist bashing ways.

For this to have any measure of success it would require a substantive movement to appear united.
I am not being negative, on the contrary the sentiment is correct, I firmly believe the print media repeatedly offers absurdly anti cyclist pieces, but let no one be under the impression that the bulk of society will support a protest either .
Why?, because too many of the general populace and those within the subordinate positions in industry , commerce and the media are too afraid of the power of others.

It is a rare household that doesnt have a bike, yes, and some even get ridden, some households use them as their primary means of utility transport, and as we are seeing , every year, more bikes are sold each year than cars.
OK, all that is clear, we, the riders know the benefits of cycling, we extoll them, we also know that governments all , state, federal, local also extoll the benefits of cycling, however, why is it that nothing concrete gets done to ensure the roads are safe for cycling and that the media isnt consistently supportive of those who ride beyond giving them an opportunity to bash, denigrate and incite against?.

Each year we have bicycle protests in the form of mass rides, monthly across the world there are various CM rides with differing results (eg: NYC Police see them as a political threat and control with a jack boot- Athens Georgia see it as a community festival of spirit and commensense transport alternatives, ( but theirs is also know as Courteous Mass) as opposed to the regular CM ride) most others fall somewhere in between depending on local polictics).

Annually, worldwide, is the Ride of Silence (http://www.rideofsilence.org/), and these garner support from riders and sentiment from the media ( as it involves deaths in memoriam as its main theme ).
The Amy Gillett rides have strong support, again as these involve deaths and the riders supporting the notion of safer roads and that safer outcomes are possible from co-operation). Yet still the media trot out their regular anti cyclist stereotypical rhetoric.
Advocacy organisations like Wheels of Justice, (http://www.woj.com.au/)monitor this , keeping riders abreast of current issues and worldwide utility cycling intiatives and news, positive and negative and give riders a forum and opportunity to comment, protest and garner support for lobbying and access to resources when individual rights are aggrieved, plus resources to write the letters to those who can carry influence or form policy.
Bicycle Victoria is usually silent as is observed by its own forum readers and only succombs to agreement on the "naughty cyclist" statement and "tut tut"... it does little positive to bring the media into line, because it cannot. It has a need for the media in supporting promotion for its sponsors, it's public events and thus is compromised by its own policy and needs to survive.

Forums like this blog and those Webbased and Usenet forums such as aus.bicycle etc allow the converted to vent their spleen , and as we have seen recently, the media to "spy"and grab quote for out of context senasationalising in their own poorly crafted offerings. So what is the answer? 7 out of 9 want to form a protest ride... this needs to 7, 000 or better, 70, 000 to to have an impact beyond making us feel better.

BV claimed it had 40, 000 members (dubious claim and probably more likely the number of members ever in its whole history) it now publicly claims it has 20, 000 members, ( but even if it does, like the general population it will be hard pressed to get them motivated to form a protest ride, just like it is hard pressed to get a decent sample of members to vote at its board elections.)
Prove me wrong, let's do a ride, sure...but we need massive numbers to get the press to see the error of their ways, but you know something tells me it wont make a difference... !!
They ( The print Media) will still trot out their nonsensical inciting, their rants of journalistic gutter raking and lazy research, because they appeal to a readership that will not change its rednecked view easily and will also find comfort in their ignorance of matters commonsense, because they know no better, they and their readers don't want to make any change to that comfort zone of rednecked spin-out selfish "I'm all right jack bugger you" and "get out of my way" attitude. That is the spin that typifies the pitch of the Hun and The Terrorgraf and their ilk. I dont buy newpapers anymore, I make my protest by ignoring their daily paper consuming output of tree consumption. It isnt a green thing, its their content, it is biased, plain fact is hard to find amongst the spin and the opinionated twisted story line. If it is earth shattering and important it isnt going to come out in the print media first. Seriously do we really need to read in newspapers about the summation of every nuance of AFL, the ads for rip-off car sales or job ads that are non descript nonsense, maybe expensive real estate adds that promote agents first and vendors last?, because when you remove the opinionated story lines there is nothing else. Print media is a dinosaur, if believe we will see very little of it on our streets withing 5 years, on the contrary we will see many more bicycles on all our streets much sooner than that. The protest began when more than three centuries ago the French mathemetician Jacques Ozanam described the theoretical advantages of a "human powered carriage" in which on can drive one self wherever one pleases without horses, that ran on the will power of the operator and provided healthy excercise to boot. ( cf: "Récréations mathématiques et physiques" 1696 ).
This freedom is the very thing we see as the zest of cycling, however those who are ignorant of that zest's benefits see the obverse, they see it as the very threat to their agendas, their commercial influences and their power over your mind and your body. A little deep?, not really, think about it and you will see why the bicycle can be the dominant means of personal transport, physical excercise, healthy activity and mental therapy...all aspects others want to control for profit...with the bicycle they miss out... need we say more! Ride, be visible predictable and legal... and ride proudly, together the bicycle will always be there for you when the others have fallen by the wayside. In the meantime, sure let us have a ride, even many of them, but also let us all ride every day, everywhere we possibly can.

That is the protest that will carry more weight than a one off protest ride. Stop buying newspapers, write to them and tell them that, and spread the word to all your friends and within your networks, stop feeding this cancer on the butt of sensible tranport choices and commonsense human dignity.
There is no more noble invention than the bicycle, there can be more noble a persuit with it, than we ride it, more often with more friends and family and workmates. ... that is the purest protest

Getting Fixed

2007-09-07T12:56:00.001+10:00

from Bicycling.com videos, getting the low down and the hi fives on Fixed gear Bikes, its not just a messenger thing, it's pure cycling, but you have to have the skill set and its a steep learning curve, if you are a trackie, you have a head start, but riding fixed onroad needs smarts & alerts !!

Tour De France 2007 - Round Up

2007-09-03T19:55:00.001+10:00

A brief and succinct summary of this years Tour de France, relive it anytime. Cadel is King in my book... an awesome ride when no one wants anything of you other than to beat you!.

Moderate exercise works as well as strenuous workouts

2007-08-29T11:06:00.000+10:00

Moderate exercise works as well as strenuous workouts
By JOE MILLER McClatchy Newspapers
Published: Monday, August 27, 2007

RALEIGH, N.C. - Bike shop owner Kevin Coggins wasn't surprised by a study released this month by the Duke University Medical Center, which showed that not only is moderate exercise good, in some instances it may be even better than more vigorous workouts. His cash register has been telling him as much for the past two years.
In the '90s, everyone wanted a mountain bike to go powering through forests on narrow trails, bunny-hopping downed logs and grinding through gardens of rock.
During Lance Armstrong's reign over the Tour de France, from 1999 to 2005, everyone wanted to capture the road bike experience, pedaling for miles and miles.
What's selling today?
Hybrids, that mix of road and mountain bike made for a more recreational, "round-the-neighborhood-and-down-the-greenway-with-the-kids experience".

"Moderate exercise is as good as strenuous exercise," says Coggins, who once raced bikes and has owned The Spin Cycle in Cary, N.C., since the mid-1990s. "I totally agree with that."
So does a portion of the study by researchers at Duke, who found that low-intensity exercise "dramatically lowered" triglyceride levels. Trigly-cerides are those pesky particles that lug fat around the body. Reducing their numbers can reduce the risk of both heart disease and diabetes.
The Duke study joins a growing body of evidence suggesting that you don't have to ride 2,200 miles around France to enjoy good health. Regular rides through the neighborhood will do just fine....read the rest of the article here

SET FREE (The One Days HK 1 of 3)

2007-08-27T15:11:00.001+10:00

Lamma Island is a tranquil place in Hong Kong, if you ever get there ( 40mins in ferry from Central to Yung Shue Wan -Banyan Tree Bay)), stop for some green tea or dofu fan at a daipai dong on the way to the Power Station Beach... this small clip is just that, with a message about life and play we need to heed occasionally ..

enjoy this and enjoy life.

cheers all

One World Two Wheels - A Trek Commitment

2007-08-23T11:21:00.000+10:00

(from Trek USA...ride a bike , its the greenest thing you can do to help the earth and your community's health.)

A Trek Commitment
Trek Dealers are working to get people to ride their bikes and make a more bike friendly world, one mile at a time.

We all know the world has some problems; gas is expensive and cars pollute, the roads are congested and humans are getting bigger.

And not in a good way.

Luckily, there is a solution to these problems. A solution that burns calories, not gas. It doesn't waste fuel sitting in traffic. Something that could even bring communities closer together.

The solution is the bicycle.

With 40% of non-work related car trips being taken being two miles or less, what would happen if more people took the short trips on their bike?

What if more communities had a "Safe Routes to Schools" plan so kids could ride to school safely?

What would the world be like with more bicycle friendly communities?Imagine arriving at work fresh instead of frazzled. Parking within feet of the building!

Your kids getting exercise to and from school. Better still, commuting by bike IS exercising! And there are no carbon emissions from burning calories.We all can ride and we have only one planet.

Trek and Trek dealers challenge you to join us in making the world a more bike friendly place.

You can start by riding your bike. It's the greenest thing you can do to help the earth.

on yer bike !,

and please be Visible, Predictable and Legal.

Killed after 20,000klm Ride around Australia

2007-08-20T11:20:00.000+10:00

from the Adelaide Advetiser/Sunday Mail

( this is touching story & a plea to help find the lost diary of Leszeka Wereszka, lost near Nimmitabel in NSW... Leszeka was killed in South Australia when hit by a truck 70klm from his final destination on his journey around Australia)

(The final photo of Leszeka Wereska taken two hours befor he was killed by a truck whilst riding his bike on an epic journey around Australia)

by: KATE KYRIACOU
August 19, 2007 12:15am
THIS is the final photo of a triumphant Leszek Wereszka - two hours before his death on the final leg of a dream ride around Australia.
The Polish-born German tourist had just 70km left of a six-month, 20,000km ride around Australia when he was hit and killed by a passing truck on Port Wakefield Rd on Monday.
His Adelaide relatives said they want to share his inspirational journey with others and hoped his death would prompt motorists to take more care around cyclists.
"We are just hoping one thing – we want to make drivers aware of cyclists on the road," his Adelaide cousin Janusz Wereszka said.
"If this can save even one life, then it is worth it. Maybe one day someone can finish his journey – he only had 70km left.
"Maybe something will be done now to make it safer for cyclists on our roads because right now his death is just so senseless."
Mr Wereszka, 49, studied English for a year before travelling to Adelaide, where he lived for three months while readying for his trip.
He set off on February 3, leaving Adelaide and touring the Great Ocean Rd before cycling on to Melbourne, through the Blue Mountains, Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, Cape Tribulation, Katherine, Darwin and along the West Australian coastline.
He had cycled across the Nullarbor and through SA's west when he was killed on his final leg to Adelaide.
But family friend George Gorski said Mr Wereszka left behind a precious gift – diaries of his trip and hundreds of photographs.
"It is not important that he died," he said. "What is important is how he died – he died doing what he loved. He found his way on this journey. He reconciled himself with his life and he left these wonderful diaries behind."
His journal entries – written in Polish – refer frequently to his beloved daughter Ania, 27, and talk of his safety concerns while cycling on the open roads.
"We strongly believe his achievements and his amazing endurance deserve to be recognised and remembered," Mr Gorski said.
"He made hundreds of friends around Australia on his travels. He was quite an adventurous man with a very cheeky sense of humour.
"We were all waiting for him to come back so we could hear all his stories from the road – but obviously that never happened.
"We know he fell in love with the Australian countryside and he spoke often of camping on the side of the road and watching the shooting stars. He would wake up with the lizards and the snakes, and the dingoes."
Mr Gorski said Mr Wereszka separated from his wife 10 years ago and had spent the past few years getting to know Ania again.
"I know his greatest regret would be that he never had a chance to tell his daughter how much he loved her," he said.
"He had so much time to think on the road and he really learnt the importance of family.
"He missed her so much and always worried about her. He was so very proud of Ania."
Cousin-in-law Barbara Wereszka said she cherished the three months he lived in their Onkaparinga Hills home.
"He was such a beautiful man, always smiling, always happy," she said. "He loved all the animals here and gave them new names – even my chickens."
In his diary entries, Mr Wereszka often questioned the trip that had brought him so far from his family.
"What is this all about? Where will this road lead me at the end?" he wrote while touring the Wombeyan Caves in early March.
"It seems like I am always choosing the wrong direction.
"I realised today how much I am missing all of you – but enough of that. I had death in my eyes today as I rode downhill wondering if my brakes would hold out a bit longer, but in the end they still managed to work."
Other entries showed his cheeky personality:
March 9, 2007, Black Springs:
I am in a place with many caves and holes in the ground. Today a driver purposely splashed me with water from the side of the road as he went past.
March 19, 2007, Booti Booti National Park:
I'm worried that I am not eating enough. I am losing too much weight. In truth, I am only managing one meal a day. As soon as I can I will stop at a fish and chips shop.
March 31, 2007, Noosa Heads:In Port Pirie, Mr Wereszka reflected on whether the momentous journey had changed him as a person.
By the end of each day I am trying to find a place to stay for the night. The first caravan park I went to was $22.50 per night. It's not cheap. I still have a bit of daylight left so maybe the next caravan park will be cheaper. At the next place a horrible looking woman told me the price was $25. I knew there was one more caravan park I could get to but when I got there the price was $26!

"All that thinking but I am almost 50 years old and my life is just beginning!" he wrote.
"Could you wish for anything more than 50 years of childhood? Ha ha, I don't think so.
"But at least I have grown up and gotten to the point where I know who I want to be.
"I want to be a good man – there aren't many of them around."
In his final entry, Mr Wereszka wrote of his exhaustion after so many days on the road.
"I arrived at the camping place," he wrote the day before his death.
"I arrive at 6.30pm just as it becomes dark.
"I was so tired and cold and I look horrible. You can barely move your hands by the end of the day and it is hard to even get off the bike.
"But I survived again. Tomorrow is Adelaide.
"I promised my beloved bike that if we finish this trip we are great. Ha ha ha."
Mr Wereszka lost one of his diaries at a visitor information booth in Nimmitabel, NSW. If anyone finds the journal, written in Polish, please contact the Sunday Mail on (08) 8206 2720.

Bicycles - the World's Transport - Inclusion or Elitism

2007-08-19T12:16:00.000+10:00

great summary here by BikeLoveJones on what "bike culture"is about in many places and how it is construed, and miscontrued .

check it out at http://bikelovejones.livejournal.com/48127.html

Rooman: Bikes Belong In Traffic - SFPD Training Video

2007-08-15T12:45:00.000+10:00

Rooman: Bikes Belong In Traffic - SFPD Training Video

Bikes Belong In Traffic - SFPD Training Video

2007-08-15T12:40:00.001+10:00

Excellent video from SFPD.
Law Officers across the world ( especially NYC) take notice. This is the NEWS!!, bicycles are legal traffic, they belong on the road, and safety begins with the right attitude from all road users about sharing the roadwa. I demands divers of cars being considerate and non threatening and riders being visible, legal and predictable.

Riding a bike is very important to our modern society and its needs.
Get behind this folks...it is the new black of transport, lifestyle and social choices.

More bicycles are sold in Australia each eyar now than cars. Is that saying something to you...HELLO... its not going away...

On yer Bike

When numbers count-Cycling Copenhagen - 200% tax on Cars

2007-08-06T09:21:00.001+10:00

From Crank My Chain in Portland - cool clip of Danish people riding their bicycles - when numbers matter in a Medieval city where cars arnt allowed in the inner areas, now that makes sense. Streets lined with bicycles, happy fit people, in rain sleet or snow... no softies there...good music too... great edits ... Sköl

Modal Shift - The Transport future of Australian Communities

2007-08-04T11:02:00.000+10:00

Given the right conditions, says the Cycling Promotion Fund, potential for bike riding in Melbourne is enormous. Almost two thirds of all trips in Melbourne are under five kilometres.

"Many of these short car trips could comfortably be completed by bicycle," says program director Rosemarie Speidel.
"We're at this stage now where we want to accommodate bikes without infringing on cars, but if you want to get more people riding bicycles to achieve modal shift then you are going to have to give preferential treatment to bicycles."

According to Cycling Promotion Fund, contrary to popular belief, cycling has not been a long-standing 'tradition' in many northern European countries such as Netherlands and Denmark.

By the 1960s, many European cities and towns were overun by cars , causing pollution and congestion.

In response State and Local governments began the process of providing alternatives to car use, through innovative transport policy.
A carrot and stick approach of restricting car use, whilst simultaneously improving bicycle infrastructure bought new life to many cities. In Amsterdam and Copenhagen, both these cities report 20-30% of all trips are now conducted by bicycle.

In Northern Europe cycling is now common despite weather conditions of frequent rain, and snow. Austraia's climate is far more favourable yet our cycling rate is considerably lower.

Successful tranport strategies recognise that building more roads is a poor solution to congestion and pollution problems.
Sensible transport policy focuses on moving people not cars. The most efficient , equitable and healthy transport modes are cycling and walking, yet they receive only a small fraction of the funding provided for car based infrastructure. Moreover as petrol prices continue to rise, Australia's car dependent communities will be placed in anextremely vulnerable position.

Even the USA, traditionally viewed as the home of 'car is king' culture, is starting to invest billions of dollars in walking and cycling facillities, with the adoption and reauthorisation of the State Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transport Act. (SAFETEA-LU), and growing support for Safe Routes to School programs and non-motorised transport projects.

Despite strongly imbalanced funding, bicycle culture is beginning to take hold in Australia. ABS data shows Australians purchased more bikes than cars for each of the last 5 years.

The evidence from Australia and overseas is clear - car culture can be changed when people are provided with other options. They are willing to reduce their car use and cycle more when provided with the supportive environment. With the emerging issues of congestion, obesity, climate change and spiralling fuel prices, there has never been a better time to challenge car culture through investment in cycling encouragement programs.

What would get more people cycling?

I see the priorities in these items:-

Traffic calming with CBD & shopping area speed limits at 30kph, (even innner city congestion levies such as London and Singapore have).

End of trip facilities, storage and change rooms (new & renovated CBD buildings now must have this, but they must be made available to users not locked away or used as storerooms and garbage lockers as is now the case in observed in several Melb CBD buildings)

Extensive driver education to raise awareness of bicyclist's use of the roads and relevant road rules

Improving bicyclist's knowledge, skills and safe cycling behaviour with courses and refresher training in the wider community and amongst workplace and community bicycle user groups (BuGs)

Use of the Bike BUS for commuting bicyclists.
Heavy Goods Vehicles have a greater onus in vicinity of vulnerable road users. (eg: suggestion: must steer clear of vulnerable road users and have an absolute liability to reduce speed in vicinity of pedestrians and bicyclists to a max of 30klph in communities and 60 klph on country roads).

Traffic enforcement regulations that heavily favour pedestrians and bicyclists, with a burden of primary liability on the driver of all motorised vehicles, as is so successfully used in Europe.

Restrictions on motor vehicle use & limited parking. ( by cost and restrict expansion of parkingstations and closure of many existing stations) - (Note: these are already cash cows to big business and councils, so it is hard to see them co-operating )

More people riding to their neighborhood shops for local shopping and grocery purchases, cuts demand for parking stations and relates to the reality of the average purchase being made for items that are easily carried in a back pack or basket

Notice, I havnt advocated for heavy infrastructure development or expenditure!.

I say this because it is established that not only are separation facilities expensive, they have limited benefits over the detrimental effect on bicycle and pedestrian behaviour.

Separation like Copenhagen style lanes may reduce riders exposure to vehicles but they also limit the on road experience, many riders thus do not learn how to behave in on road riding situations. Pedestrians are more inclined to enter dedicated bicycle paths and Copenhagen lanes as they are not threatened by the bicycle as opposed to cars. Paths and separation lanes increase the risk of collision at intersecting road junctures with cars as drivers and riders do not have preparedness to look out for each other as they have been separated.

On road painted bicycle lanes force riders into the car door danger zone, and drivers cease to look out for riders as they are no longer in the full traffic lane, drivers thus drive closer to bicycles and faster, putting the rider at higher risk.

Plus, and most important, separation by Copenhagen lanes and paths further widen the expectation between driver and rider in that drivers expect riders to not be on the road at all. Drivers of cars then expect a free run at all times, and claim the road is no place for bicycles when they have a place of their own, no matter how unsafe it is.

Separation creates and exacerbate danger, it doesn't alleviate it.

According to Forester, "Instead of fighting with cars, you cooperate with other drivers, so that you all get home safely. Participating in, cooperating with the traffic system, obeying the same rules of the road as other drivers, acknowledging their rights while claiming your own, that's the key to safe and confident cycling in traffic. Vehicular cycling, so named because you are acting as the driver of a vehicle, just as the traffic laws require, is faster and more enjoyable, so that the plain joy of cycling overrides the annoyance of even heavy traffic.
Cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles.
That is the guiding principle that cyclists should recognize and government and society should obey. But government does its best to prevent cyclists from recognizing this principle. Motorists fear that competent cyclists would delay them.

Riders fair best on the roads when they ride as vehicles in a vehicular fashion. "

I go along with that as the fundamental principle that should guide all riding/drving experiences. The age of car monopoly is over. Cars now must be driven differently, if it means slower and with greater onus for liability on the driver so be it.

We owe it to future generations to deliver a vibrant healthy place to live with the prospect of safe and viable transport choices that support health and wellbeing...reducing reliance and abuse of motorcar use and adopting a bicycle and/or walking would go along way towards that!

On yer bike..you will be glad you did

Oil will be $150 a barrel by 2010 - what does this mean for you?

2007-07-30T20:24:00.001+10:00

My good friend Alan Parker has some considerable experience in the world of Bicycle Advocacy in particuclar and Vulnerable Road User Advocacy in General.

He is getting on a bit these days, but still spritely as ever and watchful of the world. He let me know about this in some discussions recently over facts and issues about the status of bicycles in the world of big business and politics and the impact of Oil on future transport and public policy issues around responsible transport choices and alternatives..

here is what he has to say on Oil.

Times are changing fast. See comments below from a research data news agency and think of the consequences of high crude oil prices over $100 a barrel for increasing funding for bicycle transport. The attractiveness of building infrastructure for bicycles and electric bicycles in the not so distant future is going to greatly increase and we have to start pushing for this to be recognized before the Federal election. With high oil prices Bicycling becomes an important way of conserving oil and electric bicycles with batteries charged by small domestic solar cell arrays become an extremely attractive transport option. Note that china made 16.5 million electric bikes last year.
Bye Alan
2b/ ODAC (The Oil Depletion Analysis Centre-London) news Investec's Guinness sees oil price doubling (Reuters, Thu 19 Jul)

Comment: This really ought to be front page news, but I do not remember seeing this reported in anywhere (Reuters is a News Agency). As mentioned last week, it is ok for the IEA to forecast oil demand will outstrip supply over the next 5 years, and ok for the media to report this, but not ok to analyse what the consequences will be, yet.

Article: Citywire AA-rated Tim Guinness believes the oil price will hit $150 a barrel by 2010 and shock people into reducing their dependence on the resource.

Guinness, manager of the Investec Global Energy fund, made his comments after last week's report from the International Energy Agency warned the world would face a "supply crunch" in 2012 due to poor output from non-Opec countries clashing with strong demand within the cartel's oil producers.

The report led to a spike in oil prices to their highest level in nearly a year at $72.65 a barrel, around $2 below its highest ever level.

Guinness agrees with the IEA forecast and expects the oil price to rise steadily over the next five years as supplies dwindle.

AA-rated Ian Henderson, manager of the JPM Natural Resources fund, said the oil price could double in five years.

He also warned there could be an oil shortage before this date due to lack of investment in the industry.

"The issue is about money and access. Not enough money is being invested in the industry and so the access to the oil reserves is not as good as it should be," said Henderson.

Guinness thinks that once oil hits the $150 mark it will be enough to force people to change their attitude to the commodity.

He said: "To control the oil price demand growth must be negative, which will happen when oil hits $150 and it will stay there until demand for oil falls."

Once the effects of this have been felt, Guinness expects the oil price to fall back to $100, which he believes should be the level at which it stays for the long term.

He said: "If I was Opec I would manage oil at this price. Energy accounts for 15 percent of world GDP spending and oil at $100 is tolerable."

Guinness believes once oil stays consistently at the $100 level the economy will turn its focus to alternative energy supplies.

He said: "$100 is a level at which alternative energy sources work economically and on a large scale."

Tour of the Great Ocean Road 2008

2007-07-30T14:05:00.000+10:00

Will Cadel be along?

Tour of the Great Ocean Road Oct 28th, 2007 ( day after the Melbourne to Warrnambool Classic ("The Warnie" here is a history of the worlds longest one day bike race)

The course is from the fabulous coastal city of Warrnambool along the Great Ocean Road and though the Otways. A magic area to enjoy in all its glory from the rich farmlands to the beaches and fishing resorts along the way and superb bushland and mountain scenery coming into Apollo Bay, three rides to choose from 71, 120 & 168 klms giving options for relaxing, shorter rides or a diversion to a great eatery or sights.

Not a bad way to finish the Warnie weekend.

Roadie teams anyone?... maybe an Aus.bic or even a WoJ team ?, by then WoJ might even have a WoJ team kit! would be great if WoJ honorary members (like Simon Gerrans, ) were there!

Entry details here: also will aid the Amy Gillett Foundation

No info on support, ( kit, bags, etc or logistics getting to and fro just accommodation links) , riders may need a Sag Wagon for each team, but that is likely anyway for most riders visiting the Warnie.
Interesting that Caribou call it a "Recreational Ride" (for most abilities), but riders must wear a "race" number.

A superb road for recreational touring and a great venue for such a gathering... bring it on!

A letter to Dr John Reid

2007-07-28T10:23:00.000+10:00

Dear Dr John,

I am a cycling safety advocate and a committee member of the Bicycle Federation of Australia.

I read the ABC news briefing today on your statements re: the death of James Gould and the Hell Ride.

I am concerned by your ( or is it their) assertion that hundreds of riders partake in a “race” known as the Hell Ride.

I am not sure what research you have on the current recreational and commuting use of Beach Rd ( or other Melbourne roads like Kew Blvd etc), however it is a fact that no longer do hundreds of riders partake in the ride known to the media as the Hell Ride. Up to 8000 recreational riders ( moms dads, grandparents, sons and daughters all) ride Beach Rd each Saturday and Sunday morning between 6am and 12noon ( more than the number of vehicles at that time).(Bicycle Victoria Figures, VicRoads & Bayside City Council). These are recreation riders either in groups riding together two by two for safety ( and legally) or in small groups or individually. Some groups are organised by cycling clubs as regular gatherings for training or social activity.

On occasions triathlon events are conducted with a riding component under supervision of VicRoads, Councils and Police.

Predominately the riders of beach Road are not competing in anyway and are enjoying the outdoors on a bicycle. This number of riders is growing each week and with fuel costs rising, more riders will commute to work on bicycles rather than in cars in the years to come. Each year more bicycles are sold than motor vehicles (source: Cycling Promotion Fund)

In context, the so called Hell Ride is a group of riders who voluntarily ( it is organised by no one) gather to ride to Frankston to Mt Eliza each Saturday morning from 7am to approximately 8-30 am. It is ridden at high intensity compared to many recreational riders, due to the level of fitness and competence of the riders ( mainly club level and pro-riders).

This ride in its history has some notoriety because of bad habits of some riders not stopping for red lights, however in recent years due to police action and a voluntary code of behaviour these incidents have been removed largely.

The sad death of James Gould was not indicative of current Hell Ride “behaviour” as you put it. The Coroner has full information on how the ride played out that day, and it is on record.

The ride occurs at a time of low traffic intensity, it is over before most Saturday drivers and riders are on the roads. It however does reach riding speeds of 40klm ph and on some descents 50-60 klmph. St Kilda Cycling Club and the Amy Gillett Foundation have met with the riders and made sure they are aware of their obligations to all road users to obey the law and ride responsibly. The Police air arm is monitoring current rides and did so today . (Sat 28 July) There was a rumour among the cycling forum readers last night that some people planned to flour bomb the riders this morning. This is a dangerous suggestion, alarming and no doubt a product of media incitement and misinformation.

What is being confused by the media and is a clear perception put forward by you is that the ride is a race. It is not a race.

What is a race, is drivers aiming to get to work each day in their cars and competing on the road way for every available space. In fact the activity of dangerous drivers, distracted, speeding or drug affected drivers is more dangerous to vulnerable road users ( including commuting and recreational cyclists) than this one unofficial ride could ever be.

The rare death of James Gould is certainly not acceptable by anyone. However you must keep it in context and properly explain your thesis. You may have been taken out of context, however the perception is that every rider on Beach Road is a “racer” that these riders are blatantly ignoring road rules, that they are exhausted and distracted and thus place themselves and all other road users in peril. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I trust you will offer an explanation for your thesis, that you have research and responsible information to support your assertion and the context in which you make it. If you have been taken out of context then I trust you will make such a statement.

You must be clearly aware that responsible recreational and commuting cycling is a desirable community activity, that bicycle riding is a valid transport choice and a lifestyle activity that brings benefits to participants that can be measured in enormous community contribution. To mis-state facts about on road usage of bicycles is irresponsible in this day and age.

We live in an age of driver insulation and distraction, you make no mention of this. We have huge damage to our society by the pollution of motorised commuting transport, you make no mention of this. Society suffers from Obesity, Cardiac & Arterial Disease, Diabetes and Cancer, all able to be reduced by regular active exercise and diet, co-activities of a normal bicycle rider.

I do not support any abuse of the road rules by anyone and advocate for safe responsible on road activity by all road users. However all “newsy “items must be taken in context and your responsibility when quoted is to ensure your “message “is truthful, not misleading and can be validated.

If we can assist you in your research into the psychology of driver/rider distraction please let us know as we firmly believe many road users require a change of attitude, not just some bicycle riders.

Best regards

Rob Eke
CoConvenor
Wheels of Justice

Teach em Young

2007-07-28T08:16:00.000+10:00

Does your mom think you are a "doper"?

This just in from Graeme Street, Cyclo-Core Coach & "Nutritionist in Connetticut, his mom asks the question, as she doesnt know what to think these days!

"My mother thinks I'm a DOPER! Does yours?
My mother just asked me last night if I was taking
"dope" to help me ride better like the PRO's!!
I said..."WHAT?! Ma...I'm just a REGULAR EVERYDAY
CYCLIST! Not some PRO with a paycheck! Do you think
I'm stupid enough to do something like that? I don't
even race a lot? I'm no Tour contender, I'm barely
even a group ride contender!;)" (she didn't get it)
To me, the question was comical. But to her, it was
a serious question as she is NOT a cyclist and can only
speculate about things based on what she hears in the
news. And you know what...I DON'T BLAME HER!
She doesn't understand that 'Everyday Cyclists', people
like YOU & ME, ride for the pleasure, the self-challenge,
and the pure joy of the sport! Not to contaminate our
bodies so we can win our local bunch sprint on Saturdays
or the Masters division in a race! Come'on!
Do you see the problem here though rob?
It's time to CHANGE THINGS...and we are the ONLY people
who can do it! You and Me...and I need your help!
The MISSION of Cyclo-CORE and Graeme Street:
1. Help YOU, and every other cyclist I come in contact
with get in the absolute best physical and mental
shape possible through the use of SMART TRAINING,
HEALTHY EATING, FOCUSED RIDING and a System that works!
I can't possibly do this one at a time, so that's why I
have my TRAINING & NUTRITION System...
2. Demonstrate to the WORLD just how much a person
with the right info, support, and drive can make a
difference in their life and the live's around them.
(I want and need your feedback, stories, and success
to share with others and FEED the positivity! )
3. Develop ongoing programming for ALL of us to have
a community to call our own, where we can come together
to learn, improve, get stronger, and have more fun!
(I am already working on this and plan on having my
New SECRET PROJECT up and running in September!)
4. Get to the Juniors! Develop the base support all
junior development needs to ride healthy, strong, and
happy! This one is critical to bring the sport back
and I KNOW I CAN HELP!
(My ideas for Juniors are coming out soon, so if you
run a junior development squad, please email:
christine@cyclogirl.com and leave a contact.)
5. Lastly, I am determined to bring more support to the
offline cycling clubs, charters, teams, and charities that
exist and create a HUB of solidarity for us all so we can
improve together. HUMAN CONTACT!
**If you are a coach, a trainer, spin instructor, team
leader, group leader, etc. Please email:
graemestreet@comcast.net and place in the subject line:
---(your name), want to help!---
Well that's it rob. I'm no doper and I know
that you are not either...but the writing is on the wall.
Some people see negativity with what's going on, but I
see OPPORTUNITY! The chance to make a decisive difference
in people's lives and in the sport I love so much.
I for one, am ready for the challenge. Are you?
Ride Hard. Call Your Mom. Move Towards Opportunity.
Graeme Street
graeme@cyclo-core.com
The Cyclo-CORE On the Go! and Cyclo-FUEL Nutrition
COMBO is a great starting place for ANY CYCLIST who
wants a fast, effective, proven way to get strong and
lean for improved health and cycling!

Media and its Hunger de Farce

2007-07-27T10:04:00.000+10:00

Re: opinion de farce
A female runner has tested positive for EPO in an OOC test on Jun 18, is International Athletics being called IAAF de Farce?, (remember Ben Johnsson, FloJo etal?) Ferarri is claiming a spying scandal in F1 de Farce, Italy has had corruption exposed in its football administration in UEFAdefarce, AFL is legendary in FootydeFarce... Pro basketball in the USA has referree betting scandals, Cricket has had corruption in betting scandals and recent cloud of possible murder ( fortunately dismissed) but with credible evidence of betting corrution in the wind.

Sport is at the mercey of big business and adminstrators egos and empires...the athletes suffer and are forced to " compete" to survive, risking their lives, their morality and their financial survival.

On the roads drivers get away with killing vulnerable road users and innocents..Countries go to war over dubious issues, putting young lives on the front line for back room politics.

Society is rife with double standards and since man picked up a bone and hit his mate to eat to survive that is the way it has been. Not that that is acceptable.

What is acceptable is to work to improve aspects of life we all share...our love of family, our need for food and excercise and our right to a clean and unpolluted planet.

All the rest is back gound noise that we have to deal with on a daily basis whilst we strive to survive with our sense of propriety intact.

Humbug to the cheats and those who exploit the situations for their own misguided ends...all of them...especially the snailmeedya

A Critical Review of the Legal Penalties for Drivers Who Kill Cyclists or Pedestrians

2007-07-24T14:21:00.000+10:00

Not a lot of research is in the public domain on this. Jake Voelcker has submitted his paper to Bristol University on topic.

I commend this to all who have wondered about the leniency of sentences for deaths of vulnerable road users.

I also draw it to the attention of law enforcement and law makers across the globe. You can do better. This goes a long way to show you are not doing enough.

Are pedestrians and bicyclists deaths acceptable collateral damage for reckless use of lethal tonnes of steel in a public place?

Seems the Courts think so!

Mornington Peninsula's Natural Winter Warmth

2007-07-23T20:28:00.001+10:00

oh yesssssss!! come on down its all here...

Peninsula Hot Springs - Muds Massage Minerals

2007-07-23T20:26:00.001+10:00

this is the place on a cold winter's day... mmmmmmmmmm

Fast + Reliable

2007-07-23T14:15:00.000+10:00

"Meet Dexter Benjamin, a New York City bicycle messenger with only one leg and zero excuses. This dude is what it's all about it, folks. If you only watch one documentary on AtomFilms, make sure this one is it. "

Cycling-Moments to Remember

2007-07-20T13:00:00.001+10:00

This awesome clip and Johnny Cash combine to summarise life and it's metaphors

Top 10 Banned Books of the 20th Century

2007-07-19T12:08:00.001+10:00

I've read em all...hmmm condemned to eternal enlightenment!

clipped from alternativereel.com

Top 10 Banned Books of the 20th Century

Self Serving or Deception ?

2007-07-18T16:03:00.000+10:00

You have to wonder what goes through some people's minds when they are in denial and won't face the truth that they stuffed up.

Judgment by our peers in a court of law is the real testament to truth and values in society when someone has died.

Seems this guy wants to avoid that, and is loudly claiming he can't be fairly judged because of "bad press" and notorious politics brought about by his own hand.

And he ran his own survey to get his "proof" to support his claim that he won't get a fair trial and proceedings against him should be stayed permanently.

Seems he considers the whole of his State's Justice System a tool for his own ends.

Is this ego or just bloody minded absurdity!

The law on this is fairly clear and well enunciated by well researched info here and gets nitty gritty at points 89 & 118 through to 121.

Justice is blind, but the public aren't.

Michael Milton - a true blue Aussie - Get Well Soon

2007-07-16T12:58:00.000+10:00

I met Michael when I was working a gig for Toyota Australia in 2005.

He is one of their key sponsored athletes and a great Australian who has conquered personal tragedy to beat the world.

We got to talking fitness, cycling, track cycling and his love of live. He loves challenges. Now he has more challenges.

Michael is a World Champion downhill speed skier winning 4 Gold Medals at the Winter ParaLympics, and in recent years "caught the cycling bug "- and after adopting cycling seriously as a competitive sport on the Track, and setting an Australian Record for the 3000m pursuit, he was named as a member of the Australian Cycling team to compete at the 2007 Paracycling World Championships coming up in Bordeaux France in October.

Now Michael may not compete. At the age of 34, he has been diagnosed with Oesophageal Cancer.

Here is Cycling Australia's statement of support for Michael.

"12 July 2007
Statement of support for Michael Milton
The board and members of Cycling Australia offer their support and wishes to Michael Milton and his family after learning he is suffering from oesophageal cancer.
Milton, 34, was selected to compete in the 2007 Para-Cycling World Championships being staged in Bordeaux, France in August after qualifying in Australian record time for a place in the 3000m pursuit on the track.
"Michael came to cycling in the wake of extraordinary success in skiing which saw him claim four gold medals at the 2002 Winter Paralympic Games and was on course to achieve more success in our sport," said Cycling Australia CEO, Graham Fredericks. "We are sure the determination and courage he has shown throughout his life will help him triumph again.
"The thoughts and very best wishes of the board and all our members are with Michael as he faces this challenge and we look forward to welcoming back to racing very soon."The Head Cycling Coach of the ACT Academy of Sport, Glenn Doney, has been advising Michael since last November and welcomed him into the ACTAS scholarship program in March this year after his success at the Australian Championships."In terms of his cycling Michael leaves no stone unturned and demonstrates an unbelievable level of motivation and dedication to achieving his goals," said Mr Doney. "Michael displays an unparalleled willpower to succeed and he exemplifies the addage that excellence is never ending.
"On a personal level he is an inspiration because of his generosity of spirit and his willingness to help others achieve their dreams," said Mr Doney. "He has never been egotistical about his past success because his focus is always on the next challenge and it's these personal qualities that will help him fight the cancer."
For further information (media only) please contact:

Gennie Sheer, Sheer Rhetoric - Communications Director, Cycling Australia

Tel: +61 (0) 418 863 533Cycling Australia website www.cycling.org.au"

Michael has had to battle in his youth, his sports and his work. Those lessons from battles fought and won , he now brings to his fight for his own life. Michael has worked hard in the community to bring the message of life's fights to the fore.

Michael helped launch National Safe Schools Week at Parliament House in Canberra on 24th May. The focus was year is on bullying and the Government used the opportunity to announce funding of $200,000 for research. Michael is well qualified to talk on the subject being bullied for his disability as a child.

To learn more about Michael and send him a word of support for his fight and his activities check out his own website here

All the best mate, get well and give 'em hell !!

Melboring Meedya

2007-07-12T09:53:00.000+10:00

It's a slow week in the news obviously..... and the desperates who call themselves journalists at Melboring Meedya have trotted out the old chestnuts ......

couldnt let the latest offering of nonsense from Melbourne's twisted media go, (you know the ones who mix healthy activity with sitting in a cage with a steering wheel for hours travelling 15klms every weekday and drive to the shops 200 meters from their homes, them)...well it is all stated so well by my mate cfsmtb http://cfsmtb. net and here is what she says:-

"Hi all,The Melboring meedya have been thrashing themselves into a lather again over those two-wheeled road rats. As you can read below, the VicPOL Air wing will be protecting the southern suburbs citizenry from vicious packs of marauding roadies.

1. Chopper squad to notorious bike routehttp://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22049269-5005961,00.html5005961,00.html

2. Air wing tackles rogue cyclistshttp://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22049358-661,00.html

3. Police to tail hell on wheelshttp://www.theage.com.au/news/national/police-tail-hell-on-wheels/2007/07/10/1183833490027.html

4. Hell Riders to feel police presence in heavenshttp://www.theage.com.au/news/national/hell-riders-to-feel-police-presence-in-heavens/2007/07/10/1183833519322.html

5. Hell Ride eyed from skyhttp://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22053023-2862,00.html2862,00.html

****Come to think of it, the only lawbreaking I can observe is a white 4WD crossing double white lines in one of The Age articles.

Don't care much for this totally absurd and inappropriate over reaction?

Then contact the media to get your opinions out there, as so far most of the coverage has had gaps of logic big enough to drive a b-double through.

WoJ Letter writing Guidehttp://www.woj.com.au/resources-and-support/letter-writing-guide

The Age Letters: mailto:letters%40theage.com.auFax: +61 (0)3 96012414Snailmail: 250 Spencer Street, Melbourne 3000

Herald Sun Letter to the Editor: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/editorial/letterFeedback: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/feedbackContact: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/contactus

Media Watch tip-offs: http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/tipoffs.htm

ABC 774 Melbourne: http://www.abc.net.au/melbourne/contact.htm

3AW: http://www.mytalk.com.au/Pages/Contact3AW.aspx

Please feel free to pass on this (email) to anyone you know who would be interested.cheers,Chris ;)

-- ----------------------------------

The modern cyclist is making an elegant and intelligent response to pollution and traffic congestion.http://cfsmtb.net/http://www.woj.com.au/

Thanks Chris... Attitudes will not improve whilst the meedya deliver drivel like this...

"Not going to take it anymore"!! ?

Go to it folks, you'll feel better !

MELBURN-ROOBAIX 07.07.07 -L'Fyxomatosis

2007-07-08T11:07:00.001+10:00

l'enfer du northcote - it was that time again...... time to hit the pavé, crash over the cobbles, beat the jaw, spine and wrists into submission in the 2nd Annual Hell of the Northcote, the Melburn-Roobaix Classic on fixed velo's...

Presented by UGLY RACING, shifterbikes, team-cta, & FYXOMATOSIS the desperate combatants gathered at Fed Square at the 07.07.07 noon gong, under threatening skies, to gloat on the bling of years past, to query inches & ratios, check out Moltemi & Mapei jersey, Duegis track slippers (black of course for the road), and shiver at the prospect of the bone jarring pavé ahead across the plains and cols that are the heart of the now legendary Melburn-Roobaix parcours.

Would my trusty steel steed , equipped with 84 gear inches, roubaix-ready rims with cross laced 32's on Super record, and ancient reliable tubs get me up the "Col d' Ugly...hmm merd! Only the day's end would prove that ( ...it did !..not easy and it was fun,(in a painful way) & but it was an agonisingly common shared experience across the peleton)

....time to go.

Under controlled start of the raised tri-coleur balloons, the peleton eased through the throng of well wishers and moved along the Champs de Birrarung, to the "church of afl" to collect the Directeur's "manifest" at the "G's" light tower 3, then to get on all fours and raise the derriere to the sky in hommage of the place and to plan and plot the "route du enfer".

ah,...hellish Airline Bank lane, argh!! ( 300m of shuddering 8% pave), the apt Little O'Grady Street, (where all genuflected in honour of the red headed annointed one), then Albert Park's Little Page, and the endless Ashworth, 2klms of pavé for those who wanted to shake their teeth from the heads, the side roads are a wimpier but saner option!. Up to the top floor of 189 Flinders Lane to register the empty car park number, (all in now drizzling freezing rain) ...to lift or ramp, that is the question, whether tis nobler in the mind to elevate up and ramp it down, that 'twas the question....then down the lanes of caffiene to that fruity institution Café Tropicana, for a java or mega juice and a flat repair kit courtesy of BSC and l'mangement, merci maitre d'hôte. !, then via laTrobe to Bells Lane a hidden Gem, and on past l'hospital to hidden Vine Place..impossíble!!, on through the park in search of the coeur d'leon the #58 Tram, where was that?, , then Spurway & Cocoa Jackson lanes, ahh for a cocoa... then mérd!!!,

le Col d'Ugly ,,,aggh, say no more but it was all ( almost down hill to the R.O.W and the Velodrome entering to the crowds of well wishers and in a fleeting vision (of the momentous victory) of Le'Stuey!!,

Now that's over, get the to the Brunswick rubbity at the Lamond on Blythe and partake of warming black beer, body heat and gather by the fire, empty the ATM with unexpected mass use, and pick a punt on the TAB.

after congratulating L'generál Andy for unleashing hell once again, 'twas time to leave for a soaking bath, after a quick shower to de mud, find my toes and massage the thighs back into feeling from their state of numbing pain...I was tho'resplendant in the 07 black and red l'Fyxomatosis T-shirt, for a longer term memory fixer, (if such was ever needed)

'twas a day in Hell, wet, soggy, juddering memorable and bring on next year!! woohoo

http://www.fyxomatosis.com/

Be a CycleHero

2007-07-03T12:51:00.000+10:00

Be a "CycleSuperHero"
check it out, enter the competition, save us from climate chaos by responsible transport choices
http://www.cyclehero.com/
STOP PRESS A concerted effort to tackle climate change. The Stop Climate Chaos coalition - of which CTC is a member - has been chosen as the UK campaign partner for the biggest event of the year - Live Earth.JOIN CTC Do you want to be a Cycle Hero? Click here

There's Something Rotten in Hays County, Texas

2007-06-24T22:26:00.000+10:00

Hays County grand jury clears man in cyclist's death

10:33 PM CDT on Wednesday, June 13, 2007

By SHELTON GREEN
KVUE News

A decision by a Hays County grand jury is enraging a community.

Click here for item: http://www.kvue.com/news/top/stories/061307kvueraymond-bkm.4574b756.html

A Hays County grand jury has cleared a man who hit and killed a cyclist in Dripping Springs. An investigator with the Texas Department of Public Safety says the driver broke two traffic laws in the process, but he was never charged or even ticketed. Some are now saying the jury’s decision send out the wrong message.

Members of the cycling community in Hays County say the jury’s decision sends out the message that it’s okay to kill a cyclist, even when you break the law.

But their frustration pales in comparison to a widow who’s now a single mom.

Libby Raibestein

Adam Raymond
“I’m just stunned and angry and disappointed,” said Libby Raibestein. “It’s been very, very hard on all of us, not just my husband’s family, but my family.”

For the past several months, it’s been a mixed bag of emotion for Libby. Her husband, Austin optometrist Adam Raymond, was three weeks away from being deployed to Iraq when the unexpected happened.

Raibestein and her husband moved outside of Dripping Springs a few years ago from South Carolina because of the vast cycling community. The 36-year-old rode at least three times a week, going 20-30 miles on each ride.

Specifically he would ride out in that area on those back roads to avoid traffic.

According to DPS, on March 23, Raymond was riding his bike south in the 1800 block of Mount Gainor Road when he was struck by a pick-up driven by Bradley Danz. An investigator says Danz, who was heading north on the road, crossed into the other side of the road and hit Raymond head-on. DPS estimates Danz going 51 m.p.h. in a 30 m.p.h. speed zone.

“I think he should be held accountable,” said Raibestein. “I'm not asking for Mr. Danz to go to jail, rot in jail, but he could do something to help educate, he could do community service.”

A Hays County grand jury cleared Danz of any wrongdoing last week.

“The grand jury has made a decision in this case, and whether or not I agree with it is not relevant. The grand jury has spoken and we will respect their decision,” said Hays County District Attorney Sherri Tibbe in a statement.

Tibbe told KVUE that her office is going over other options regarding the driver who killed Raymond, but she wouldn’t specify what those options are.

Bradley Danz had no comment on this story.

Friends of Lovegrove

2007-06-02T16:26:00.000+10:00

One of life's greatest pleasures is crafted wine. The Yarra Valley has exceptional wines and among them are the super handcrafted wines of Stephen Bennett at LoveGrove Winery , Cottles Bridge on the Kinglake-Heidelburg Rd between St Andrews and Diamond Creek. Formerly a reknown artists colony and winery with Clifton Pugh in residence, Lovegrove has been producing wines since 1983. This beautiful vineyard belongs to Stephen and his gorgeous partner Louise , who have been making superb wines at Lovegrove since it became theirs in 1997. Over the years I've been lucky to enjoy the harvest and help with the picking along with other "friends"and "grape-grazers". Lovegrove became a given for me, I have developed a love for this place and its product(s).

On June 1, the Friends of Lovegrove gathered for the revelation of the 2005 vintage, three superb creations from Stephen. (mystery descends now...you will have to go and find out all about them...)

The Vinyard at Lovegrove produces, on average each vintage, around 1000 cases, so it is not "glut & punishment" there unlike some broad acre vineyards elesewhere, but rare, superb varietals. The exemplary item that stirs me is Stephen's traditional methode champenoise "Petillant", a bubbly Pinot - Chardonney of extraordinary complexity, hues and surprises.

Stephen flashes his masterly talent in these rare creations. It's a talent for ensuring his berries are picked at a riskily optimum time ( based on skill, a canny sense and heart) to ensure his wines show the rich full concentrated characteristics of his unique hand and eye have captured from the berries.

Drop in when you can , Lovegrove, it's up past Diamond Creek at 1420 Kinglake Hedelburg Rd. Open weekends and public holidays, the Cellar Door in the towering mud brick "art gallery" is a haven for those seeking unique wines at an extraordinarily good price.

Wine Tasting is the way to go, ( but as always be responsible). Check out their website, http://www.lovegrovewinery.com.au/ and pop in...I am biased, you might have guessed, but coming from Pokolbin/Cessnock in the Hunter, its in my blood and so that's my excuse for giving out info on this secret gem so close to Melbourne...... oh, its also on one of the Yarra Valley/Victoria's most picturesque bike rides up to Kinglake via St Andrew's...do it...you'll be glad you didnt miss it ( the vineyard and the ride!)

Tour de Cure

2007-05-30T17:32:00.000+10:00

Support, donate, spread the word....

www.tourdecure.com.au

The Blue Dot

2007-05-27T13:30:00.001+10:00

"we are all we have to save us from ourselves"_Carl Sagan

clipped from www.youtube.com

2007 Ride of Silence

2007-05-02T17:11:00.000+10:00

Melbourne Ride of Silence 2007

To honour the memory of riders killed whilst bicycling and to show solidarity for all who seek safe cycling communities across the world.

When: Saturday May 19 at 10am

Where: Federation Square (opp Flinders St Stn , Melbourne CBD)

Length: approx 7klm

Destination: Via CBD, Docklands, Vic Market Precincts to Parliament House and Treasurey Gardens.

Protocol : Quiet solemn,ride two abreast, communicate by road cycling protocols of hand signals and specific words when stopping or required, otherwise minimal talking . Obey all traffic laws and Police directions. Helmets and Road law compliant bicycles compulsory (Vic law)

Who: Everyone who rides a bicycle, Moms, dads, kids, grandparents, friends and supporters. if you can't ride, meet us at Parliament for the chance to say your piece and talk to the media.

Other Rides: ( same day) Bendigo, Sydney, Brisbane (May19), and in 300 cities around the world on May 16.

Not in Melbourne or near a ride? - organise your own :

for guidlines and information:

www.rideofsilence.org

or contact: Wheels of Justice for some help at:

www.woj.com.au

See you there, bring a friend/s

2005-05-08T01:51:00.000+10:00

si parla Campagnolo !

2005-05-07T20:04:00.000+10:00

Cyclists can still smile in the face of solemnity-we ride, we smile about life!

2005-05-07T20:02:00.000+10:00

Signs of the Times

2005-05-07T20:01:00.000+10:00

Bidons of Sorrow-all that is left on the road after a cyclist is hit and the blood is washed away!!

2005-05-07T19:59:00.000+10:00

WOJ heading up Bourke St Melb.

WHEELS OF JUSTICE RIDE A SUCCESS

2005-05-07T18:55:00.000+10:00

LATEST NEWS:

Melbourne Wheels of Justice - Media Press Release MAY 6, 2005
Today, Melbourne's cycling community gathered at Federation Square and rode to Parliament House to take part in the national Wheels of Justice rides protesting the lenient sentencing handed down to Adelaide lawyer Eugene McGee.
The ride embarked from Federation Square at 9-30 am to Parliament via Swanston and Bourke streets. Simultaneous rides took place in Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane. Cyclists, and non-cyclists supporting them left water bottles with messages for justice written on them upon the steps of Parliament. Black, Red and Blue armbands were worn for remembrance and symbolism, of death, trauma and hit run cycling victims.
This show of support was for Ian Humphreys’ family and friends, and to protest this appalling travesty of justice.
McGee, a lawyer and a former police officer, was convicted of traffic offences surrounding the death of cyclist Ian Humphrey. Ian, a husband and a father of two, was left on the side of the road to die. McGee received a $3100 fine and 12 months suspension of his driver's licence. In the absence of mandatory sentencing, it seems that, if you’re a well-connected lawyer, killing another road user is only a minor misdemeanour.
Around Australia, this travesty of justice has infuriated cyclists with Wheels of Justice rides held in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane supported by thousands of cyclists from all sectors of Cycling together with concerened communities of fed up Australians . Australian cyclists are sick of being continually treated as second-class citizens, being subjected to road rage and inadequate facilities.
In January 2005 a Melbourne cyclist was killed in hauntingly similar circumstances, in a hit-run incident in Plenty Road, Bundoora. The driver too, fled the scene, only to turn up at a police station with lawyer in tow several hours later.
In 2002 James Donnelly, a university student, died when he was struck from behind by a car driven Phillip Josefski, as he walked home from a party on Canterbury Road, Canterbury. The communities’ outrage concerning this hit run incident directly lead the Victorian Government to increase penalties for leaving a scene increased to 10 years.
Enough is enough! These incidents in South Australia and Victoria only serve to reinforce the idea that walking and cycling are the preserve of strange people on the margins of society, and that the act of cycling on the roads is somehow both an excuse for and an incitement to injury or murder. Together we CAN change this despicable attitude and make the roads safer for ALL road users.

STATEMENT FROM THE HUMPHREY FAMILY

Statement by Grahame Humphrey, (brother of killed cyclist Ian Humphrey)
"I would like to thank all of you for coming out today, and the whole
comunity for their supporty. It is important to remember that today is for
everyone who has lost a loved one and has felt left down by the system.
We have all proven that if we band together as a community and let our
outrage be known we can make a difference. We can change the course of
justice and create a better future." STATEMENT ENDS
Grahame Humphrey - Adelaide - Saturday May7, 2005

INTERNATIONALLY :
Internationally, a world wide RIDE of SILENCE will take place on May 18 at 7pm.

50 cities in the USA have organised rides and Australia is adding its suppport to this solemn memorial ride to honor the lives of cyclists taken by hit run and inattentive motorist. All capital cities, many towns and communities will add their voice and hearts to this occasion. Local rides are organised for Melbourne City and Bayside suburbs and cyclists their families and concerned members of the public will attend.

*****************************************************************************************************************
MELBOURNE WHEELS OF JUSTICE

CYCLISTS FOR MANDATORY SENTENCING FOR HIT & RUN ROAD DEATHS

Email: melbicyclejustice@gmail.com
Webs:
http://www.wheelsofjustice.com.au/
http://bicyclejustice.blogspot.com/
http://www.rideofsilence.org

Australia- Cyclists Ride for Justice-Melbourne May 7

2005-05-01T22:44:00.000+10:00

Melbourne's "Ride for Justice-Cyclists" and Angry Public join together in solemn memorial.

Saturday May7, 9-30am leaving Federation Square for Parliament House in Spring Street.

Bring a water bottle with your own "Justice" message on it to leave at Parliament

Ride to call for Justice in memory of the cyclists, police and others killed and injured by hit-run, drunk, and careless motorists.

Ride to raise awareness that Motorists and Cyclists SHARE THE ROAD.

Ride to protest lenient sentencing in Sth Australia for the former Police Prosecutor McGee, turned criminal lawyer who cowardly left Ian Humphries to die on the road after knocking him down, McGee later admitted he had been drinking , but wasn't breath tested and was merely fined and disqualified for driving for 12 months.

Ride to demand more Government action to better educate drivers on rights of cyclists as Road users and for stiffer penalties for those motorists who abuse those rights.

Ride as a warm up for the RIDE OF SILENCE on May 18 at 7pm from Black Rock Clock Tower to Mordialloc and back to St Kilda, an annual Memorial Ride in Silence for all riders killed and injured by motorists in Australia and the USA ( 50cities will ride this year in US) see: http://www.rideofsilence.org/main.php

Ride because you care about safe roads for your children and our communities.

Ride to solemnly show you care for the avoidable losses to loved ones through motorist's senseless and too often callous acts.

Ride...