Cycling Advocates descend on Canberra

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CycleSnail
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Cycling Advocates descend on Canberra

Postby CycleSnail » Fri Feb 27, 2015 5:43 pm

Cycling advocates from all states are meeting in Canberra next Tuesday for a workshop and a dinner with politicians, and on Wednesday there will be one-on-one meetings with parliamentarians to discuss cycling issues.

West Australia will be represented by WestCycle (in the form of CycleSnail).

What are the top three issues we should ask for, that can be dealt with at the Federal level, and will benefit people who ride a bicycle to shops, schools, train stations and places of employment?

If you want to get a bit of an overview of all West Australian cycling issues that we want to have resolved, look at this graph
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wellington_street
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Re: Cycling Advocates descend on Canberra

Postby wellington_street » Fri Feb 27, 2015 5:53 pm

1. Safe passing legislation
2. Change legislation to permit riding on all paths, except where explicitly signed as no bicycles, and across signalised and zebra crossings. Where 'no bicycles' signs are put up on a path, the adjacent road has to be made 'cycle friendly' for a casual cyclist (e.g. cycle lanes or a 30km/h shared zone with speed cushions)
3. All federally funded road projects to include on-road cycling facilities as well as shared paths - the only exception being freeway-type roads where a parallel PSP should be provided. Given you are talking to Federal politicians, this is probably quite relevant.

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Timeonabike
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Re: Cycling Advocates descend on Canberra

Postby Timeonabike » Fri Feb 27, 2015 7:21 pm

1. Federally funded road projects to have separated cycle and pedestrians paths; No more PSPs.
2. A greater slice of fossil fuel, cigarette, booze and car taxes to be allocated to cycle friendly infrastructure.
3. Reduction in the lifetime health cover loading for active cyclists.
4. Scrapping of tax benefits for Toorak tractors.
5. Introduce federal road safety laws specific to cycling safety, including strict liability laws as per the Dutch

ikm
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Re: Cycling Advocates descend on Canberra

Postby ikm » Fri Feb 27, 2015 7:32 pm

Container deposit scheme
Cycling to school and involving children in cycling.
Safety, including safe passing and better infrastructure

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Re: Cycling Advocates descend on Canberra

Postby CycleSnail » Fri Feb 27, 2015 8:11 pm

Thanks, great suggestions so far. And a broad perspective (how come I am not surprised!)
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Timeonabike
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Re: Cycling Advocates descend on Canberra

Postby Timeonabike » Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:43 pm

Timeonabike wrote:1. Federally funded road projects to have separated cycle and pedestrians paths; No more PSPs.
2. A greater slice of fossil fuel, cigarette, booze and car taxes to be allocated to cycle friendly infrastructure.
3. Reduction in the lifetime health cover loading for active cyclists.
4. Scrapping of tax benefits for Toorak tractors.
5. Introduce federal road safety laws specific to cycling safety, including strict liability laws as per the Dutch
Add Junk Food Tax to #2....

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Re: Cycling Advocates descend on Canberra

Postby Grgic » Sat Feb 28, 2015 12:14 am

Cycle to work scheme
Salary sacrifice bikes.
http://www.strava.com/athletes/3420668? ... ce=top-nav" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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yugyug
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Re: Cycling Advocates descend on Canberra

Postby yugyug » Sat Feb 28, 2015 10:11 am

1. Repeal the MHL, or relax it for paths.

2. Dutch style strict liability.

3. Protected infrastructure.

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Drizt
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Re: Cycling Advocates descend on Canberra

Postby Drizt » Sat Feb 28, 2015 12:37 pm

Mhl number 1, for shame

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ColinOldnCranky
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Re: Cycling Advocates descend on Canberra

Postby ColinOldnCranky » Sat Feb 28, 2015 3:06 pm

PUBLIC END-OF-TRIP FACILITIES

Public End of Trip facilities in the Perth CBD have been touted in various places including the Bike Plan from memory. While those who tenant big new sky scrapers are usually well serviced with showers, bike lockup, lockers and other facilities, most workers in the city do not have them. With the best and most generous will in the world a small restaurant, coffee shop or hairdresser is not going to be able to provide end of trip facilities. Not having fresh clothes waiting and not being able to shower and pack away the towel and sweat gear would be a deal breaker for almost all workers in the CBD.

Unlike much of infrastructure and cycle support needs, EOT facilities are not complicated by hard to make decision on competing use of resources. It just needs the will and some funds. If we provided for, say, five thousand, I can easily imagine it resulting in an several thousand riders getting out of cars and trains and onto bikes.

I suspect that most things that will be raised by WA and elsewhere will already be on everyone's radar. Give the delegates something fresh to think about?

Good luck Heinrich.
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Thoglette
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Re: Cycling Advocates descend on Canberra

Postby Thoglette » Sat Feb 28, 2015 3:28 pm

#1 Federal funding based on ROI, not "fix the roads" opportunism (good luck, see what happened to infrastructure Australia's proposals)
#1 a) federal road funding to contain cycling funds (per others) or tied to state/local govt providing EOT facitilies or last-mile paths etc.
#1 b) get customs off the wharfs and into the various freight hubs. Connect hubs to ports by rail lines (currently these chew up much port side land then materials are trucked to freight hubs) with bonded carriages/rail.


#2 fix negative gearing. Roll it out over ten years and, like the slow-boiled frog, no-one will notice. While this does not appear cycle related, it massively distorts investment, cost of living and tax basis - all of which do affect cycling.

#3 Fix road and urban development standards, proactively
a) lean on the road standards bodies to review .eu practices for low speed (ie 30kph) roads with an aim to issuing suitable AS/NZS standards so that new property developments can be pedestrian & cycle friendly and unfriendly to large vehicles. (eg. allow issue-of-permit/removal of street furniture for full size truck access)

b) lean on the town planning standards to ensure that rights-of-way are left to allow light rail to be added later.

I'm leaving container deposit out as this really is a state/local govt issue - and needs to be addressed as a "cost recovery" exercise by those levels of govt. Likewise congestion taxes, based on vehicle size and weight, need to be done by the states. But these could be tied to #1 above.

Likewise no-one in
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CycleSnail
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Notes from the Australian Cycling Summit 3/4-Mar-2015

Postby CycleSnail » Fri Mar 06, 2015 12:03 pm

Australian Cycling Advocacy Groups met in Canberra to agree on a common position to take to the Australian Government. The meeting was organised by Stephen Hodge from the Cycling Promotion Fund (CPF). CPF is funded by the Australian bicycle industry. The bicycle industry met at the same time.

Activities

On Tuesday 17 Australian cycling advocates from all states discussed major issues in regards to cycling and agreed on three suggestions to take to federal politicians. WestCycle represented the WA position. BWA was present with their CEO and a board member, representing their organisation.

The summit aimed to highlight the economic, social and environmental benefits that cycling provides to the Australian community.
The three issues addressed were congestion, cycling safety and obesity. The cycling recommendations in regards to obesity and congestion were agreed quickly. The discussion in regard to cycling safety, with the proposed solution of supporting a legalised safe overtaking distance, was quite robust, and took up more than half the total meeting time. The issue endangered the meeting, at one stage it looked like some participants would walk out, which then would have meant that there was no unified position to present to politicians. This was finally averted by very careful wording of the proposed solution…

Here the three talking points taken to the politicians (heavily abbreviated):

Infrastructure – Congestion costs $20 billion pa. Ensure that transport infrastructure projects include riding and walking. Safety – Road toll has decreased, but bike rider fatalities have increased. Australian Road Rules Maintenance Group to assess a minimum overtaking distance. Health – Inactivity related illnesses create indirect costs of $58 billion per year. The national response to physical inactivity to prioritise active transport options such as walking and cycling.

In the evening a dinner at parliament house was attended by over 100 politicians, cycling advocates and cycling industry representatives. Keynote speeches were given by the Dutch Ambassador to Australia and Rose McArthur, transport planner for the London Olympics and the 2018 Commonwealth Games. A document with the three cycling “asks” and the rationale behind them was given to all participants.

On Wednesday there were meetings with eight parliamentarians, in addition to a meeting with the chief policy advisor of the prime minister. In each case the three “asks” were presented in a manner tailored to the interests of the politician. Each meeting was attended by Stephen Hodge (Cycling Promotion Fund). A quick result was a motion in the senate one day later that listed the benefits of cycling as a means of transport, and asked for a funded national cycling strategy.

Christopher Jones has written a summary of the activities as well
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Re: Cycling Advocates descend on Canberra

Postby rolandp » Fri Mar 06, 2015 9:26 pm

Is BWA going to provide an update? Nothing on face book, nothing on their website, nothing on their emails out.

And they ignore my questions to them on Facebook :)

Glad you went.

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ABC 720 Bicycle Forum 12.03.2015

Postby CycleSnail » Thu Mar 12, 2015 8:05 pm

I did not want to start a new topic,but thought some notes of the ABC forum this morning might be of interest:

ABC Bicycle Forum 12.03.2015

Well attended, Labor, Liberal, Greens were all represented, as were organisations representing motoring and cycling. The one hour slot was tightly controlled by Geoff Hutchinson from the ABC and his team. This meant there was little random discussions.

Topics mentioned included:

Money spent on cycling, and the need to spend more
Principal Shared Paths to be designed wider to allow for increase in cycling
Riding in groups because it is safer than riding as an individual
Safer to ride a bicycle in chaotic Italian traffic than in Perth
Visibility of bike riders – should they be forced to wear high-viz clothing?
Bicycle parking at train stations and integrating cycling and public transport
Safe legal passing distance
More deaths of vulnerable road users than motorists?
The need to have protected bike lanes
Cycle Super Highways in London can carry 3000 bicycles per hour (the same as a freeway lane)
More bike riders on the road make cycling safer
Separating cyclists from pedestrians or cars depends on speed and volume of traffic
Education should precede legislation, but legislation is still required
WA drivers are the worst in Australia (this came from a motoring organisation….)
Tendency of victim blaming (in relation to high-viz clothing etc)
Cycling investment provides an excellent return on investment
We are not using bicycle for short trips
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Thoglette
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Re: ABC 720 Bicycle Forum 12.03.2015

Postby Thoglette » Fri Mar 13, 2015 12:52 am

CycleSnail wrote:Visibility of bike riders – should they be forced to wear high-viz clothing?
Only when I'm required to where hat, sunscreen and full length sleeves at the beach. And a helmet & five point harness in the car.
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Re: Cycling Advocates descend on Canberra

Postby rolandp » Fri Mar 13, 2015 1:00 am

Heinrich, is there a podcast of this morning. Some of us were at work at this time.

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Re: Cycling Advocates descend on Canberra

Postby Marmoset » Fri Mar 13, 2015 12:32 pm

HI viz will only work when there's legislation forcing people to look and think!

I nearly got knocked off last week in my hi viz jersey, 7am, bright day, had my lights on and still came within 2 feet of getting knocked off on a roundabout again.

No problems the day before in a dark jersey as the driver was aware of what was around them.

I think such legislation will just play into the hands of insurance companies rather than providing a reduction in incidents.

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Re: Cycling Advocates descend on Canberra

Postby CycleSnail » Fri Mar 13, 2015 12:50 pm

This is a letter I sent to the West Australian today:

More riders means more safety

Getting more people riding bicycles is the key to making the streets of Perth safer for cycling.

The more people out there riding on Perth streets, the safer those streets become. If people see kids riding to school, or commuters cycling to work or the train station then they are more likely to look out for them when they’re driving. It’s about safety in numbers.

To attract more people onto bikes we need to create an attractive environment for people to ride in. This means building proper infrastructure that physically separates bikes from car traffic and lowering the speed limits on our suburban roads to 30 kmh.

This makes the streets safer for pedestrians, people on gopher cars, drivers and people riding bicycles.

Suggestions such as forcing people riding bikes to wear high visibility clothing seem attractive at first glance, but are misguided and aren’t a real solution to cycling safety. This sort of thing makes cycling appear dangerous and would only discourage cycling.
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Timeonabike
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Re: Cycling Advocates descend on Canberra

Postby Timeonabike » Fri Mar 13, 2015 3:58 pm

Marmoset wrote:HI viz will only work when there's legislation forcing people to look and think!

I nearly got knocked off last week in my hi viz jersey, 7am, bright day, had my lights on and still came within 2 feet of getting knocked off on a roundabout again.

No problems the day before in a dark jersey as the driver was aware of what was around them.

I think such legislation will just play into the hands of insurance companies rather than providing a reduction in incidents.

Couldn't agree more

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Re: Cycling Advocates descend on Canberra

Postby citywomble » Fri Mar 13, 2015 10:18 pm

Heinrich,

As usual I Agree with virtually everything you say, however, I would apply some caution with this statement:
lowering the speed limits on our suburban roads to 30 kmh.
Not because I don't agree with 30 km/h speed limits - I do. It's just that the term "suburban roads" is too broad and allows the scaremongerers to whip up sentiment against lowering speed limits across Perth as a whole, which is not the intention.

What we surely need is to have 30 limits in the "local streets where people live" which is Roads that ARE Places. You are correct that if we can do that then we will have more people riding bikes to and from places near where they live.

Those streets that are Roads that ARE GOING Places, which are Local Distributers and above remain at the current 50 km/h and those roads are the ones where cyclists should then be physically separated from car, bus and truck traffic. That way, by only seeking the 30 km/h on local streets where people live you only impact the last 500 to 1000m or so for any car driver (just 15 - 30 second in time cost). Far less emotive for the freaks, press and TV reporters and far more defensible by cycling advocacy groups.

After all that is exactly the model that works in Europe under the "Integrate where possible and only segregate where necessary" philosophy.

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Thoglette
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Re: Cycling Advocates descend on Canberra

Postby Thoglette » Sat Mar 14, 2015 1:14 am

citywomble wrote:.. in the "local streets where people live" which is Roads that ARE Places.

Roads that ARE GOING Places, which are Local Distributers and above
Nice set of definitions. doubleplusgood, in fact
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Re: ABC 720 Bicycle Forum 12.03.2015

Postby Red Rider » Thu May 14, 2015 6:54 pm

Better late than never, I found recordings of the ABC 720 Bike Forum on Soundcloud:

Part 1
Part 2

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