tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71683890393733236402024-03-13T11:05:01.165+10:30Bike AdelaideA blog about making Adelaide, South Australia, safer and better for pedestrians and cyclistsEdwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.comBlogger267125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-8404630160264929372017-03-26T16:42:00.001+10:302017-03-26T16:42:46.083+10:30Subsidies by Design
We've had some pretty miserable news lately. Just in time for the mining boom to come to an end, the car industry shuts up shop and the last three remaining manufacturers decide to leave within a few years of each other. There is some good news in the form of the decision to have some very expensive submarines built here but at the same time, we are told the building industry is doing it tough.Edwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-90182842388200448122017-01-26T10:03:00.000+10:302017-01-26T10:03:18.849+10:30Two PilotsI blogged a while ago about the city of Calgary's pilot cycle track network. I first heard about it at Velo-City in 2014 after the council had voted on it but before the pilot period began. The (obvious) reason for a pilot is that it feels less risky to the doubters. Also, because it's cheaper than something permanent, you can cover more ground.
It all began on 2 June 2015 together with Edwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-64449381272988866342016-07-31T18:23:00.001+09:302016-07-31T18:23:21.288+09:30Big AnnouncementAt about lunchtime last Wednesday, an announcement was made by the State Government and Adelaide City Council that they would jointly spend $12m to make Adelaide "the cycling capital of Australia". That's $6m each. The money will be spent on extending and modifying the Frome Street bikeway and building a new, dedicated east-west cycling corridor through the city, as well as extending the Edwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-56190010691689968582016-06-09T21:13:00.003+09:302016-06-09T21:13:33.027+09:30TramsThe o-bahn extension along Hackney Road is starting to take shape. I took these pictures a couple of months ago:
This shows recent progress near the bridge over Linear Park:
Eventually (if the plans are correct), this space will be taken by a new bridge alongside the road bridge. Once complete, you'll be able to ride from North Adelaide toward North Terrace on a separate path andEdwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-45192680423688814802016-05-07T11:09:00.000+09:302016-05-07T11:53:58.544+09:30Build it and they will comeIf ever there was proof of the statement build it and they will come, it is the newly opened cycle superhighways in London. Boris Johnson has just stepped down as Mayor to be replaced by Sadiq Khan. The cycle route were one of the last things he did and they were a huge improvement from the cycle highways mark 1, which consisted of a lot of wasted blue paint on select roads.
Depending on who youEdwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-20146332766477298232016-04-02T22:05:00.002+10:302016-04-02T22:05:16.071+10:30New South WalesThere has been a lot of talk and press coverage of new laws introduced recently in New South Wales. Mostly, they increase (massively) fines for various bicycle infringements so that now you face a fine of something in the order of $391 for not wearing your helmet compared to the $71 it used to be.
I still don't understand the need for the increase. I assume it was so that people on bikes and inEdwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-18078413267935564702016-01-21T21:20:00.000+10:302016-01-21T21:20:18.318+10:30Bike ParkingOne of the people I met at Velo-City 2014 was Tina Giannopoulou from Malmö in Sweden. She presented in one of the various roundtable workshops and spoke (in flawless English) about the much-publicised new bike parking station that was built there a couple of years ago. Copenhagenize blogged about it in February 2014 and there are a few more pictures of it here.
Tina had me totally on-side from Edwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-68412075489152759162015-12-10T21:06:00.001+10:302015-12-10T21:06:46.690+10:30ImpossibleThis is a small suburban shopping centre. It is on North East Road at Collinswood on the way out of the city. There are small groups of shops like this all over the place. The bulk of the land is taken up with car parking and there are usually a relatively small number of shops. Generally they consist of a small supermarket, a chemist, a chicken shop and some others.
The second shop along Edwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-51759598786501505792015-11-09T19:13:00.002+10:302015-11-09T19:13:57.248+10:30MeanwhileThe latest South Australian cycling-friendly innovation was to introduce two of the recommendations of the citizens' jury. They were a one metre passing rule and allowing people on bikes to ride on footpaths. Despite the extensive public consultation at the time, it still came as a surprise to some - mostly radio hosts for some reason. Despite a (very) few vocal howls of protest, the regulations Edwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-72449558503178316612015-10-03T23:23:00.001+09:302015-10-08T07:46:08.451+10:30VietnamSo the family and I took a trip to Vietnam. It is a fantastic holiday destination.
For various reasons, notably income and tax levels, Vietnam's road transport system, particularly within its cities, is predominantly two-wheeled. Where it was once bicycle based, it is now mainly mopeds:
One of our tour guides made the point that traffic engineers there design roads that our terrible for carsEdwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-40980376510131424712015-09-05T12:24:00.000+09:302015-09-05T12:24:08.943+09:30Close PassesThis picture was posted on Twitter recently by the West Midlands Police in England:
The caption was "It's close when you can read the writing on the tyres, don't pass cyclists towards a blind crest! #joysofcommuting".
It's particularly hair-raising with the drain right there.
The police later tweeted "Driver will be reported, overtake towards the crest, car came over the crest so the HGV Edwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-48707589120972193472015-08-21T20:15:00.001+09:302015-08-21T20:15:22.051+09:30Walk in my shoesA good friend of mine has had problems with her eyes for some time. Recently she received the disappointing news from the eye surgeon that she's kind of stuck with it now. She's not blind but can no longer drive and she does now require a certain amount of assistance.
She went to the Royal Society for the Blind to get some equipment, including magnifying screens for her PC and iPad, a small Edwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-1691111562865735572015-07-04T14:16:00.001+09:302015-07-04T14:16:09.426+09:30The itch that won't go awayYou would think that adding a protected bike lane to a street would be a fairly mundane affair - almost a non-event.
Not in Adelaide.
The Frome Street Bikeway has used up more newspaper column space and talkback radio time than any other correspondingly minor issue. For the first time in the history of the Adelaide City Council, it dragged enough people out of their homes for it to be necessaryEdwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-84975960246726104232015-04-06T19:32:00.002+09:302015-10-04T10:53:30.430+10:30If I were Mayor - a CBD Bike NetworkOf all the talks at Velo-City 2014, it was the one from Calgary in Canada that I found most relevant to Adelaide. I blogged about it then but just to recap, rather than installing individual bike routes one at a time and having to justify each, Calgary city council (after a lot of deliberation) decided to install a network of routes on a pilot basis. The benefits of the pilot proposal were that Edwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-26583765671817349962015-02-28T17:40:00.001+10:302015-02-28T17:40:27.515+10:30TolkienA few years back I was involved in a project about the delivery of mental health services. It required meeting a few experts to get an understanding of the system. One day, a colleague and I were sent to Sydney to meet a fellow by the name of Dr Gavin Andrews who at that point was Professor of Psychiatry at the University of New South Wales. He was one of those supremely intelligent people you Edwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-41470043096692317442015-02-14T17:53:00.002+10:302015-02-15T18:59:09.822+10:30So are helmet laws sexist or what?Back in May 2014 when our friends from overseas were visiting for the Velo-City conference, there were a few times when it made the news. One time was when a couple of streets were blocked for the breakfast ride. Another was when Mikael Colville-Andersen said 'suck it up buttercup' :-) And then there was the time when the always awesome Sue Abbott made it to the front page of the Advertiser for .Edwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-68730503026013729672015-01-26T19:06:00.001+10:302015-02-07T22:22:58.721+10:30#citizensjuryBack in 2002, the famous Professor Jan Gehl was invited to make some recommendations about how the city of Adelaide could improve things for people. As part of his 83 page report, the Professor made a number of suggestions about changing the environment for people on foot. He also made some recommendations about bikes:
The walking recommendations included some that would have made an Edwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-88051751952020931332015-01-17T21:59:00.001+10:302015-01-17T21:59:17.725+10:30A Useful IllustrationSo I was in Melbourne again recently with the family. They do a lot of things right there. The CBD is humming, there is plenty to do and there is that great public transport system of theirs (depending on where you want to go). It makes you wonder what could be achieved if just some of the money that was earmarked for the ridiculous East-West Link was spent on improving tram and train services.
Edwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-89416150958280130722014-12-23T20:17:00.000+10:302014-12-23T20:17:02.540+10:30Ahead of the packA recent article, that made it to the front page, told a lot of us what we already knew - that for some routes in the morning rush hour, it is quicker to ride a bike. The RAA tested four routes using a car, bike, bus, train and tram and on three out of the four, it was the bike that was quickest - by a fair margin.
The testing was actually quite vigorous. This was how it was described on the Edwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-17237937704954921272014-11-10T18:51:00.002+10:302014-11-10T18:51:53.298+10:30The next few slow yearsWhile our Dutch friends, without any fanfare at all, continue to update their already superior transport network, our Danish friends do the same and city mayors in the United States try to outdo each other in reforming the design and function of their city streets, the small burst of energy we have just seen in Adelaide, that led to the very short and really quite conservative little bikeway on Edwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-43382933236250835872014-10-25T17:31:00.002+10:302014-10-25T17:31:54.577+10:30UnforgivingAn 8 year old boy's life was taken away from him a little while ago in Sydney. He was riding close to his home when he was hit by a car. He dies soon after his arrival in hospital.His family will no doubt never recover and nor will the driver of the vehicle involved.It happened at the intersection of Paddock Street and Capertree Street, The Ponds, in Sydney's west. This is a view of the Edwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-4479599651978800942014-09-21T11:23:00.002+09:302014-09-21T11:23:38.580+09:30The Citizens' JuryI don't know if it is a first (probably not) but you will know doubt have read that the SA Government's "Citizen Jury" has been tasked to address the problem of cars and bike sharing the road and how they can do it safely. This is its second task. First time round it was asked to consider the issue of ensuring we have a vibrant and safe nightlife.
With the vibrancy question, in its final reportEdwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-65389464011690574032014-08-09T16:14:00.002+09:302014-08-09T16:14:18.098+09:30Why I'll be voting for the other guyNot long ago, I received an email from Mark Hamilton; one of the candidates running for the position of Adelaide's mayor. It was a very helpful email. Even though I do not live in the Adelaide City Council area, the fact that I am self-employed and working in the CBD means I am nevertheless eligible to vote.
That was very good of Mr Hamilton. I won't be voting for him though.
Mr Hamilton was Edwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-82865817191108928762014-08-09T16:03:00.001+09:302014-08-09T16:03:24.932+09:30Can I quickly mention helmets just this once?I was minding my business just the other day when I saw a young child being pushed along at walking pace on a small tricycle via a handle that the child's mother was holding. The child had a big pink helmet strapped to her head. Because you never know.
It reminded me of one of the events at Velo-City 2014 and the fact that Australia can sometimes be a very odd place.
Nik Dow and Freestyle Edwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7168389039373323640.post-36702250344056698132014-06-07T15:32:00.002+09:302014-06-27T20:12:38.287+09:30What I learned at Velo-City 2014At first glance, Adelaide may seem an odd place for hosting the Velo-City conference. When you think of the names of cities around the world that might be described as cycling friendly, Adelaide is not at the top of the list. We have wide roads dedicated solely to motorised traffic and it is rare to see traffic calming on even the quietest residential streets. Nevertheless, thanks to the work (Edwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03412247742128741823noreply@blogger.com2