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The Forum > Article Comments > Cycling won't get Australia moving > Comments

Cycling won't get Australia moving : Comments

By Brian Holden, published 27/4/2010

Cycling may work for some, but the reality is, the majority of the adult population is not psychologically and physically capable of riding a bike up a hill - and never will be.

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"It is that the majority of the adult population are not psychologically and physically capable of riding a bike up a hill - and never will be."

Darn you Brian, I am the mistress of the provocative statement. You've beaten me to the punch.

Let us consider Leo Schofield's restaurant review, many years ago now when he wrote, of a certain Sydney restaurant, that the crayfish was dry and poorly cooked - and always will be.

It's the 'always will be' that undid him in the successful defamation action. Personally I think cyclists are bullies and riding two abreast is simply giving us car drivers the fingers. They deserve all they get.
Posted by Cheryl, Tuesday, 27 April 2010 10:58:40 AM
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Coincidentally there was a post on The Melbourne Urbanist about the potential of motor scooters only last week:

http://melbourneurbanist.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/will-the-streets-of-melbourne-look-more-like-hanoi-than-melbourne/
Posted by Claudiecat, Tuesday, 27 April 2010 11:00:11 AM
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I agree Brian

Here are parts of a very useful ABC Online article to support your bikes are dangerous argument http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/04/2761546.htm :

"(December 4, 2009) ...Official bike injury statistics are based on police records. But not all bike injuries are reported to police, and the report shows that 98 per cent of cycling injuries are not showing up in official statistics..

"We found that only 2 per cent of all cyclist injuries were on the police data base," he said.

In Melbourne, the head of emergency at Sandringham Hospital says cycling injuries have all the hallmarks of an epidemic.

"I use the word epidemic because there has been a true increase in adult cyclists having injuries. And I think it's caught many of the health authorities unawares," Dr James Taylor said.

"And what we have discovered here at Sandringham Hospital is that it's an increasing number of adult cyclists. The majority of our injured cyclist here are adults, mostly men in their 30s, 40s, 50s. So these are the very productive years.

"[In] these years an injury can cause a month or more of disability, and if the worker is off work for a month or two that is a huge cost to them and a cost to the community...

...Dr Taylor says a simple broken arm can cost $6,000 in medical bills and sick leave, and if a cyclist has internal injuries it can cost tens of thousands of dollars."
---

My Comment - So bikes may be low in carbon emissions and healthy IF a rider never crashes. But when a rider does crash (49 times more often than officially recorded) there is no neatly engineered crumple zone or airbags of the type used to protect car drivers.

A bike rider's only crumple zone is his little helmut or mostly his bones breaking on the road.

Pete
Posted by plantagenet, Tuesday, 27 April 2010 11:44:37 AM
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My 2c worth:
Cycling has grown greatly in selected high SES neighbourhoods, a new demographic has been drawn to cycling. Such neighbourhoods are the ones where council and government are looking after cyclists better because the riders are also well-off and well-connected. Off-road and on-road cycling both have had great rates of growth. However, while cheap bikes are available, they lack the durability to offer reliability in the long run, particularly with off-road riding. Often the cheap bike is very heavy in weight making it more onerous to use than the ideal bike, made with frames etc of aluminium or alloys, or even ultralight materials.

As long as inequality continues as it is, and unless the price of an ideal quality bike drops greatly (perhaps a new quality Chinese manufacturer comes on board) there won't be a mass penetration of cycling achieved for commuting purposes because of its lack of affordability. Public transport is also unfriendly to people who wish to carry bikes thereon (needed by many whose journey is too long to undertake wholly by bike). Buses could all have bike-racking mounted outside, as in Canberra. Apartments to have built for each one a mandatory secure storage space downstairs when there is no garage and lift, for example I live in a very low-SES neighbourhood and could not risk leaving anything lying about and expect to find it in the morning.

New changes to the urban landscape need to consider pedestrians and cyclists as stakeholders with equal or greater weight to that of motorists. Its unlikely to ever happen in Australia.
Posted by Inner-Sydney based transsexual, indigent outcast progeny of merchant family, Tuesday, 27 April 2010 12:29:53 PM
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Bicycles are a partial solution for the future.
Government and local government planning has simply projected forward
the number of vehicles on the road from the growth rate over the last
10 years and make the assumption such rate will continue.
It will not !

The cost of fuel will force more people onto public transport.
Oil prices are expected to rise very significantly from 2012 to 2015.
Early in the changeover car pooling will be popular and that will
reduce the number of cars on the road significantly.
It will not be possible to extend railways into the expanding suburbs
and in any case in a no growth economy the funds will not be there.
Fortunately in Sydney the line to the North West is a branch line so
they might just find enough money to finish it if they get stuck in now.

Unfortunately there are no signs that governments are prepared to
acknowledge the elephant in the corner.
As is becoming clear overseas the politicians are aware that we are
staring at a time of fuel shortage and very expensive fuel.
However they seem to be like the rabbit in the car headlights.
Any action that governments could have taken to mitigate the problems
are now too late, and we may not have the resources.

Australia produces 50% of the oil we use, so it is possible we could
use scooters for a considerable time, supplemented by a small amount
of biofuels. Electric bicycles would also be successful for short trips.
Posted by Bazz, Tuesday, 27 April 2010 12:39:41 PM
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Oh dear, a 'well meaning author' dips his toes into the cycling 'debate' drawing the usual gormless comments about cyclists riding two abreast...not long before the 'why don't they pay rego'?' lament goes up too.

Sure, governments at state and national level are paying some attention, mainly lip service, to cycling.

But it's funny how other nations can manage to cycle, and drive vehicles, and co-exist, and not wear helmets, and not have high accident rates.

So, what's happened to the Oz myth of 'fair go'?

Where the ANZAC spirit of 'mateship' on the roads?

The creation of bike lanes should not have to happen at all, but the truth is that vehicles go too fast for their own good, and our insurance costs, health costs, damage to individuals and whole families, so perhaps we could look at a range of issues and not just concentrate on 'being held up' by a pesky cyclist?

The cry for 'more visible clothing' shows just how useless vehicle drivers are. Where the calls for 'no black-grey cars' to prevent these dunce car drivers being crashed into by other dunce car drivers?

Why no call for helmets in cars to help prevent brain damage?

Of course, not every person is going to ride, or want to ride, a bike. But we do know that more would, if the roads were not 'so dangerous'.

The roads are not 'so dangerous', but certainly far too many women think it is, and a swag of men too.

Also, the rising tide of electric assisted bikes is great for those not quite able to cycle as far and as high as they might like to.... see your doctor first of course.

Shame articles like this get a run, with just opinion offered.

I'd start at the Cycle Promotion Fund, then move to the state bike groups, particularly the Victorian one that organises 'ride2work' each October, before going to youtube for some cycling videos from Europe, and for Oz, see the Mike Rubbo youtubes he puts out from Victoria, particularly on electric bikes, and the cycling councillor.
Posted by The Blue Cross, Tuesday, 27 April 2010 3:11:23 PM
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