all cyclists I know treat cycling like the new religion. And worship their bikes as they wd a deity in a temple. To really help get Australia more healthy I would make it mandatory that obese have to attend swimming centre and a gym for set period until girth reduced. Even if some subsidies in place to make it happen. Wd reduce eventual health costs to improve plight of morbidly obese. Many wd be too fat to get on a bicycle yet. And I wd either ban those stupid chocolates/fizzy drinks machines anywhere unless had proportion of fresh frfrut as well

VERY good point- which is often missed.

Firstly I think we need to convert MANY highway-side footpaths into cycleways- because they will NOT be used for anything else! THIS I guarantee!

Secondly, and very importantly is to consider that Australian cities are, in terms of area- FIFTY times larger than even capital cities in Europe. FIFTY.
Amsterdam or Frankfurt one could WALK to the other side in less than an hour.
Sydney or Adeliaide you would well start at dawn and finish at Sunset!
And not everyone has access to transport without driving half the distance to access IT as they would to simply go the whole distance and park.

As soon as cars are actually treated like legitamate transportation (and there ARE already electric cars in Europe), the sooner our roads might have some glimmer of hope of improving.

King Hazza...."As soon as cars are actually treated like legitamate transportation"... you are being 'just a little funny here' are you?

How we all LARFED!

Tell us all what impedes cars in their brutal advance on our environment, please.

What, are speed limits too low?

Not enough roads?

Too many buses getting in your way?

Too many road rules 'holding you back'?

I'm all ears.... where is there any hint that cars are not THE default choice in our community?

Of course, we have far too many long distance trucks on the road, and far too tiny a railway system, and absolutely no coastal shipping which should be taking all sorts of junk around the edges of the nation-state we live in.

But that is because trucks are seen as 'legitimate' and rail is not, plus, far too much of rail is now owned by trucking firms.

Why is it not possible for you to share a very wide road with a slower moving vehicle, a bike?

Are you not 'up to it'?

Should you actually have a licence?

The elephant in the room is the excrement that this article truly is; the solution is a change of attitude, more public transport (buses, trains & trams) more and better bike lanes in and around the city and suburbs and LESS access to motor vehicles.

The benefits are obvious. Idiots in cars (and a few of them are in the forum) are the most obnoxious hazard on the roads today. Whether they're texting and talking on their mobiles and 'accidently' veering into my bike lane, or not paying attention to the road as they 'accidently' veer into a bunch of riders, their attitudes need to change.

In a nutshell cyclists and cycling NEEDS to be promoted and given PRIORITY access to roads and the police need to support this, and only then people will get the hint and change. Cycle, PT or Scoot: Cars are soooo last century.

Glad you asked, Blue, I would love to elaborate.

As of now, Cars ARE the primary transportation choice of most Australians, due to the lack of proximity to viable uses of public transport or cycling for many people to take them where they need to go, and factors, such as lack of physical power to cycle in many, greater size of the cities and public transport being overburdened, disgusting, uncomfortable or simply too slow, to mention a few.

However, an alarmingly large amount of green proposals relating to roads and transport- especially regarding bikes and public transport very readily resort to reducing the accessibility of car users on the road as a quick-fix to offset the lack of infrastructure for the other options- and often treat driving as a negative and to be discouraged (on the assumption that ALL cars are combustion-engine cars). This even plays into urban planning (especially for the CBD).

As for any other gripes- indeed, but it owes more to the horribly poor urban planning over the past century in each city- as opposed to something remedial by new policy, in which parts of a single city connected by city streets here would in fact be two separate towns connected by an expressway in Europe.

But I have noticed a LOT of unused walkways that could double as cycle lanes along many highways- hence my suggestion that there should be widely broadcasted sections of road that advise cyclists to move onto these instead of the road.

I hope you are satisfied with this brief overview.