"A metre matters" and it needs to be law

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/theurbanist/2013/05/08/are-cyclists-mere-obstacles-to-motorists/

Following the Court result the week before last bicycle riders of Brisbane and Queensland have been called to action like I have not seen for some time. Following the court decision both the Brisbane CBD BUG & Amy Gillett Foundation made vocal the need for a minimum passing distance of 1m when a Motor Vehicle overtakes a bicycle. This was further pushed when Safe Cycling Australia with the help of MP Bruce Flegg launch a Queensland Parliamentary E-petition calling for Minimum of 1.5m passing distance. As of this morning the E-petition has reached 4100 signatures, if you are a Queensland resident please sign this.

Due to the Court Decision the CBD BUG to further highlight the current failure in the law last Friday organised an awareness ride with the help of the Amy Gillett Foundation. It is my understanding the CBD BUG put a lot of effort into getting this to be the best it could be. While the official title was "A Metre Matters Awareness Ride" it was unofficially named the "Ride for Richard" after the poor bloke that was killed. Luckily the family of Richard for lack of a better term gave there blessing to the ride.

The ride to have relevance was held out in Kenmore in the mid west of Brisbane between the Kenmore Roundabout and the Western Freeway/Bikeway on Moggill Road. Moggill Road is sadly where he lost his life. Like many Brisbane arterials this corridor is not a friendly place to get to by bike, the last kilometre has no shoulder and is dangerously narrow. Disspit this there was over 65 bikes gathered in the shopping centre car park bikes to take part in the ride as well as MP Bruce Flegg before the start. While as you imagine there was the Lycra on road bikes, there was also folder bikes, Mountain Bikes, E-bikes, city bikes & even a velomobile. Naturally this meant as well as Lycra many people were wearing normal everyday cloths. This has to be said is an indicator of how important this change is desired. Even more riders apparently joined just as the ride began as they had been delayed getting to the meeting point. The ride went off without a hitch apart from the group breaking up a little. This was always going to happen with such a mix of riders. I have to say thank you to the Lady in the 4WD that held up traffic to allow the group to get off the Western Freeway onramp lane and back onto the Moggill Road traffic lane.

sourced from www.smh.com.au

With all this the event did get some much needed media attention including Brisbane Times, ABC  Local "squeaky wheel" and Channel 7. Sadly Channel 7 when with the "Us Verse Them" angle and asked some "Choice" motor vehicle drivers about the concept. Never the less they did add the like to the e-petition on there website.

Apart from that lets hope the laws are changed because they need to. Currently BQ is deafeningly silent on the issue but with this amount noise and surely they also will get behind the push. We need the law changed. While it is true very few cyclists are killed the way Richard died inadequate passing distance is a major source of intimidation and scares many off riding. If there was a true minimum passing distance it people would feel more reassured when riding & if something does happen there is more tangible outcomes.

Once again I feel for the family of Richard.

 

Cyclist run over and killed - Driver gets nothing

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/cement-truck-driver-luke-stevens-found-not-guilty-over-death-of-cyclist-richard-pollett/story-e6freoof-1226635894242

In what can only described as disgustingly disappointing a "professional" driver has got of scot free after running over and killing a cyclist. This has resulted in many that ride bikes in Brisbane to be very much angered and there are calls for a protest ride.

This accident can be partly based on the poor law regarding the overtaking of cyclist in the Queensland Road Rules. The fact is there is no minimum distance required under Queensland legislation for a motor vehicle to overtake a cyclist. It basically means a car can overtake you with a few centimetres to spare and it is completely fine because they did not hit you. For this reason the requirement for a minimum passing distance of 1metre is being called for. I wholly support this move. While 1m is not enough at certain speeds it at least means there is a minimum, which is far better then no minimum in my thinking.

I feel for the family of the killed cyclist. There is no way to say how upset they must be.

Stereotypes, Thanks Courier Mail

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/theres-a-definite-pecking-order-among-bicycle-riders-around-brisbane/story-e6freon6-1226549812826

Why oh why is it when you ride a bike you have to be stereotyped. I have previously written about how I hate being stereotyped just because I ride a bicycle and the Courier (trash) Mail did it again this morning. It is written by a so called "Michael Scammell is a bike-riding freelance writer". The way he has written his opinion piece as left some in the Brisbane cycling community questioning that fact.

According to this so called "bike riding freelance writer" there are four types of people that ride bikes.

• Lycra wearing aspirationalists with $1000 bikes that do the Sunday morning thing
• Beer drinking "McBikes" with $2000 bike that want a McMansion that don't ride it
• Utilitarian masses that get a $200 supermarket special bike as a toy to use with the kids in a park
• and then the "Car hating" "Mobile Vegetarianism" "Political Statement Making" "Cycling True believers" who don't even seam to ride because they enjoy it.

Oh great so I am one of four types of people. Mind you I find these grouping kind of weird and confused. First off the first two seam rather muddled up. From my casual observations I would say it is the "aspirationals" that have the $2000 bike out on the morning ride more than the people out in McMansions. Honestly I watch bikes when they go by and most group riders have a bike worth over $2000. So that means his first two groupings are in my opinion are wrong & confused!

Lets try the next grouping "utilitarian". Well according to the Australian Macquarie Dictionary the dictionary of Australia, definition point two and I quote

having regard to utility or usefulness rather than beauty, ornamentality
 

and the definition of "utility"

the state of character of being useful
 

Some how I do not see how having a bike as a toy can really be described as utilitarian as I have never hear of a toy as a utilitarian object before. The fact is $200 supermarket bikes are mostly ridden for recreational purposes as that is what riding around a park with the kids is, it is recreation. While in dead these bikes can be used for useful purposes the majority are recreational devices that in most cases are lucky if they get ridden twice a year. That makes his third group description invalid.

Then there is the final group which I guess I must fit under.  Mind you I am NOT a vegetarian, I am not Car Hating nor Political Statement Making. Well on that last one maybe just a little well ok alot. But I don't ride because I want to make a Political Statement, I ride because I want to go somewhere. I ride because I enjoy being out in the open and being active. I ride because I like being independent of having to worry about public transport fares or fuel costs. I ride because it is fun.
I RIDE BECAUSE I CAN.
and that when it come down to it is why people ride, because we can. It is not about being part of a stereotype, it is about getting somewhere or doing something because we can.

The fact is this was piece of mindless dribble that could not even correctly describe the stereotypes that do exist and when he tried to describe people that ride in normal clothes, because they can he basically called them all hippies because riding "because you can" seams foreign to him. For someone that claims to be a "bike-riding freelance writer" he knows very little. I would say someone is a bit insecure about there social status!

oh and here is the stereotyped bikes he described

 

Gold Coast Bulleton - Stupidity from the South Coast

In an opinion piece that was published yesterday in the Gold Coast Bulletin it would appear that one of there so called Senior Journalists Danial Meers has no sence of the law or the facts. This piece of trash writing is a follow on from another equally ignorant piece he wrote about the Gold Linq Light Rail project that is currently under construction. So to do give a rebuff I thought I would pick some inanely stupid bits out and tear it to shreads.

THE time has come to declare war on cyclists.

Oh yes like being a cyclists is like being a soldier that is now means we are at war. What does this mean? Does he propose that a person riding a bike should be run down and killed. Should a five year old child should be now considered the enemy and have a target placed upon them? What a stupid remark to start with.

Book them when they hog half the road and motorists can't get past. Book them when they cut motorists off at roundabouts. Book them if they are outside the bike lanes and book them for having a pack mentality.

This shows a clear lack of understanding of the Road rules. First off we are allowed to occupy a lane if required. We can be fined if you ride outside a bike lane if it is free of obstruction. And what Book us for what, Pack mentality oh yes because a small group of people riding there bikes is so much more of a threat to the peace then a group of drunken men yelling and screaming at the general public as they walk from one pub to another

Police and the State Government love giving themselves pats on the back for statewide traffic operations. Stopping speeding and drink-driving and lowering the road toll, but nobody ever mentions a word about cyclists.

Obviously this man is ignorant of the blitz that Queensland police do on the bikeways of Brisbane each winter!

Nobody, I repeat, nobody shares the arrogance that cyclists have.

All I can say to the this one is if I am arrogance it is nothing compared to your ignorance of the law and/or the facts!

 Each morning I go running. OK, some of the power walkers overtake me running, but I still run.
I meet a friend at her place every morning which is about a 3km drive from my home.
It takes me a good five minutes to get there.

 Why exactly are you driving to go for a run? That is as about as smart as driving to go to the gym to jump on a treadmill. Oh what ever happened to common sence?

Because at 5am the streets of Broadbeach and Surfers Paradise are filled with cyclists. They ride in packs, big packs of 20 and they take up the whole road in their lycra gear.
I'm stuck sitting on 30km while they ride.

First up it's 5am when would you prefer them to ride in groups, during peak hour perhaps! Second, I am yet to find a group that is not able to exceed 30kmph, more likely they are riding at 40kmph and you despise the fact that you have to drive a whopping 10km less than the speed limit.

They know I'm behind them, yet they make no attempt to move.

Perhaps because it is not safe, or that they are possibly travelling alot faster then you disclose and you have an inferiority complex about being behind a person on a bike compared with your ultimate is display of Australian masculinity your car?

There's a rogue peloton of cyclists abusing fellow road users and screaming to wake sleeping residents as it barrels through Surfers Paradise every morning at 5.
Woken residents who return fire with yells of "shadup!" are subjected to tirades of abuse from riders as they blast along narrow Garfield Terrace.

There is no way that I condone noise at that hour. If they can't talk at a reasonable level indeed shut up but wait "Barrels Through" I thought you said they were only doing "I'm stuck sitting on 30km while they ride." Questions time?

Now, the cyclists will argue there aren't enough bike lanes on the Gold Coast. Council and government don't provide them with the facilities to ride.
There's a reason for that -- you wouldn't use them anyway.
It would be a waste of money building more cycling lanes because cyclists think they should be running the roads.

First off bike lanes are generally designed for single file destination riding not group training rides. Next, last time I checked bike lanes were on the road, fool!

Bicycles are just as big a danger to road safety as some of the other driving crimes which contribute to serious accidents.

Oh yes because how many cyclists have killed people compared with drink driving? What a load of rot.

Enough is enough. Motorists need to start manning up and being vocal about the issue.

Yes because people riding bikes don't already yet verbally abused and threatened with physically violence already!

Roads are for cars, not bikes.

Once again ignorant of the road rules

Make some noise people, win the roads back before something really bad happens.

And believe me, it will.

 Because the hundreds that die on Australian roads each year because they are forced to drive through poor bicycle infrastructure and poor public transport services is not already bad enough.

Honestly how is it that people with so little knowledge of the Law and of simple facts can get a job as a reporter!
No wonder Journalism students on ther first day in eithics classes get told they wont need them in most firms!

 

Magpies - black & white terrors from the sky

The Australian Magpie is one of the most loved animals in Australia and one of the most hated by people that ride bikes. While the Magpie does have a beautiful song it does have the nasty habit of being overprotective of it's young and it's attacks are viscous.

I have to admit when I was a kid I liked Magpies. They were just a bird that I saw out in the country side and it is not hard to see why I liked them. They are intelligent carnivorous birds that hang around picnic grounds where the hope to be and are feed by us humans. This connection of us feeding them makes us think they are our friends and we like that. They are also a very attractive medium sized bird with glossy black and white plumage. All this endears them to most people, but then again most people do not walk or ride a bike. The fact is while the magpie can feel like a friend, to many people that walk or ride a bike they are the black and white terrors from the sky.

According to the Queensland Department of Environment only a small amount of magpies swoop. I have to say this does not make the threat any less terrifying. You may think the word terrifying is an exaggeration but when you are riding along at 25kmph plus and you have a bird trying to take out your eye it is exactly that "TERRIFYING". Why does this happen well during the latter part of the year magpies begin to breed and like any animal there hormones start to race. This means in most cases the male will become aggressive however sometimes the female will also join in (myself "Enjoying" one of these male female tag team attacks and figuratively sh**ting myself in the process). Some people say there not that bad but I would love to question those said individuals "do you drive most of the time?" The fact is Magpies can be extremely dangerous with cases where people have lost there eye sight.

While I am a great lover of nature, when Human Safety is put at risk I will go straight to human safety. This is generally the same stance that Governments will take, which made it astonding when I went to the Department of Environment to report a dangerous Magpie that targetted my otherhalf's eyes and drew blood, the form was gone. I know there was form to fill out but it seams that the government has pulled it from the website which is highly disappointing. It seams that the government may be trying to aviod litigation under the "if we don't know we can't be held responsible"!

What can be done is the main point here. Well personally if this behaviour is hormonal and only a small amount of bird swoop maybe the removal of these birds is required. Artifical selection has worked on other spieces why not on the magpie. It is just a shame that the govenrment would rather let us get swooped and have blood drawn. Then there is the fact that the Magpie is a open woodland bird. The planting of more trees would reduce the occurance of swooping. I am yet to be swooped in an area with heavey tree cover and reasonably low foliage. It is just not a place where a magpie can get a run up which is part of there attack.

As far as I am concerned problem birds need to be removed and paths need to be protected from attacks. Magpie attack scare thousands of people each year and must surely contribute to people not riding.

Oh and here is you tube clip showing all the ways people try to get around these horrible black & white terriors.

SMOG - a reason to ride, a reason to advocate

As I sit typing this posting I look out over the CBD of Brisbane and all I see is a disgusting browny grey haze. For anyone that is not Australian this is what we call smog. Smog is a no go word in Australia it is something that other countries suffer from. How could we suffer from that we are the "wide brown land" we have vast open spaces but the sad fact is that we do suffer from it and it is disgusting. What is more disgusting is that we cover it up with words like "haze" or "fog" but the sad fact is the past two days Brisbane has woken up to SMOG. Don't get me wrong we do get fog but this is not fog it is SMOG. Most of the time all we need is a little scrub fire on the city outskirts to show just how dirty our air is but I don't think that is the case this time. I have been unable to find any reference to scrub fires for past two days.

Like most cities Brisbane suffers from smog because of the overuse of the motor vehicle. In the 2006 census over 80% of all trips in South East Queensland of which Brisbane sits were made by motor vehicle. Then there is the fact that over 50% of all private motor vehicle trips in Brisbane are less then 5kms. It is so disgusting that on certain mornings you can see from vantage points the smog rising up over the arterial roads leading into Brisbane. This is one of the reasons why I ride, and why I whinge my head off to Council and Government. I hate smog and what it does to people's health. It is part of the reason why I ride, I don't want to add to that. Smog is disgusting stuff but the fact is you will breath less of it in by riding a bike then by being in a car.

The fact is if there was more high quality cycling infrastructure in Brisbane there would be more people on bikes and less people in motor vehicles creating less SMOG. SMOG is just a reminder to me that Brisbane needs to break it's reliance on roads and turn to high quality bicycle infrastructure and public transport.
OH and why I continue to annoy council!

30kmph speed limit - Crappy Today Tonight Report

http://au.news.yahoo.com/today-tonight/latest/article/-/14418808/frustrating-speed-limits/

I have to say this is the reason why I do not watch commercical TV because you can not trust them to report things completely accurately. This lovely piece of work was aired on that "Bastian of truth and fair reporting" last night Today Tonight. It is regarding the concept of reducing the default speed limit in residential streets to 30kmph. I have to say as usual the reporting was mostly one sided and sensationalised. Instead of wasting my time stating the obvious lets just look at the people they spoke to, all this information I had to search for there was no links on the website so I could better inform myself! I wonder why?

John Cadogan the so called motoring expert
"He has a degree in engineering" but in what discipline. For all I know he could have a degree in hydraulic engineering, but what has that got to do with traffic speeds! Unless this engineering degree is quantified to me it means nothing. According to his own website (see link below) he has "20 years as a freelance automotive journalist in print, TV and radio". To me this means this guy has a vested interest in making sure motorised traffic can move is fast as possible because lets face it he may loss some of his readers and roles if he started saying that all motorisd vehicles should travel slower. This guys had the most air time of the three blokes they spoke to. The best quote from this guys is where complains about how public transport is having trouble at the moment handling current loadings. I hate to state the obvious but so is the road network you fool! He also left out the fact that the Public Transport systems have suffered from decades of under investment because of so called motoring experts have been demanding extra funding for roads that just fill up within years acheiving nothing in the long term!
http://www.cadoges.com/about/

David Jones from the RACV
This guy I could not find his official webpage. That said again a vested interest has he is representing a motoring body that is all about allowing motorists to get from A-B as fast as possible. This guy is an "Strategic traffic and transport engineer and planner" which means he does have knowledge in the area but because of his employer it has to be taken in context. The best quote for this bloke is "higher variablitly in vehicle speeds, higher risk of vehicle crashes & involving pedestrians and cyclists" now this may of been taken out of context as we do not hear what the reporter asked but isn't the idea of lowering speed limits about reducing the variablity of different travel modes?
http://au.linkedin.com/in/jonesdr

Dr Bruce Corben - from Monash University Accident Research Centre
Now this poor bloke go a mear 8 seconds of clear air time and is proablby the most repectable in my mind. In that short time he says that at 40kmph you are twice as likely to die as if stuck compared with 30kmph but ofcourse that is all we hear. Hummm I wonder why?
http://www.monash.edu.au/research/profiles/profile.html?sid=701&pid=5764

Ofcourse as one that rides a bike I know all to well why slower speed limits are required and it is clearly stated in on satitic they bring up. 12% of servayed motorist by the TAC admited to speeding to all or most of the time. A motorist slightly speeding above 30kmph is far less likely to kill someone complared with a motorist slightly speedng over 50kmph.

Ofcourse this kind of story is very old news to me. Back in the late 90s a similar story was aired when residential speeds were dropped from 60kmph to 50kmph. They had the same kind of skewed reporting back then as well. Just like back then they did a speed test and just like back then it came back with a similar result, reduced speed limit does not result in vastly increased travel time in urban traffic environment. Over 8kms this test came in at around 30 minutes for traveling at both 50kmph & 40kmph however at 30kmph it came in at 32minutes. Ofcourse anyone riding a bike could tell them this because in an urban environment most of your time is spent sitting at traffic lights and interestions.

All I can say is bring on the 30kmph speed limit. It will make local residential streets safer and far more pleasent places to live instead of rat runs for impatiant indivuals that choose not to use the main roads and arterials.

PS spell check is currently not working

I told you light up! Accidents

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/unlit-cyclists-face-greater-injury-20120726-22vep.html

According to the above article a rider without lights at night is three times more likely to suffer a serious injury/accident then one that is riding with lights. I have to say this is no surprise to me really. There has been countless times when out of the dark a NINJA (unlit bike rider) appears dead in front of me. I jump, I swerve and he just rolls past ignorant of the dangers! Honestly as I posted in a previous post getting some good head lights is not that hard now!

What is more interesting is the other statistics that are posted in relation to the accidents

74% are male
- a reflection of the fact that women are less likely to ride a bike in Australia

99% have a licence
- so much for the "you don't know the rules of the road" argument or rego for that matter

81% rode 2-3 times a week and 62% rode more than 3 times a week
- this means that they are well and truly experienced in riding a bike

65% rode more than 50kms a week
- it is very easy to make that, your work place only has to be 5 kms from your house and work a 5 day week and hay you have ridden 50kms in one week.

93% cyclist wearing helmets
- I will not touch this one with a ten foot barge pole!

57% were travelling at 20kmph or more at time of crash
- funny how every abusive motorist always proclaims we can't do more than 10kmph when were in front of them thou. My last accident was well over 20kmph, I have a lost memory to provide it!

The bicycle types most frequently involved in crashes were drop bar road bikes

(44%), hybrids (25%), mountain bikes (14%) and flat bar road bikes (9%).
- This one is very interesting, but reading the entire document would explain why!

As to the entire document it can be found below, pleasant reading
http://www.monash.edu.au/miri/research/reports/muarc311.pdf

Importance of Lights

As we in Brisbane are in winter this post seam totally appropriate.

One of the things I hate is people that ride without lights at night. There is nothing worse then coming around a dark blind corner ringing your bell and almost hitting some ninja twit. It is not only important to ride with lights at night is also a legal requirement in Queensland. I have been watching bike lights getting cheaper and cheaper in the last 5 years. They really are amazing what you get for $50 these days. Years ago I got one Headlight and Tail for around $65. They were good for there time but they were nothing great and they were not lights that could really be used in the dark paths that scatter the city if you intended to travel at normal speed.

It was often the case that if I hit a bump with the headlight on it would turn off. I would then be forced to bash the thing with my fist (like some mad cartoon character) and hope the thing would turn back on will still travelling at speed. Then there was the rear light that also if I hit a bump after a while would fall out. I would often be listening out for the familiar sound of plastic hitting bitumen and slam the brakes on and do a quick U turn. Then pull the head light off and start looking for the bits to put back together and start off again, hoping that in the mean time a car did not come along and crush the parts.


That was then and this is now. Since then the lights have not just got better but so have the mountings that hold them to your bike. All my current lights have mountings where the lights slide on and click into place. Because this is Australia my lights are all battery powered. One day I will get around to fitting a hub dynamo but for the time being I will live with battery. Now this is a point people complain about, replacing batteries because after a few months the cost will mount up. I have gotten around this problem by using rechargeable batteries. Rechargeable batteries are not as expensive as they use to be and the quality has improved as well. In reality today you can pick up a charger and 4 batteries for less then $30s. When you consider some single use batteries are almost $10 for a 2 pack, rechargeable start to make financial sense very quickly.

These are my lights attached to my bike. As you can see is I have both two front and two back lights. Like I said before we run on batteries in Australia and this means you can have flat batteries more often then you wish to. This is something you do not want to happen on a wet night. To get around the flat battery problem I got two of each. It means I never worry about not having a light but two other things

• First I never worry about recharging until the battery is dead flat
• Second while the batteries are sitting in the recharger at home I still have one working front or rear light.

The other advantage of having two lights is your light output is doubled which for some reason makes things more than twice as easy to see. The other thing you will see is that the lights have been mounted in a way in which the reflector still functions. This is not only also a legal requirement but is backup in the event of both lights failing.

 Like I said I hate when people ride without lights. I bought my lights at local Bike shop because of the warm fuzzy feeling thing but if you really want to get them for as little as possible here are a couple of links.
Come on you will be doing everyone a favour if you are illuminated.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Categories.aspx?CategoryID=679
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/light-sets/?o=1

PS. Oh yes I do have two floor pumps in the background

Tony Abbott - you have to be joking

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-30/abbott-pledges-to-fund-roads-repeal-carbon-tax/4102374?WT.svl=news0

"Almost nothing signifies progress like building new roads" this is a quote taken from Tony Abbott in the link above. Honestly is this guy for real! This quote was made during an announcement regarding road funding. Now don't get me wrong funding towards roads is important but not in our major cities. The fact is over the past 50 years governments keep spending more and more on roads and it is getting us nowhere even faster then it did before.

Within this funding totalling almost $4 billion is $1 billion for the Gateway Motorway. Now the Gateway is a very important road but the fact is Brisbane's Public Transport is facing an meltdown. The Busway system is facing gridlock at the main choke point Culture Center Busway Station. This is so bad that during afternoon peak over twenty buses can be seen waiting to access the station. It is also so bad the newest BUZ route the 340 is the first bus route to be directed out of Culture on becoming a BUZ route when it originally serviced the Culture Centre Busway station. Translink says it is to provide better connection to the Gabba and the route 29 and while there is some truth in that the fact is culture is at capacity. Then there is the Rail system, the Marivale Bridge is expected to be at capacity by 2016. The State Government both previous and current agreed that a new crossing the Cross River Rail is required and both agreed that it would need majority funding from the Federal Government. Why did Tony Abbott not pledge funding at this announcement as he said he had consulted with Infrastructure Australia!

Then there is the road network. The fact is the majority of congestion on the road network including the Gateway is because the Public Transport network is not appealing due to decades of underfunding. Much of the congestion is due to people driving into inner parts of Brisbane them being Charmside(north), Carindale (east), Indooroopilly & St Lucia (West) or Garden City (south) points that should be the easist to access. A perfect example of under funding is the recently opened Northern Busway. Busways are excellent forms of public transport infrastructure and make bus travel as pleasant as rail travel but are suppose to be dedicated with no interaction with the general road network but the newest section has a 1.5km gap where buses have to mix it up in general traffic again. Now this was to be a BUS LANE to make it a little faster but politics got in the way and they have not been installed as required. Now this would require on last estimate around $1 billion to provide the required tunnel and Busway station at Windsor Train Station. This current gap heavily limits the busway capacity and decreases it's appeal.

Then there is the bikeway network or lack of it. Many tens of thousands of trips a day could be taken off the Public Transport and road network if there was a network for safe travel and I bet the funding towards the Gateway does not include a bikeway even though it is travelling through metropolitan Brisbane. To say it would not be used is an out and out lie. The current parallel bikeway that only runs as far as Toombul to Boondal is used by commuters. It is a long route and does a dirty big dog leg but it is used and is quite fast with it being almost dead flat and reasonably straight. It is used mostly by people of the North Eastern Bay suburbs to access the inner northern parts of Brisbane and even some going further into the CBD.

The fact is a single lane of
rail line  = 30 000 people per hour
Busway  = 18 000 people per hour
bikeway = 1800 people per hour @ the fraction of the cost of a roadway
freeway lane = 1800 cars per hour @ 1.2 people per hour that is 2160 people per hour
All this points to one simple fact, even if the new upgrade to the Gateway widens it from 2 to four lanes only 4320 extra people per hour can be carried per hour in each direction. This is less then the capacity of the current services on the South East Busway in the counter peak direction! or just over current capacity of counter peak services on the rail line between Central and Northgate. All in all a waste of scarce funds at uncertain times like we are currently in. Then there is the fact that people that have to live in car dependant areas have to dedicate more of there limited funds especially if they lose there job to transport because they have no other options!

As far as I am concerned this $1 billion should of gone towards the Cross River Rail project. Funds should directed to where they are needed most and where they can give the most benefit to everyone. Giving funds to a road project when a cities Public Transport system is about to meltdown is about as stupid as one could get!
And this guy wants to become the Next Prime-Minister of Australia!

here is some footage from You tube of the Cultural Centre Busway station during afternoon peak.

And the gap of the busway

Bicycle Parking - Princess Alaxandria Hospital

Being able to park ones bike at Queensland Government buildings and facilities has long been a bug bare of mine. I have always found it to be hypercritical for a Government at one time to be claiming they want more people to ride bikes as a form of transport but yet to provide no parking. Now honestly would anyone really drive a car if there is no place for them to park there car when they reach there destination. The answer is a resounding NO so why is it expected that people riding bicycles would do that!
Early in 2011 it come to light within the Brisbane cycling community there was no bicycle parking at the Princess Alexandra Hospital. The PA (as it is better know) is the second biggest hospital in the Brisbane and is therefore a major trip destination. While some sat on their hands and whinged the cause was taken up, and in late 2011 some parking was provided. It is understood that in the email it was clearly stated the most logical location for the parking would be near the main entry. This is not what occurred.

In the above image a RED B in a circle indicates where the bike parking has been provided, a GREEN B indicates where it should of been provided. Where they have provided the parking, it breaks three of the four guidelines provided within the Queensland Governments own notes for the placement of bicycle parking.

• It is not near the main entrance
• It is not easily visible, in fact unless you are looking for it you would easily miss it.
• It is in an out of the way location

The only thing that it is not breaking is it not being sprayed on by irrigation systems.

Here is some photos I took when I was last at the PA hospital, it should be noted that they have only provided enough space for four bikes but on the day in question there was 6 bikes on the site as you will see from the pictures

The bike parking partly hiding under a pedestrian overpass. Bike 1 & 2

Locked to a railing near the main entrance. Bike 3

Locked to a pole near the main entrance, beside the walkway to the Carparks & Busway Station. Bike 4

Locked on the opposite side of the walkway to the other bike. Bike 5

Locked to a railing in the walkway between the Hospital & the Busway Station. Bike 6

It should be pointed out that I had to add where the bike parking is to the PA Hospital map myself, in the six months since the parking was added the map and the website have not been updated to reflect what has happened. What is also disappointing is the Hospital thinks that it is suitable to provide bicycle parking in a spot that is out of the way reflects on how they view people that ride bikes. The PA Hospital and in fact Queensland Health should be promoting people riding there bikes to a hospital, after all is Heart Disease not one of the major killers in Australia!

Manner's and Overtaking

It is funny how some people think that just because they have to get somewhere that they do not have to have manners. The thing is they are just like everyone else "having to get somewhere". Like has been said before people with manners are slowly decreasing as people become more and more inward dwelling. Some people pretend that the lack of manners on the roads is only displayed by motorists others say only cyclists in my opinion everyone is being a right royal B**stead recently.

One thing that drove me nuts is the manners of overtaking another cyclist on your ride to and from work. As most people know many Ozzies are competitive so if you are going to overtake you better do it quick and fast and have the energy to keep accelerating. If there is one thing that drives me nuts alot of the time it is someone that overtakes me then just cruises. Most of the time these fools will do it on a dangerous curve or a blind corner just because I slow down and play it safe. Honestly a blind corner is the worst place to be able to judge an other cyclists speed. After all if you save energy on a corner you can spend it on the acceleration out of the bend.

The other day I was travelling north to south across the storey Bridge this Long Haired Twit decided to overtake on a really stupid point. I had just crossed under the bridge on the South side and was entering the path from the road for the Eastern Path. Now there is a short steep ramp with a slight bend up to the bridge path proper. Now cyclists southbound come down this path at a good clip which is perfectly safe as long as everyone keeps left. Well as I was starting my whinde up climbing the ramp this Twit overtook me then another bike in front of me. It was a good thing there was not a bike coming down at the time. Now this annoyed me as my whinde up is slow because i want to get a good line of sight before I accelerate. Well I saw red and just went for it which didn't take much as he wasn't any faster then me. Now you may think I went to overtake him but no I didn't. You see the Storey Bridge is very windy and we had a head wind, so I sat on his tail all the way across.

I have learnt the saying "don't get mad get even" is so true because nothing annoys certain cyclists more then some bugger drafting off them. So this is my advise if some dangerously stupid bugger decides to overtake you but doesn't have to speed on the straights, sit on the buggers tail. Make him works his guts out while you can just cruise and draft off him.

It's Not That Hot

First off this is a whinge at people and the media.

Right that is out of the way.
It is not that hot. For the first time this summer we have actually had a hot day. Yesterday the temperature in Brizzy broke 36 degrees but not a muggy 36 a dry 36. Yes I said it a dry 36 degrees. It was reported on the ABC news that the humidity was 20% this resulted in people being hot but not sweaty it also felt cooler then the day before that was infact cooler but wetter. Oh brother this is not news it is summer and it is spose to get hot. What is news is when back in july 2009 it hit 36 degrees.
36 degrees in Summer is not news
36 degrees in Winter is news.
Honestly comeon people we live in the Subtropics.

In other news even with the heat (of summer) people continuted to ride there bikes to work. The Storey Bridge and the South East Bikeway were both very busy with people returning to work after the Christmas break.
One of the biggest myths of riding a bike in Brizzy is that it is to hot. This is a myth that I intend on explaining on in up coming posts.

In the mean time
Come on people it is Summer enjoy the heat before Winter arrives