Cyclaholic

12 March 2009. The key to winning support for Sydney's dramatic increases in bike spending was continuous, thorough and open engagement with the community, Lord Mayor Clover Moore has told a Melbourne audience.

Her plan to spend $70M in four years to build city wide path network aroused heated opposition at first. Residents who imagined that their on-street parking would be threatened campaigned vigorously against her, but her independent team won an increased majority.

Now Sydney has embarked on Australia's most ambitious build out of a bike network: 200 kilometres in total, with 55 kilometres of separated cycleways and the rest comprising dedicated and shared bike paths.

This is a 20-fold increase in the City's budget for bike infrastructure.

This level of investment, essential if Australian cities are to adapt to a carbon economy, has long been considered impossible in Australia,

"Our goal is to have 10 per cent of all trips undertaken by bicycle by 2017 -- that's a 500 per cent increase," the Lord Mayor said.

"Our research shows that 56 per cent of occasional cyclists will not cycle because of the perceived danger from other traffic."



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atbman

You have cities that move in Australia?

Wow! Whateverwill they think of next?

Seattle Forrest

Well, technically everything in the universe moves. If a city in Oz stopped moving, the whole day/night thing wouldn't work anymore, let alone seasons.

This is clear as a muddy lake, but I think what he's saying is something like "A lot of people who bike for fun on side roads, won't do so for work/errands/trips they use their car for, because of ..."

If that's even remotely like what he meant, I think it's a problem that goes beyond Australia. But it's good to see them tackling the issue ... and wouldn't it be a surprise if Oz wound up having model cities for bike transport? It looks like they're building a physically separated bike path, which should help some of those cyclists overcome their worries about being hit by an inattentive driver.

How is the weather in Sydney? Does the sea breeze prevent the summers from being unbearably hot? Do you get rainy winters? Will that be an issue for 10 % of all trips being done by bike?

Cyclaholic

Tectonic plates

Cyclaholic

The weather here is very conducive to year round cycling. We have a subtropical/temperate climate.

I remember reading a study a while back that around half of all cited objections to cycling as a means of transport were to do with fear of sharing the road with motorized traffic. Considering that Sydney is consistently rated in the top ten cities in the world for aggressive drivers, it's not an unfounded fear. The stuff I read about here that crazy cagers do to you guys that gets you starting threads are pretty much just part of my daily routine. It's rare for me to not get deliberately run off the road, yelled and honked at, ect. which is why I'm excited about any infrastructure initiatives that will separate me from traffic with physical barriers.

nancyj

TheHen

Mayor Moore reminds me of the former mayor of Sacramento, Ann Ruden, who single-handedly brought back the trolleys to the big Tomato in the '80s. Unfortunately, the fight was so bloody she left politics after her success.