Originally Posted by crank'n
Theres always going to be knockers of a good thing. Iv been to four bike week breakfast's in the city and the numbers are growing yearly thankfully, so the awareness is growing out there ,takes time for change to filter through and adjustments to council priorites to be made,in the system from all levels, i think people get frustrated with the system / well if theres no votes in it for the pollies they won't touch a problem in some departments. Im lucky to live in an earea that cycling is at least a priority.Trans Perth are doing there bit by supply bike lockers, and cycle paths are getting laid. Looking forward to bike week'05 and another water bottle and a great breakfast and chatting to other cyclist to swap views from other suburbs.
I was back in Perth a month ago (clearing out stuff that has been in storage since I lived there seven years ago) and was impressed with the bike lockers. But realistically, how many people actually use them? I did not see anyone putting in or taking out a bike... although I wasn't travelling by train in peak hours. What I did see, however, was plenty of people taking bikes on the light rail, which I thought was pretty impressive.
The reason I ask about the bike lockers is that if the elected reps (the pollies) see them *not* being used, or some stirrer in the community picks up on it, questions start being asked about wastes of money and how these bluddy whingeing cyclists don't appreciate what is spent on them. It's a real question and a real problem.
By the way, I am a little aware of things over there because I lived in Perth for over two years, and took up cycling while there. I also have been Tasmania's rep on the Australian Bicycle Council, and in that role, gained reat respect for Russell Greig, of BikeWest. His is/was a promotional role, and I figure people like him are much more aware of and effective in dealing with the issues than the droll traffic engineers who usually end up managing cycling facilities (using motor vehicle and pedestrian principles rather than cycling ones, and by putting the issues in a too-hard basket).