Newcastle has better facilities for commuting riders than many cities (certainly there are some great bike paths for recreational riders) but there is much room for improvement for those riders competing with traffic.
For the past few years, Bicycle Victoria has organised an annual visual bike count of commuting riders in various cities and suburbs around Australia, and this year the Super Tuesday Bike Count is on Tuesday March 1 between 7am and 9am.
As you can imagine, the information gathered at these counts is vitally important in helping campaigns for better cycling facilities.
You can register as a counter here, and if you nominate a group such as a school or biking group, you will receive $50 for your group as a reward!
If can't help count, you do ride to work occcasionally, and you live in one of the 47 municipalities participating in the count (scroll down for the list) make sure you ride to work on Tuesday March 1, 2011 so that you will be counted :-)
Cheers,
4 comments:
Luckily I am able to ride to work a few days a week and it is amazing how some motorist treat cyclists. My husband was knocked off his bike once by someone who turned in front of him claiming he didn't see him. Thank goodness he only received a few bruises.
It is great that something like this visual count is happening. Hopefully it will make motorist more aware of cyclists and encourage more people to use bikes instead of cars.
My husband rides to work quite frequently too, and we ride around our city as a family quite a bit. Here it is called "being doored" when someone just opens their door without looking. People often die from it or wind up in the hospital badly. FREAKS ME OUT!
I don't know if you do it there, but here (Portland, Oregon, USA) the bicycle of anyone who is killed by a motorist is then painted white and then permanently mounted to the spot. It is called a ghost bike. Hundreds of cyclists come out in all white clothes and ride in silence to dedicate the spot. The idea is to bring awareness to motorists and constant vigilance reminders. It is eerie but amazing.
They look like this: http://musclepowered.org/2008/03/04/bike-safety/
Hi Bruise Mouse,
Yes, my hubby has has two very near misses with the same thing, one of which was a large truck who had the nerve to then shake his fist angrily at my hubby for "being in his way"!
Hi Granola Girl,
Ergh, yes, I had a friend at school killed the same way, so I can assure you it freaks me out as well! Oh my gosh the ghost bikes and riders are freaky - I love that it would get so much attention, but it's horrifying that someone has to die for it to happen... We have white crosses at the side of the road here, although they are mostly for car accident victims.
Cheers, Julie
Hi Julie, We love the bike paths here in Newcastle - how lucky are we! (I'm only just getting into regular recreational riding). My hubby commutes 20km across the city each day, and advocates riding to work at his company (he doesn't tell me about the scrapes). He'll be a counter on super Tuesday Bike - lets hope it encourages the councils to increase the support for cycling safety.
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