Truck trial ban in Geelong

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This is what Bicycle Users Geelong submitted to the feedback on the truck trial ban in Geelong.
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The Central Geelong truck trail has had a positive impact on Mercer and Malop St.
Anecdotally, Malop street in particular seems:
• less scary to ride on
• has less noise pollution
• reduced diesel fume pollution
• is safer (fewer heavy vehicles are mixing with busy pedestrian areas).

We at Bicycle Users Geelong are very happy about the truck ban. Some of our members have reported positively about the quieter and safer streets.

We feel it should be extended indefinitely and Council should really pressure VicRoads to reduce heavy vehicles on Ryrie st. It seems to be taking more trucks and is worse off for it.

More generally we’d expect that Council and CoGG staff are working really hard to prioritise active transport over vehicles (as specified in the last few City Plans, Central Geelong Actions Plan, Health and Wellbeing plan, and recent Central Geelong Parking and Access Strategy).

Geelong Council told to ‘fix’ parking by getting people on bikes!

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A report by consultants (go to pg 154 of the PDF to see the actions) submitted to council to ‘fix’ parking in central Geelong has some very specific cycling related short term actions (3 out of 13 in fact)…

“Central Geelong is at something of a turning point. There will never be an easier time to make the following changes that are necessary to secure a more sustainable future:

• Reallocation of road space to create bus and bicycle lanes to give people real alternatives to travelling by car. Geelong has a good opportunity to create world class conditions for cyclists.

• Explore the potential for facilitating shop-top housing by way of provision of high quality bicycle facilities and encouraging the establishment of share car services.

• Review and update Council’s bicycle strategy in respect to a finer grain network within Central Geelong. Implement the findings as a matter of priority”

Mayor and Councillors adopted these actions at the last council meeting… So we can all confidently assume change is coming.

Do you want lower speed limits in your neighbourhood?

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Locals across Australia are being asked to join Bicycle Network’s latest campaign ‘Low Speed Locals‘ to introduce lower speeds in neighbourhoods where bike riders, pedestrians and drivers share the roads.

Low Speed Locals is calling on Australian bike riders and other road users to write to their local council’s Chief Executive Officer or Councillor and ask for slower speed limits, or, work on streets which would slow down traffic.

What good is lower speed limits?

Vehicles are killing,  maiming,  injuring, too many Geelong riders!

“Pedestrians and cyclists struck by a motor vehicle travelling at 50 km/h have about an 85% chance of being killed, while at 30 km/h this drops to 10% (WHO 2008).”

Source the heart foundation report.

Dropping speed limits just 10km/hr in busy areas like schools and shopping strips will reduce the risk of injury.

What you can do:

Bicycle Users Geelong have made an email template to help you make your roads safer –  follow the steps:

  1. Copy an paste the text below into a new email. To: councillor@geelongcity.vic.gov.au (find out who is your councillor to refer to them by name)
  2. Replace the ‘XX’ with existing and desired speed limits of the street you want changed.
  3. Add the name and contact details,
  4. Customise the message  – make sure your message includes what matters to you!

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Dear Councillor Name,

I am a {your suburb} resident.

I am concerned about the safety of {STREET NAME}, particularly the speed that vehicles travel… I feel safety would be improved and lives saved if the speed limit was reduced from {XX}km/hr to {XX}km/hr so locals can feel confident riding and walking.

Please consider my request and happy to discuss this further. I appreciate your time an support for safer roads.

Your name
Address
Suburb
Mobile number

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Bellarine rail trail petition

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Bellarine rail trail chicanes

Sign our petition to get the Bellarine rail trail chicanes fixed… We’ll get it to Geelong Councillors.

We speak to many cyclist about need to remove the existing narrow and unsafe chicanes.  This would encourage more riders, allow cargo bikes, tandem bikes, and touring bike to get past them. Even parents pushing prams have difficulty. A new treatment like this bike safe photo is what we are advocating.

Read the background to the problematic Chicanes on the Bellarine Rail Trail.

Our submission to the Geelong Environment Management Strategy

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traffic-pollution

Below is  submission to the City of Greater Geelong Environment Management Strategy draft. Let us know what you think.

We recommend important changes to page 21 of the draft –  this part particularly:

Transport

  • Influence – Number of bicycle riders counted on ‘Super Tuesday’ (held annually in March) Increase
  • Influence – Length of dedicated bicycle paths Increase
  • Influence – Number of school bus users (from Department Education records) Increase

Increasing the number of people who bike, walk or use the bus has many important social and environmental impacts. However, the targets for transport in thisstrategy are not well defined. I believe CoGG could achieve these targets without effort –  Greater Geelong’s strong population growth (say an increase of 2,000 – 3,000 people) would almost guarantee:

  • a few more bike riders on super tuesday
  • a few more kids on a school bus
  • and a few more metres of asphalt on the end of a bike path.

Our suggestions below aim to give the targets defined goals (our changes/additions in red):

Transport

1.       Influence – Number of bicycle riders counted on ‘Super Tuesday’ (held annually in March), ‘Ride to Work Day’ and from the ABS ‘journey to work’ statistics – 5% increase

An  ‘increase’ of just one rider per year on super Tuesday could indicate a target reached for the sustainable transport. But it would only be a indicator of business as usual –  our aims have to be concrete. If 1000 people ride on ‘super tuesday’, we should try to get 1050. We need a defined number increase to drive an effort to achieve. Also we need to measure other data… One count on one day cannot be an indicator growth in active transport. There is more data that should be included eg: ABS journey to work data.

2.       Influence Direct – Length of dedicated bicycle paths established by CoGG  – 5% Increase

CoGG are directly responsible for the provision of bike lanes on COGG roads and all off-road bike paths… We should increase and measure bike lanes on roads projects funded(part or fully) by CoGG. Vicroads funded projects should not be included as an indicator. This way we measure CoGG contribution to actual enhancements to bike paths.

An ‘increase’ that can be just 10 meters can count as a successful –  this would not be doing the environment justice…  We need to make targets clear. An extra 10 km of off-road paths(5% increase) or on-road lanes is not out of reach.

4.       Influence – Number of school bus users (from Department Education records/PTA) Increase

There is no need to only target kids on school bus journeys. An ageing population will benefit from a useful bus service. Journey to work by drivers are regular trips that people could get into the habit of catching the bus if it was quick, easy or cheaper. Measurements have to really specific – It’s no good increasing bus trips when can trips increase two fold.

5.       Influence – number or trips by vehicle  – % decrease

  • For this strategy to move to increase low carbon mobility. An indicator of success would be the reduction in single vehicle trips (10 more bike trips is meaningless for lowering emission if we have 1000 more car trips).

Example: ABS journey to work data for Greater Geelong in 2006-2011 (cited in the CoGG annual report for ‘increasing active transport’) had this result;

      • 5 less people walking to work
      • 19 more people riding to work
      • 319 more bus users
      • 6,655 more car trips to work…  

If transport stats for 2013-2017 were similar, we would be increasing emissions and speeding up climate change.

In Melbourne in 2006, motor vehicle emissions were 72 per cent of all carbon monoxide (CO) emissions says the EPA. Assuming Geelong’s vehicles are our largest carbon emitter, it should be one of the highest priorities for this strategy. An optimistic vehicle transport reduction target must be set.

I realise this could be very difficult to achieve, but it should not stop us from confronting the one of the largest problems the world is facing.

Bikes for Teens:The Happiness Cycle

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happinesscyclelogoThe Happiness Cycle is a national initiative to encourage teenagers to become more physically active.

As part of the initiative, a workshop will be held in Geelong at the Barwon Valley Activity Centre near the Belmont Criterium Track on Saturday February 8th.  The workshop will involve the assembly of a new free bike for the participants, before a ride on the criterium track.

Geelong teenagers who are 15 or 16 years old can take part by registering at www.thehappinesscycle.com.au

Myers st remix

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After spending some time on Geelong today, I noticed that Myers st has some much hot, wasted and un-used asphalt… not to mention the unsafe bike lane.

Below is my remixed version of the street.  I used paint, separated bike riders from cars, trees for cooling and was careful not to lose any parking… let me know what you think.

myers-st-remix