(Bolding is mine)

The City of Copenhagen makes a distinction between actual safety and cyclists’ sense of safety in traffic. Actual safety refers to the number of serious casualties involving cyclists in Copenhagen. Sense of safety refers to the individual’s subjective perception of how safe it feels to cycle. Both factors are crucial in our effort to become the world’s best city for cycling.

Cycling-related activities were at a historically high level in 2009 and 2010. A wide range of projects have been executed and in 2010 alone over DKK 150 million (A$25 mio) has been allocated to new investments in cycling facilities.

In an unprecedented collaboration between 18 municipalities and the Capital Region of Denmark a concept plan was developed for a 300 km network of ‘cycle super highways’ in the capital area.

Most children in preschool class and Year 1 are accompanied to school by a parent. The child’s age is thus a decisive factor for whether the child cycles alone or is accompanied by a parent. In preschool class (age 6) 6 % cycle alone on a regular basis. A significant jump occurs, from 13 % to 30 %, between Years 3 and 4 (ages 9 – 10).

Individual and social impacts A number of factors are included in the equation such as transport costs, security, comfort, branding/tourism, transport times and health. When all these factors are added together the net social gain is DKK 1.22 per cycled kilometer. For purposes of comparison there is a net social loss of DKK 0.69 per kilometer driven by car.

Major health benefit Since the total health benefit of Copenhagen residents’ healthy cycling habits is DKK 5.51 per km, the annual benefit is worth the equivalent of approx. DKK 2.0 billion. When accident costs are deducted the total health impact of 4.72 DKK per km is worth the equivalent of a total of 1.7 billion. If we are successful in achieving our political goal that 50% will bike to and from work by 2015, the health benefit of the extra trips alone will be around DKK 500 million and the total health impact

1 DKK = A$ 0.17

Based on responses by 55% of Local Councils:

• Councils responding to the survey spent more than $72 million on bicycle-related programs in 2009-10.
• Survey participants reported receiving $26m from Australian government and $26 m from State governments.
• More than two thirds of responding councils either have a bicycle strategy or are working towards one.
• There has been a significant increase in the proportion of councils undertaking cycling counts from 12% in 2007 to 21% in 2011.
• As at June 2010, councils responding to the survey reported having constructed 11,704km of cycling infrastructure. When their cycle networks are complete the infrastructure will measure 17,842km.
• Survey participants reported the installation of 508 sporting and recreational facilities including: 36 velodromes, 113 mountain biking facilities and 360 BMX/skate facilities.

The last section of three-metre wide concrete path had been laid past Dodd Street to the pagoda on the northern side of the lake, Mr Bowman said.

The rest of the bitumen path from the pagoda to the overpass over the freeway would not be done because the Mitchell Freeway was due to be widened by one lane sometime this year.

After the freeway work was done, the shared path would be completed, probably by making the pedestrian-only path on the eastern side the lake a shared path.

The freeway was being widened as part of the program of traffic changes caused by the closure of Riverside Drive when work began on the proposed city riverfront development.

The council had installed barriers at two junctions of the shared path because of collisions between cyclists and pedestrians, some of which had resulted in serious injury, Mr Bowman said.

At the junction of the path from the Dodd Street carpark, an older woman was badly injured when she was hit by a cyclist.

At the junction of the shared path and path from Lake Monger Drive-Southport Street intersection, there had been a number of reports of collisions and incidents between cyclists and pedestrians.

The idea of the barriers was to make cyclists realise that they were entering a path shared with a lot of pedestrians and had to slow down, Mr Bowman said.

The council website says the paths around Lake Monger are recreation shared paths with a speed limit of 10kph.

Mr Bowman said commuter cyclists heading north up the freeway could use the Principal Shared Path on the eastern side of the freeway.

Commuter cyclists using NW9 could use the new path from the Dodd Street-Gregory Street intersection that ran almost parallel with Gregory Street to the Lake Monger Drive-Gregory Street intersection.

The council had built a connecting path on the south side of Lake Monger Drive from the service road to Northwood Street that connected to the service road that crossed Kimberley Street and the path from there to the Southport Street intersection.

Regular users of the NW9 path said the connecting link along Lake Monger Drive had made their trip time shorter because they did not have to wait at the pedestrian/cyclist lights at Lake Monger Drive and Southport Street.

A survey in peak-hour traffic showed that these lights took between two and a half minutes and 4 minutes 50 seconds for cyclists to get the green light, they said.

The Lake Monger Drive median strip at Gregory Street had a gap for cyclists and the traffic generally was easier to cross – the longest wait to cross during the survey was under one minute.

Just before Christmas, afternoon peak-hour cyclists and pedestrians heading north who crossed against the lights got pinged by police waiting on the other side of the intersection, they said.

2hr Basic Maintenance course:

Saturday 4th Feb, 10am – 12pm

Standard price: $33

Members price: $26

Limited places available, so be quick.

All the details are here

Dismantle – Basic maintenance 1 Outline

“It is often said that WA drivers are among the most discourteous in the nation and that Australian drivers generally have a low consideration for other road users. Having driven in other countries I cannot unequivocally state that Australians are the worst drivers, but they are certainly not among the best.

The latest war of words between drivers and cyclists, however, puts our worst attitudes on display.

This is not a pro-cycling opinion column although I will declare up front that I regularly swap between cycling; riding a motorbike and driving a can.  Although all three modes of transport are subject to the occasional blast of vitriol, cyclists cop more than their fair share.

Read the whole article here: O’Callaghan on cyclists and drivers

Like a growing number of people, we like to get out on our bicycle.

So we can understand that Transport Minister Troy Buswell and his partner, Fremantle MP Adele Carles, would have enjoyed cruising about in Freo on their bicycles on Australia Day evening.

But we can’t understand why they would have done so without helmets.

A South Fremantle resident told us yesterday that she saw the pair twice during the course of the evening.

She said that on the second occasion she could not help herself, and asked: “Excuse me, Mr Buswell, where’s your bike helmet?”

“He said ‘at home’ and rode off, ” she said.

We checked with police yesterday and were told that Section 222 (2) of the Road Traffic Code referred to wearing helmets on bicycles.

In a nutshell, the law states that an individual must wear an approved protective helmet, securely fastened, when riding on the road or any path.

The penalty for not doing so was $50, we were told.

Naturally we went to the pair for an explanation.

Ms Carles gave us a brief statement: “Yes, I was cycling in Freo without a helmet, as I occasionally do on the cycle path, although I always insist that children wear them.”

Mr Buswell’s bugle sent us a statement confirming he, too, had not worn a helmet.

And from the man himself: “It was unwise not to wear a helmet for the short ride down to watch the fireworks on Australia Day.

“Obviously it’s compulsory to wear a helmet while riding a bike, and there’s no excuse for not doing so.

“In recognition of the fact this offence carries a $50 penalty, I’ll donate $100 to the charity of IC’s choice.

“And I will obviously be more vigilant about wearing a helmet in future.”

And below is the mail I sent to Troy a couple of days ago

Hi, Troy,

Nice to hear (from the papers) that you continue to cycle on a regular basis (and in good company). Cycling as an expression of personal freedom.

If we work from the assumption that the best thing for Cycling Safety is more people riding bicycles, then the compulsory wearing of helmets (which clearly reduce cycling participation) is not a useful law. In a recently published Australian survey, 22% of people asked indicated that they would cycle more if they would not have to wear a helmet. 32% of the respondents did not support mandatory helmet legislation. That is a big chunk of voters….

http://www.healthpromotion.org.au/journal/journal-downloads/article/1-hpja/426-the-possible-effect-on-frequency-of-cycling-if-mandatory-bicycle-helmet-legislation-was-repealed-in-sydney-australia-a-cross-sectional-survey

We actually know what is required to get more people on their bikes…. http://vimeo.com/22590356.

Of course, being in the public spotlight your options are somewhat reduced…..  keep cycling .

Regards,

Heinrich Benz

Bicycle Transport Alliance

We have had interesting results coming from RAC surveys, for instance that 91% of people riding bicycles are afraid to share the road with people riding cars ….