War on bicycles

[warthog1]

Howdo Andrew - sorry missed any info on this - to save me hunting down the details where should I look? ( or even better a link)
Putting up as much good healing moral as possible!

viewtopic.php?t=102550&start=850

[warthog1]

Thks Warty!
Yes, kinda been thinking what we have been doing in the past is just not working. It all seems to circle around getting away with it be it speeding, changing lanes, giving space to other... The police could be doing other simple things that need doing

Just how do you get more people to want to be better all round road users? My feeling from this place is that most people do the best they can when they get behind the wheel but we just end up managing our ever decreasing expectations.

Prolly not the spot to chat about it, but raised the cost of living and high helmet fines with the local state MP- he gets it and as the community of the whole is quite pro biking, he agrees it could be a window in time to considers to change things toward a national parity on fines.
He is also an old obstetrician so he tends toward the status quo of his community's safety and the laws as he has a large and wide group of local kiddies who he has brought into the world. He does want them to be safe and healthy and does consider that the more they bike, the slower the community drives around them and importantly, gives space to both young and them other people who they see on bike.

Short story is he understood that the cost of living is a good excuse to try to reduce the big fines down. He also agrees that hefty fines do little to help build road fellowship and when kiddies bike more they also become more space aware and possibly better drivers than when bundled in the back of a parents car to drive three blocks to a pals place to just hang out.....

Dunno I will keep pondering, but would like to get something around community biking and road fellowship out to the teals and independents so they can have a very simple basket of pro bicycle policies that says blah blah blah...positive things around biking in Aust - hopefully some chit chat will then link in with the other indis for some sort of simple common policy of supporting the good things that are happening in local bike communities before the next rounds of states and finger crossed federal elections.

Bike Bugs have been culled due public liability issues but the work many of them did is now showing results.

Grrr, I really miss the potential that the Australian Cyclists Party had...

Yes we are proceeding very slowly with improvement.
As others have said elsewhere, I have given up on any major positive change to make the Australian driving public safe and courteous.
Separated infrastructure is the only plausible path to greater cyclist numbers it seems. Getting the infrastructure is a big problem though

[g-boaf]

Nobody rides bikes, so nobody is going to build infrastructure.

Nobody is going to ride bikes without infrastructure. So there we have it. Not going to happen.

We need politicians with guts to stand up to noisy, idiotic radio and newspaper loudmouths and somehow to cut their influence out to politicians so we can actually get things done like better laws to protect bicycle riders on the roads and infrastructure being built without delay.

But then we have cyclists staunchly supporting anti-cycling political parties and even acting as though they are paid to do PR for those parties, they certainly tow the official party line. And then they whinge when motorists to the wrong thing. Well, what do you expect?

[warthog1]

Nobody rides bikes, so nobody is going to build infrastructure.

Nobody is going to ride bikes without infrastructure. So there we have it. Not going to happen.

We need politicians with guts to stand up to noisy, idiotic radio and newspaper loudmouths and somehow to cut their influence out to politicians so we can actually get things done like better laws to protect bicycle riders on the roads and infrastructure being built without delay.

But then we have cyclists staunchly supporting anti-cycling political parties and even acting as though they are paid to do PR for those parties, they certainly tow the official party line. And then they whinge when motorists to the wrong thing. Well, what do you expect?

Accurate summary unfortunately.

[brumby33]

There are however a small number of town planning type You Tubers doing Yoube videos and specifically about town planning and how to improve the viability of active Transport within our Cities and whilst it's only a small number these young 20 something are pointing out and have done a lot of study on the infrastructure in our Cities and suburbs and quite a bit especially on Christ Topher's channel on bicycle ways to get from Point A to Point B.
A lot of new developments are trying to implement Cycleways and while it's not on a grand scale, it's a huge improvement on what it was prior to Covid.
If there were any positive things that have come from the pandemic, it'd be the placing of the pop up cycleways to keep people from packing into public transport. People had more choices and they used them. I clearly hated Transport Minister Andrew Constance at the time when he cowardly privatised the Government Bus network in Sydney but I praised him for being up and supportive of implementing the Pop-up cycle ways. I can only talk about Sydney in this regard but The Transport Minister Jodie Haylen today is supporting cycling in Sydney in a quite positive manner as well as the new Metro train networks. Melbourne has a pretty good network of City Cycle ways that go a good distance but i did read recently if a new Mayor got into Melbourne Town Hall, he wanted to rip out the city bicycle lanes, i don't know if that person won the job or not.

But it's good to see young people with the idea of better ways to live in the City environments and not relying on the car all the time, it does however include more high density living but if you have a look and many Cities in old Europe, it's always been high density and community based.



and Shariff talks more about Urbanism and public Transport in our Cities but both of them very much support the idea of the carless commute.



I think the war on bicycles is gradually becoming less and less but more and more in our Suburban spread where you've got to have a car or 3.

I have noticed though, in my community in suburban Albury NSW, that young people are staying home with Mum and Dad longer due to the housing crisis therefore there's often up to 5 cars parked outside 1 house...crazy, if they work or go to school in town, it's a short 6km or 20 minute ride at a reasonably slow pace on a Cycleway from here to get to any school or workplace in the town, in fact I'll go as far as saying it's a perfect place for riding (apart from homicidal Magpies ) and we here get more dry days in Summer than anywhere near the Coast.

I don't think there's a major war on bicycles and there wouldn't be much at all if there was as much attention for safe bicycle infrastructure as there are for other modes of transport but i do see major improvements. The concentration of war seems to be towards those in the lycra racing brigade that tend to irk many but the normal person on a bike doesn't seem to get the hate which is good.

Have a great Cycling weekend.

Cheers

brumby33

[g-boaf]

Apparently a company wants to stop its workers riding to work and plans to close the end of trip facilities:

https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-a ... 5kpck.html

Unfortunately no name is given (or it is made up).

[blizzard]

Wow, that's dumb. As someone who works in the CBD, I have found riding to be the most reliable method to commute, it's a consistent 30 minutes at all times. Cars and PT can be all over the place.

[Cyclophiliac]

I can't read the article (paywall), but if that's what the manager said, then (s)he's an idiot. Not only does this contradict today's environmentally-conscious workplaces, but the company can't legally stop anyone from riding to work anyway.

[g-boaf]

I can't read the article (paywall), but if that's what the manager said, then (s)he's an idiot. Not only does this contradict today's environmentally-conscious workplaces, but the company can't legally stop anyone from riding to work anyway.

Disable javascript.

Manager says that staff should be able to afford a car instead of riding a bike.

[find_bruce]

I can't read the article (paywall), but if that's what the manager said, then (s)he's an idiot. Not only does this contradict today's environmentally-conscious workplaces, but the company can't legally stop anyone from riding to work anyway.

The relevant section is

My workplace has excellent end-of-trip facilities with showers and secure bike storage to encourage people to ride to work. Our company has just been through a merger and one of the new senior managers has started discouraging riding, saying we should be able to afford a reliable car. They have said the facilities will be closed at the end of the year. Can anything be done for those of us who ride by choice?

This is one of the dumbest decisions I have heard an employer make in a while. How on earth can it be disadvantageous to your employer to have people riding their bikes to work? I can only assume someone is making this decision to save money. This leads me to wonder how much they can possibly be saving by closing the facilities, and at what overall cost for employee wellness and happiness? Dumb.

Full disclosure, I am not someone who has ever ridden their bike to work or used end-of-trip facilities. But that’s the point: I don’t need to be a bike-riding manager to appreciate why encouraging employees to be fit, healthy and happy is a net benefit and not a financial cost to a company. And as for your manager telling everyone they should be able to afford a new car; no words. I would get together in a peloton (see what I did there!) with all your fellow bike riders, runners, scooter riders, skateboarders and anyone else who uses the facilities and speak with someone else about the decision to see if it is not too late to reverse. Ride on!

[g-boaf]

Someone in the comments took a shot at riders not doing their work hours:

David D
My company has many bike riders and showers and bike lockers for them. They dutifully turn up for work at 9AM and then spend the next hour taking turns using the shower and getting ready for the day. Similarly from around 4.30PM you see them heading to the change room to get back into their Lycra ready to leave at 5PM. Wonder if the same thing is happening in the workplace of the first letter writer?

I don't know what fantasy world that person (car driver??) is living in, but in my work they all arrive very early, the better to avoid heavy traffic. They are also the ones often leaving later - and not taking lots of coffee breaks and smoke breaks throughout the day.

[Cyclophiliac]

Someone in the comments took a shot at riders not doing their work hours:

David D
My company has many bike riders and showers and bike lockers for them. They dutifully turn up for work at 9AM and then spend the next hour taking turns using the shower and getting ready for the day. Similarly from around 4.30PM you see them heading to the change room to get back into their Lycra ready to leave at 5PM. Wonder if the same thing is happening in the workplace of the first letter writer?

I don't know what fantasy world that person (car driver??) is living in, but in my work they all arrive very early, the better to avoid heavy traffic. They are also the ones often leaving later - and not taking lots of coffee breaks and smoke breaks throughout the day.

Regular cyclists generally take less sick leave also, another benefit to the company.

[brumby33]

Well a Manager who has this attitude has probably other vindictive hardline attitudes as well which would probably go against him/her sooner or later when people start to leave the job. In my working life experience of 40 years or more, if Management is shite, there'll always be a revolving door within the Company, they won't hold good employees.
Has anyone ever witnessed on Seek.com.au employee reviews on Companies and often (especially in the Transport Industry) that reviews by employees and former employees are often well below 3 out of 5 and the main complaint is the attitude of Management towards their workers. The complaints are rarely about the actual job or their colleagues but Managers.

Unless there's a damned good reason to close the work facilities, it sounds like it's done in spite to make a point......obviously there may be no union to fight this manager so it's up to those involved to fight against privileges taken away especially if there's no reason for the closure and if it's been well used before.

brumby33

[zebee]

WHen I was riding to work I would do 7am to 8:30am work from home, then be at my desk showered by 10am after my bike/train/bike commute. Half an hour lunch, leave at around 4:30 or so. (38 hour work week)
Some days longer, some days shorter.
But my boss had no issues with the work produced. He didn't care about face time, he cared about projects and troubleshooting.

Meaning that this bloke (if real) is a bad manager or employs bad managers. If the work is done to the correct standard and emergencies are covered then hours are not the point.

[DavidS]

When I was riding to work I would roll in at about 9.30ish, fire up the computer and go for a smoko.

Mind you, I rarely got out before 5.45 and often later.

The idea that your employer has any say over how you get to work is ridiculous. I'd certainly be looking for another job with that manager, and talking to my union. I was also a hell of a lot more awake and ready to get stuff done after the ride in.

DS

[g-boaf]

WHen I was riding to work I would do 7am to 8:30am work from home, then be at my desk showered by 10am after my bike/train/bike commute. Half an hour lunch, leave at around 4:30 or so. (38 hour work week)
Some days longer, some days shorter.
But my boss had no issues with the work produced. He didn't care about face time, he cared about projects and troubleshooting.

Meaning that this bloke (if real) is a bad manager or employs bad managers. If the work is done to the correct standard and emergencies are covered then hours are not the point.

In today’s world it’s all about time at desk and time seen at desk. Particularly important to be seen being first to arrive and last to leave. Particularly send that last enail late in the day so you have proof of your dedication. Maybe also send a string of emails late (instead of earlier in the day) so everyone arrives next morning with tasks that are urgent to do.

And they know they can enforce this time at desk stuff - and use one person as an example to make others get worried.

It’s old, outdated management ways but it seems some organisations are filled with those types.


Latest war on cycling - Prospect Dam and the incredibly random closure of cycleway gates. This morning the one at Reconcilation Rd was close still at 7am forcing lengthy detours elsewhere. The other gates were open and the place was open for cars to use.

How can the security people open some of the gates and forget another? Make a checklist, set reminders, it’s not that hard. Forcing people up a steep slippery gravel walking trail and then along dirt trails to reach the top lookout is not right.