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kb wrote:I'd assume there would have been at least a couple. A quick search shows
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This letter was dispatched to The Age, Herald Sun, ABC Melbourne, Premier Daniel Andrews, Local member for Kew Tim Smith, Boroondara Council and Boroondara Police:



Media Release 19-Apr-15

Kew Boulevard Protest Ride – May 3, 2015

In February of 2014, someone started dropping tacks onto the road surface of the Kew Boulevard.

The tacks have one purpose and that is to cause punctures to cyclists who choose to ride along the Boulevard.

Punctures caused by tacks often result in explosive decompression, particular on ‘road’ bicycles that have their tyres routinely inflated to over 100 PSI.

Aside from the inconvenience of having to stop to repair a puncture, such punctures can cause cyclists to crash. Explosive decompression of a tyre, particularly a front tyre, can result in loss of control of the bicycle.

In places, it is not uncommon for cyclists cycling along the Boulevard to be travelling over 50KMH.

[/size]Explosive decompression of a front tyre of a cyclist travelling at speed can send a cyclist sliding across the road putting both motorist and cyclist at risk.

Moreover, the Boulevard is used by many ‘bunch’ rides. A single cyclist puncturing in a bunch can bring down multiple riders.

But back to the story.

Tacks have continued to be dumped on the Kew Boulevard since February 2014 with the latest “instalment” being last week.

Some cyclists (like myself) now choose to ride on the main road surface instead of the shoulder to avoid the tacks. This not only irritates motorists (who don’t understand why) but further increases the risk of an accident.

Both the Boroondara Council and Boroondara Police have been contacted, repeatedly. They are involved and have been assisting.

Unfortunately, there is a lack of urgency and a lack of co-operation between the relevant authorities:

Inspector Frost told CyclingTips that while cyclists may be frustrated, they need to be aware that this case is just one of many requiring his team’s attention.

“Police have got a number of competing priorities,“ Inspector Frost said. “I’ve had members down there working [at Yarra Boulevard] and trying to … elicit some information about who might be depositing these tacks, when realistically [the officers] might have been deployed in some other area.”

“There are a multitude of other things police could be doing than looking for some fool depositing tacks on the road.”

–Source: http://www.cyclingtips.com.au" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. March 26, 2015.

and this..

Responsibility for the management and upkeep of Yarra Boulevard falls with the local roads authority, VicRoads. VicRoads would normally sweep Yarra Boulevard once every three months and inspect the path weekly. But VicRoads’ metro south east regional director, Aidan McGann, told CyclingTips that VicRoads is “currently sweeping three to six times a month” as a result of the Boulie tacks.

These extra visits come at a significant cost. VicRoads’ metro south east clean-up team is based in Dandenong and getting the team out to Kew to use the streetsweeper with its magnetised attachments (to pick up the tacks) costs anywhere between $1,000 and $2,500, depending on the length of road swept.

Yarra Boulevard sits within the City of Boroondara and the organisation’s sustainable transport officer, Chris Hui, told CyclingTips that the local council has been looking into a cost-sharing arrangement with VicRoads to reduce the burden on the roads authority. But reaching an agreement has proven difficult.

“Being quite a new issue and a different issue, nobody’s really been able to break any ground on that,” Hui said. “But that would certainly help … if that could be arranged.”

–Source: http://www.cyclingtips.com.au" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. March 26, 2015.

But worst of all, victim blaming:

Guy Underwood, director of the risk management group RISQ which has been collaborating with Cycling Victoria (says) on the issue, it’s all about putting yourself in other people’s shoes.

“Imagine if you were a home-owner and bought a house in what was a really nice, quiet, leafy suburb and every morning at 5.30 a heap of blokes in lycra were chatting about their new SRAM Red or their PB on the weekend,” Underwood, a keen cyclist himself, told CyclingTips.

“We’ve got to accept some responsibility for our actions.

–Source: http://www.cyclingtips.com.au" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. March 26, 2015.

The police have acknowledged that the majority of cyclists (including the early morning groups) are not breaking any laws or behaving inappropriately and the use of terminology like “blokes in lycra” gives some insight into the attitude of some towards the cycling community.

The bottom line is that 14 months has transpired and tacks are still appearing.

Unfortunately there is no data on how many punctures have been caused, how many crashes have occurred, how much damage there has been to bicycles or how many cyclists have been injured.

Fortunately, no one has been killed, yet.

The tacks however remain a threat to the safety of cyclists.

I acknowledge the efforts of the council and the police to date, however, the cyclists I am speaking on behalf of are tired of waiting for the tacks to stop.

We want action before someone is seriously injured or killed.

Minimum specific measures we are seeking are as follows:

Daily sweeping of the Boulevard until the tacks stop and/or the perpetrator is apprehended.
The installation of surveillance cameras with appropriate monitoring and recording capable of identifying persons at night as well as day.

On May 3, 2015, I have organized a protest ride along the Kew Boulevard, commencing at 9:00AM from the Walmer Street end. We will be riding a single lap of the Boulevard.

A Sunday has been chosen to minimize the disruption to motorists.

George Mihailides

Blackburn Cycling Club wrote:UPDATE ON KEW BOULEVARD ITT

The club has decided not to run any ITT's at Yarra Boulevard Kew this year due to the issues with tacks.

Riders safety is paramount & the club felt that it was too dangerous to run ITT's there whilst there are still reports that tacks are still being dropped on Yarra Boulevard.

Blackburn is still looking at running ITT's, but at different venues. Keep an eye out on Blackburn's website for more information.

il padrone wrote:The actions of this loony d!ckhead are having some effects, sadly.

Blackburn Cycling Club wrote:UPDATE ON KEW BOULEVARD ITT

The club has decided not to run any ITT's at Yarra Boulevard Kew this year due to the issues with tacks.

Riders safety is paramount & the club felt that it was too dangerous to run ITT's there whilst there are still reports that tacks are still being dropped on Yarra Boulevard.

Blackburn is still looking at running ITT's, but at different venues. Keep an eye out on Blackburn's website for more information.

jules21 wrote:there's a protest ride organised for 8.30am, Sunday May 3 - http://noboullietacks.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

il padrone wrote:You can imagine the carry-on there'd be from police, the ongoing regular patrols, the installation of multiple CCTV monitoring, the rewards for info, if it was a nutter dropping random, regular caltrops on a freeway or main road to cause damage to car tyres

__PG__ wrote:Protest ride made the ABC and Fairfax news today. A few people got tacked during the ride. The council did a sweep at 11 pm the night before so the tacks were dumped early this morning.

This would suggest that the best way to catch the perpetrator would be to hold another ride, and have riders camping out over night throughout the route with video cameras waiting for them to show up.

Victoria Police is investigating the matter

Spokespeople for Parks Victoria and Boroondara Council said separately that large roads were VicRoads' jurisdiction.

A VicRoads spokesperson was not available for comment

A Parks Victoria manager Philip Ross said it did not manage the Yarra Boulevard

jules21 wrote:it's a VicRoads road. full stop. there was a VicRoads spokesman on the telly too.

biker jk wrote: Yes, I heard the VicRoads spokesperson too.

__PG__ wrote:Protest ride made the ABC and Fairfax news today. A few people got tacked during the ride. The council did a sweep at 11 pm the night before so the tacks were dumped early this morning.

This would suggest that the best way to catch the perpetrator would be to hold another ride, and have riders camping out over night throughout the route with video cameras waiting for them to show up.

nezumi wrote:Apparently the hoses on the pumps placed by Boroondara Council and Cycles Galleria have been cut.