Bicycle Network Victoria: Skill Up

$6.5 million for bike superhighway

9 February 2012. Two cities in southern Sweden are linking up via a 32 kilometre bike superhighway at a cost of A$6.5m

The Malmö-Lund superhighway has four lanes (2 in each direction) and will have have exits but no intersections. There are two types of wind protection proposed (low bushes as well as solid fencing), and periodic bicycle service stations.

The proposed project would take eight years to complete.

The Swedish Traffic Authority (Trafikverket)undertook the feasibility study and is proposing a route for running roughly parallel to railway tracks, which makes it easier and less expensive to build, as right of ways are already in place.

In Lund, 60% of the populace bikes or takes public transport to go about their daily tasks. And Malmö, which is just across the Øresund sound from Copenhagen, has a powerful policy to shift transport to bikes, with cycling increasing 30% each year for the last four years.

Copenhagen aims for #1

25 January 2012. Copenhagen's new bike strategy has the daring ambition of making the Danish capital the best bike city in the world . . . and they are going to add capacity for another 60,000 riders into the city centre each day by 2025 to prove it.

Already proud of the staggering 150,000 people in the municipality who ride to work and education daily, the city now wants to show the way to other cities around the world and raise the bar on what is possible in urban cycling.

It wants Copenhagen to be internationally branded as a liveable, innovative sustainable and democratic city, and one with the political will to lead the way in the battle for an improved quality of life for its citizens.

To win this battle the city has recognised that people on bikes have to be given the advantage in traffic.

"It is therefore necessary to improve travel times by bicycle compared to other transport forms," the Copenhagen Bicycle Strategy 2011-2025 says.

"It requires prioritising ambitious short cuts like tunnels and bridges over water, railways and large roads. In addition, it requires many small speed improvements, including allowing contraflow cycling on one-way streets,allowing cycling across squares,implementing more Green Waves for cyclists, etc.

"Finally, traffic calming - on quiet streets near schools, for example - is also necessary if the bicycle is to have a serious advantage in traffic."

The strategy is built around the key concepts of sense of security, speed, comfort and city life.

"On a bicycle the city can be experienced spontaneously and up close and personal. The more there is to sense and experience when you roll through the city, the shorter the trip feels and it becomes more attractive to cycle," the strategy says.

"Cyclists appreciate having things to look at but they also contribute greatly to life in Copenhagen’s streets. They make the city safer and nicer for everyone to move about in."

Copenhagen intends to make bike riding the fastest form of transport in many parts of the city by 2025 and to reduce A to B travel time by 15%.

By 2025, most one-way streets for cyclists will have been eliminated.

Read the full strategy here.

Radar love at the lights

12 January 2012. The days (OK, minutes) of waiting for ever at traffic lights because the vehicle detection loop has failed to notice your bike, could be over.

A city in California has installed radar detectors that not only detect bicycle traffic to trigger green lights, but differentiate between bicycles and cars and adjust the signal cycle accordingly.

The devices, called Intersectors, have been installed at eight intersections across Pleasanton alongside bike lane and road projects.

They use a combination of microwave and presence sensors to detect a vehicle, and offer enough precision to determine whether a vehicle has two, four or more wheels.

“To the city of Pleasanton, this is the best of both worlds — providing additional green timing and green extension timing only when bicycles are present, while utilizing more efficient traffic signal timing more appropriate for vehicle traffic the remaining times,” Pleasanton’s senior transportation engineer Joshua Pack told the Intelligent Transportation Society of America.

Many Australian intersections feature an induction coil beneath the bitumen to trigger a light change when vehicles arrive, but some infuriatingly refuse to recognise a bike.

Normally, the induction coil detects a vehicle and triggers a light when it senses metal.

Unfortunately, the latest, lightest bikes have very little metal in them and therefore cyclists can end up stranded or choose to run a light. Even when they work they usually trigger the same green cycle that a car would use.

Intersectors, which cost between $4,000 and $5,000 each, can be installed without digging up the road and are relatively easily retrofitted to existing intersections.

If Pleasanton's pilot project is a is a success it is expected that similar devices will to appear at bike-friendly intersections.

Trails boost house prices

13 December 2011. New research from the United States suggests that bike and walking trails in natural environments have a positive effect on real estate prices.

University of Cincinnati researchers found housing prices went up by $30 dollars for every metre closer the house was to a trail entrance.

Ultimately, the study concluded that for the average home, homeowners were willing to pay a $9,000 premium to be located 300 metres closer to the trail.

The two researchers examined the Little Miami Scenic Trail – a 12-mile southern stretch of the trail that runs through the Cincinnati metropolitan region – and measured how the trail impacted residential property values in Hamilton County, Ohio.

The scenic, multipurpose trail beckons walkers, hikers, skaters and bicycle enthusiasts and also has horseback riding paths.

These multipurpose trails provide the potential for bicycle commuting and help alleviate noise, pollution and congestion, and expand the means for green transportation and a community’s walkability,” write the authors.

The researchers say their study is among the first to quantify the impact of multipurpose trail proximity on residential property values while isolating the results from the biasing effect of nearby property values.

The research used street network distances between residential properties and the closest trail entrance, in addition to standard parameter estimation. The average home studied was about 40 years old and had an average 2,203 square feet of living space. The average price was $263,517.

The research emphasizes that investment in infrastructure and public amenities is a solid investment that will result in a positive return for communities as rising property values generate higher rate revenue.

China U-turn on bikes

16 Novemberb 2011. After years of trying to get bikes off roads to make room for cars, Chinese policymakers have realised their mistake and are going back to the future.

Last month, southern China's Zhongshan City rolled out 4,000 public bicycles which citizens can ride free of charge for up to an hour.

This is one of numerous bike-sharing programs that are quickly growing in an attempt to unsnarl China's traffic problems.

The goal is to try to get back to days when the streets weren't gridlocked and when the majority of vehicles didn't create emissions.

Chinese cities, which joined this trend only a few years ago, are installing their networks at an unprecedented speed. Hangzhou and Shanghai have over 60,000 and 19,000 public bikes respectively.

Rather than simply copying the Western pattern, the Chinese are innovating, with children's seats on free crash insurance.

On average, each of the Hanzhou public bikes now attracts five riders a day. When launched three years ago the figure was less than one ride per day.

In Shanghai the popularity of the system results in a race to the bike stations every time a train pulls up at a railway station, as there are usually never enough bikes for those who want them.

Hangzhou plans to hook its massive system into carbon trading by selling credits. As city-dwellers and tourists switch from riding fossil fuel-powered vehicles to public bikes, more than 30,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions is reduced annually.

But even if a profitable business model is developed and more public bikes can be provided as a result, bike-sharing program operators still face roadblocks. While many Chinese choose to cycle, there are more who dare not.

For years Beijing has sacrificed its cycling space to accommodate more drivers. And where bike-only lanes still exist, car owners often ignore signs and park there, forcing cyclists to ride in the lanes with grumpy drivers or to scare away old ladies on sidewalks.

To go hand in hand with its newly announced 50,000 public bikes program by 2015, Beijing pledged to redesign roads with heavy car flows to ensure cyclists' safety. Newly installed cameras will catch car drivers who dare to occupy bike-only lanes.

Bikes get fuel card

11 August 2011. New Zealand thinks it has found the secret of getting people out of cars and onto bikes—a fuel card.

But this fuel card is not for gas . . . it is for the grind.

The iCafe card (surely an Apple trademark) has been introduced by Hastings District Council under its iWay initiative to promote cycling and walking in the North Island centre of Hastings and Napier.

Seven local cafes have joined the project whereby bike riders get one free coffee coffee every five trips.

iWay coordinator Owen Mata says: “we know that lots of casual cyclists are also keen coffee drinkers, and we’re seeing an increasing number of cyclists at cafes, especially on sunny days. So we thought we’d help them refuel during the trip with a loyalty card. We hope it will also encourage them to leave the car at home more often”.

“Cycling is a great way to work off that extra piece of cake you had with your coffee, so you don’t need to feel guilty either,” Mr Mata says.

The cafes will all have an iCafe sticker on the door, and the distinctive iWay bike stand will be installed outside.

In another program iWay is providing both bikes and helmets for preschool students who want to learn to ride bikes.

Bikes-on-train envy

13 July 2011. Copenhagen is doubling the space for bikes on a number of its suburban trains to meet growth stimulated by the switch to free bike travel.

The photo at right is sure to strike pangs of envy in Melbourne commuters who have to shoe-horn bikes into tiny spaces.

The Copenhagen S-train has also introduced one-way traffic in the new bike compartments to make it easier and faster to get on and off.

Ten S-Trains are being remodelled with the new compartments, which are in the middle of the train so that there is more space for bikes on the platform.

The train system in the Danish capital is being gradually improved for travellers with bikes as increasing numbers of passengers are combining bike and train for their commute.

The railway is installing bicycle pumps at a number of stations, making bicycle ramps, more and building more bicycle parking.

The remodelled trains have pronounced coloured stripes on the sides of the train indicating the bike compartments. Bikes must be stored only in the bike area, while prams can taken in the passageways.

Research indicates that a third of all passengers have taken advantage of taking their bike on the S-train for free, and 91% are very positive about the idea, whether or not they take their bike on the S-train. Some 27% of the riders said they would not have taken the S-train unless if they had to pay extra for the bike.

Seducing riders with chips

29 June 2011. A competition to 'seduce' riders on to a multi-million dollar bike highway in Holland has been won by a entry offering chips—chips with electronics rather than carbohydrates.

Riders on the route will be given chips to fit to their bikes which will trigger sensors along the trail, switching on LED lighting along the path ahead as well as recording details of their trips and posting them to a website.

The riders will then be able to assess distances travelled, calories used and reduction in CO2 emissions.

The chip will also activate discounts at bike stores and for products for sale at shopping locations along the route.

The RijnWaalpad competition was for the development of the $23 million, 15.8 kilometre path connecting towns in the Arnhem-Nijmegen metropolitan area.

The design competition went beyond usual transport issues, and the winning bid contained 'seduction strategies' as well as the usual infrastructure components.

For example the LED lighting is not just so riders can see. By incorporating spectacular lighting design the planners anticipate that more riders will take the route, and feel rewarded for doing so.

Website in Dutch

Quake shakes bike sales

16 June 2011. JuneBike sales in Japan have doubled since the devastating earthquake and tsunami of early March.

The worst such event in Japanese history destroyed much road and rail infrastructure, but television pictures showed the population still getting around on bikes.

Even in areas that missed the impact of the tsunami, bike sales have skyrocketed as people realise the susceptibility of car and rail transport to crippling disruption.

Over the course of the year the Japanese bike sector believes sales will taper off, but still show and annual rise of 15 per cent.

Giant-Japan, a wholly-owned unit of Taiwan’s leading bicycle producer Giant, reports a post-March bicycle sales rise of 23%.

The increased interest in bicycles helps also other companies such as component maker Shimano, whose sales sales are up 3.7% since the quake.

Analysts say that although the impact of the earthquake will wear off, bike sales will continue to rise in Japan due to concerns over the costs of fuel.

Wider lanes . . . please sir!

2 June 2011. The bad manners of bike riders has been identified as a key factor holding back the rise of cycling in bike crazy Copenhagen.

A recent survey for the City's annual bike account has found that 55 per cent of non-riders cite bad manners as a reason that are not cycling more. And 25 per cent of those already riding raise the same issue.

The next most mentioned impediment was congestion caused by the lack of space on the cities crowded cycle tracks.

Behaviours that annoyed other riders were failing to use hand signals, running red lights and using mobile phones.

Copenhagen has set an ambitious target of 50 per cent of trips by bike by 2015. The figure is currently 35 per cent.

This amounts to an extra 55,000 people riding in the city each day.

The survey reported that the number one reason new riders took up cycling was that it was fast. Other key reasons were convenience, health and cost.

The Copenhagen Bike Account is published every two years. Now copied around the world, including Melbourne, the accounts measures all aspects of the cycling environment.

The city's riders are generally more satisfied than ever, but they are starting to complain about the adequacy if infrastructure and bike parking.

Perceived safety is on the up, and actual safety has also improved, with just 3 deaths and 92 serious injuries in 2010.

The Account estimates that there are 19,000 cargo bikes in Copenhagen, with a replacement value of $52M.

Strasbourg votes on 30 kph limit

18 April 2010. One of the France's most bike-friendly cities, Strasbourg, is to hold a referendum on imposing a 30 kph limit throughout the city.

Extensive parts of the city are already at 30 kph—one of the reasons why Strasbourg has such a high bike share and 480 kilometres of bike lanes.

Fewer than half of its residents use a car to get around and it has one of the world's biggest tram systems.

City authorities acknowledge that many road crashes occur where drivers speed up when leaving the 30 kph zones. If the whole city is at 30, they expect that safety will improve, and the streets will be more bike and pedestrian friendly.

The City's Mayor Roland Ries says that while the safety aspect of the proposal is important, it also signals that the public roads no longer belong to automobiles alone.

"They must be reimagined to be redistributed in a fairer manner between all forms of transportation. The protection of the most vulnerable is thus reinforced in zones in which all users have access but in which the pedestrian is king."

Fixies skid-start Jakarta bikes

6 April 2011. The fixed gear fad has led to a new generation of bike activists fighting for better conditions for Indonesian riders.

The capital city's subculture of fixie fans is making the bike hip again among Indonesia's youth, once obsessed with owning noisy, polluting scooters and motorcycles.

And the nation's transport planners, desperate to solve choking congestion and pollution problems, are starting to take notice.

According to rider Dede Chandra, Jakarta’s fixie community was determined to change the attitude of both the government and the residents of the capital.

“We want to change people’s ideas about riding and get more people to ride bikes and to choose health and bicycles rather than cars,” Dede said.

“We will to talk to our local government because we want them to pay attention to bicycle riders in Jakarta. We will ask them to build dedicated bike lanes because the cars and motorbikes still don’t respect us on the roads.”

Dede said he hoped that one day Jakarta could also become a bicycle-friendly city.

“This is our movement, we want to help the government solve some of Jakarta’s big issues like population, traffic jams and pollution from emissions.” Dede said.

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo recently rejected a proposal to build bicycle lanes, saying that there are not enough cyclists to justify them.

Disagreeing, Darmaningtyas, executive director of the non-governmental Institute of Transportation Studies, told the Jakarta Globe recently: "Build bicycle lanes first, then more people will use their bikes. Without special lanes, who would want to cycle in the hostile conditions we have today?"

Jakarta has nine million motorcycles and three million cars. Roads are notoriously pot-holed.

Since the city government designated two Sundays a month as Car-Free Days— clearing the main thoroughfare of Jalan Sudirman and Thamrin of traffic until noon—the number of cyclists has shot up.

On a recent Sunday more than 50,000 cyclists in a festive mood thronged the thoroughfare, which was crammed while street vendors along the entire stretch of road.

The Indonesian cycling community says the trend has caught on, with many people seeing the eco-friendly activity as part of a healthier lifestyle.

Bike groups blossom

As a result, there has been a surge in bike groups. South Jakarta's Mayor Syahrul Effendi, who is also a leader of the Bicycle Congress of Indonesia, said that while there were only 20 bicycle associations in 2005, the number has grown about tenfold now.

One organisation, Bike 2 Work, has seen its membership swelled to 40,000 since it was formed in August 2005.

Bike 2 Work said it has worked with the central government on a master plan that shows how main roads could be linked by bicycle lanes.

But some small victories have been won by the cycling community, such as when the authorities allowed a trial of a 1.5km bike lane in South Jakarta, alongside the main road.

They are studying the models in Japan and Australia, and think can be made to work in Jakarta.

The fixie culture in Jakarta can be traced back to early 2008, when a handful of young people used to gather in Menteng Park to ride their bikes and hang out.

And although they did not know it at the time, their small group would eventually grow into a community of more than 8,000 like-minded cyclists in Jakarta alone.

“We all respect each other and it does not matter if you’re young or old, there are no boundaries, there are no leaders, we are all the same and we all love to ride,” said Dede Chandra.

Fixie riders still gather at the Central Jakarta park on Wednesday and Friday nights for what is known as rabo rabo, an opportunity to display and share tricks or just relax and hang out with friends.

The group has formed a support initiative called Pedal Riot which collects money through fund-raisers to pay hospital if someone is injured in a crash.

A bicycle costs about $250 in Indonesia, about a fifth the cost of a motorcycle.

Toyota gets gospel on bike lanes

23 March 2011. Toyota has proposed that government agencies in Japan build a 250,000 km bike lane network across Japan in a massive five year project.

The concept came from executive Akira Watari, who is working in a special group at Toyota charged with developing intelligent transport systems to reduce congestion and risks to road users.

"The establishment of cycling lanes is the most effective way to enable motorists, cyclists and pedestrians to coexist," Watari said, following research into bike lanes in Europe.

Because Japan currently has no standards for installing cycling lanes, Toyota has proposed nits own standards to the Japan Society of Civil Engineers.

Watari suggested splitting the 1.2 million kilometres of road in Japan into three main categories: roads in urban areas, roads in non-urban areas and community roads with no center line.

He also grouped roads in the first two categories into main and regional roads, and examined measures based on the various speed limits (under 30 km/h, up to 40 km/h, 50 km/h and 60 km/h or above).

Watari concluded that cycling lanes separated from traffic by fences or curbstones were needed to ensure safety on some 6,900 kilometres of city roads where speed limits of 50km/h or 60 km/h and above were implemented.

On the remaining urban roads and roads in non-urban areas—a distance of about 730,000 kilometres—Watari proposed cycling lanes separated with white lines. He also suggested making cycling lanes in urban areas stand out with coloured paving.

Bikes to create road harmony

21 February 2011. A new bike bridge could have a special road surface which creates music as bike wheels roll over it.

The patterned road surface, which has grooves of various dimensions to create the pitch and rhythm of a tune, is proposed for the new Willamette River Bridge in Portland, USA.

The song to be used is Simon and Garfunkel's "Feelin' Groovy".

The sonic bike path is being considered as an arts project which has a practical outcome—alerting rides to changing road conditions.

The groove pattern is being considered as a way to slow down bike traffic as it exits the bridge on a downhill slope and would stretch for 50 metres.

Architect Bob Hastings said the bumps could help with the mental transition from riding over the river to being dropped into a more crowded, urban environment.

"Our thought was to inform folks that you're making that transition... to subtly inform them that they're headed back into an urban zone".

A working model would be evaluated before the final decision to install the grooves on the bridge. It would need to be tested to ensure that it was not too jarring and was not a slipping hazard.

Taking smoothness to extremes

10 February 2011. Making bike riding attractive is so important to the Danes that they have developed a special vehicle that tests bike lanes for smoothness.

Loaded with laser sensors, blinking yellow lights, a GPS and digital camera, the little Mercedes Smart measures out bike lanes millimetre by millimetre for the bumps, potholes, tree roots and other imperfections that make riding on some bike lanes anything but smooth sailing.

The system was developed by consulting firm COWI in conjunction with Dynatest Denmark.

“Previously, we only conducted a visual scan of bike lane surfacing,” says COWI Project Manager Brian Henriksen. “There are no requirements for how smooth a bike lane needs to be, and these types of measurements will allow local authorities to determine whether they are spending money on bike lane maintenance as wisely as possible.”

Since cyclists experience the condition of asphalt differently than motorists, Henriksen was unable to use the International Roughness Index, the standard reference for measuring how smooth asphalt is.

Instead, he took a look at the asphalt from a different perspective and after a number of tests in 2004, he and a team from Dynatest came up with a new method known as the Bicycle Profile Index, which calculates overall smoothness by measuring the longitudinal profile in 2.5 centimetre sections.

The first measurements were made in 2005 in the city of Odense, which at that time was marketing itself as Denmark’s best city for biking and was looking for new cycling initiatives. The results were presented at the following Road Forum conference and were received positively by road engineers.

Since then COWI and Dynatest have measured the comfort of bike lanes in cities throughout Denmark, as well as Gothenburg and Stockholm, Sweden.

“Local authorities have a history of neglecting bike lanes compared to roads, but that is all changing,” Henriksen says. “More and more people are commuting by bike, and since biking helps reduce healthcare costs, it makes sense from an economic perspective. Beyond that, there is a general interest in making bike lanes a little nicer.”

The next step will be to ask Danish road authorities to approve the BPI. If that happens, it would make it easier to bring the technology to other cycling nations such as the Netherlands, Germany and Australia.

It would also mean that contractors hired to build new bike lanes in Denmark potentially could meet a smoothness requirement in future tender documents. The ultimate goal for Henriksen is the approval of the BPI index as the world wide smoothness index for bike lanes.

$110M for city to city bike network

25 January 2011. The Netherlands is spending $110 million dollars to build 16 long distance bike "highways" to connect cities across the country.

They will be constructed in places where problems are emerging with traffic jams on major roads, in the belief that drivers can be encouraged to switch to bikes where the paths enable quick journeys.

The paths will connect to existing suburban networks.

Existing paths to be integrated into the network will be upgraded with better surfaces, signs and lighting, along with improvements to bridges and tunnels.

In the Netherlands, about 35 per cent of all trips less than 7.5 km are by bike, with 15 per cent of journeys 7.5 km to 15 km on a bicycle. But once trips go beyond 15 km only 3 per cent are on two wheels.

The new fast and convenient inter city links are expected to improve on that figure.

Dutch scratching head over helmets

11 January 2011. The long and proud Dutch tradition of riding without helmets is coming under challenge from trauma surgeons in the Netherlands who want something done about the level of head injuries in children and adolescents.

Each year about 26,000 children and adolescents are treated in hospital emergency departments in the Netherlands after bike crashes. About 2000 are hospitalised and 30 will die.

According to TraumaNet AMC, a joint venture of hospitals in and around Amsterdam, many of these crashes result in head injuries.

The trauma specialists say that helmets would reduce the risk of head injuries by 63 to 88 per cent, particularly in children.

At a recent conference organised by TraumaNet the medical representatives agreed that is was important not to give the impression that cycling is dangerous, as this could deter parents from allowing their children to ride.

Dutch cycle groups are expected to fiercely resists the move. They claim that making helmets compulsory suggests cycling is dangerous, and therefore frightens people away from cycling.

They suggest that it would be useful to point out to parents of children aged 4-8 that wearing a helmet has its advantages, and agree that helmets could be playfully promoted to children.

The conference was told that it was still a matter of concern that wearing a helmet is only useful when it is done correctly, which is quite often not the case with children.

Over the age of 8 it was increasingly hard to motivate children and adolescents to voluntarily wear a helmet, the conference was told.

In some countries almost none of the children between the ages of 10 to 18 rides a bicycle, except for sports and recreation. Children in this age group were extremely opposed to using a helmet. “You look like a fool”, “It is not cool”, “It is awkward”, “No place to store it”, “Feels weird on my head”, “Ruins your hair”, were some of the arguments.

A total of about 180 bike riders die as a result of crashes each year in the Netherlands, and about 60 of those result from single vehicle crashes.

Make that a triple

28 September 2010. Danish cities are planning six-lane bike freeways—three lanes in each direction—to increase the ease and quality of bike travel.

Copenhagen already has dual bike lanes in some locations to cope with the staggering numbers of riders.

The Government is talking of constructing several hundred kilometres of the new routes on roads taking the most direct connection to the central city in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense and Aalborg.

Work has already started in Copenhagen and Aarhus. The facilities are aimed at people in the middle and outer suburbs, 7-15km from the city centre, who don't currently ride to work.

Lise Bjørg Pedersen, of the Danish Cyclists’ Federation believes the new routes could double the number of people who cycle to work across the nation.

The new routes will have amenity stations with air pumps, water supplies and traffic information, and will be fitted with the Green Wave traffic lights which enable riders who travel at a steady cycle at 20km per hour to get a green light at every intersection.

Standardised signage and, in places, underpasses under the larger main roads are also expected to feature. In Aarhus the plan includes a park and ride station where people can arrive by car on the Djurlands motorway, park and do the last 10km on their bike.

Drivers willing to gives bikes a go

14 September 2010. About 60 per cent of car drivers would think about switching to a bike, especially if the move connected to the hip pocket nerve.

The finding is in new research commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Health, which looked at what policy measures might be effective in promoting commuter cycling, especially among those within cycling distance to work.

The research revealed that financial inducements such as the introduction of road charges, restrictions in parking policy and changes in travel cost reimbursements, would be most effective. But such measure would have to be significantly large, causing something of a shock and leading people to reconsider their travel options.

Improving cycling facilities would also be an effective stimulus to get drivers on a bike, especially when this leads to a reduction in commuter time.

In that case minor factors like fine-tuning traffic lights, mileage allowance for cyclists and the use of weather radar are effective as well. A purchase subsidy and promoting free temporary use of electric bicycles may succeed in winning over the doubters.

Education has only limited effectiveness, but is necessary to support the other measures, according to the research.

Four out of every ten car drivers absolutely refuse to even consider commuting by bicycle.

There is a significant group who does not cycle for very specific reasons, This group encompasses approximately 25% of those surveyed and the reasons stated were: 1) night and/or shift work (safety), 2) parents with children (logistics) and 3) health reasons (physical problems).

Policies intended to induce these groups to switch will require specific measures, for instance measures to increase safety, e.g. cycling in groups (reason nr. 1), logistic support for parents accompanying their children in order to make up for lost time (reason nr. 2), and promoting use of electric bicycles (reason nr. 3).

Apple working on "Smart Bicycle System."

18 August 2010. Details in a patent filed early last year reveals that Apple is working on a sophisticated iPhone application that would make current bike computers old hat.

The patent documentation outlines a number of futuristic capabilities, including the ability to communicate with devices on the bikes of other riders, exchanging information being recorded on rider performance and road conditions.

It would record video, take photographs or record audio. As well it could be part of a projecting system for providing a display of content on a surface remote from the bike.

The system can monitor speed, distance, time, altitude, elevation, incline, decline, heart rate, power, derailleur setting, cadence, wind speed, path completed, expected future path, heart rate, power, and pace.

The electronic device could allow cyclists within a group to transmit and receive communications and to communicate with other people outside of the cycling group. Each electronic device could be operative to perform any suitable type of communications operation, including for example text or visual messages (e.g., e-mail and SMS communications), audio messages (e.g., telephone communications), and combinations of these (e.g., video conferencing).

Input mechanism could include a voice-actuated mechanism (e.g., voice selection of options, or a speech-to-text engine), a movement actuated mechanism (e.g., an accelerometer or other motion detection component), or any other input mechanism for providing hands-free inputs.

Apple has made no comment on whether it has plans to productize the patent.

Paris going bike crazy

10 June 2010. Paris, already bike friendly, is to double its bike lanes to 700km by 2014, and by 2020 to have a bike lane on nearly every street.

The city's mayor has launched the ambitious plan in order to accelerate the use of bikes and overcome the massive traffic congestion choking Paris and its economy.

The city will have two major routes for high density bike use, north-south and east-west, supplemented by lanes serving 65 cycling precincts.

Riders will be allowed both ways down one-way streets and speed limits will be 30kmh. The ring road will be have ten new crossing points to get bikes from the suburbs into the city and a thousand new bike parking spaces will be added to the city’s streets every year.

Parks, some of which had been closed to cyclists, will all open be to bike travel.

Paris’ Sunday street program, which has already resulted in the closing of several neighbourhoods to motor traffic on Sundays and holidays, will be extended throughout the 65 bike precincts.

Netherlands Bicycle Study/Social Tour 2011

29 April 2010. Dutch bike distributor, Gazelle Bicycles Australia is organising a study tour of The Netherlands next year to show how the Dutch have integrated bike riding into everyday life.

Its on from 10th - 23nd May 2011 (13 nights, 14 Days) and there are a maximum of 20 places.

Full details here.

US adopts bike equality creed

 14 April 2010. The US government has dropped its 'cars first' policy, declaring that from now on bikes will be considered as equals on the roads of America.

The change echoes the move of the Victorian Government with its 2009 Bicycle Strategy, which regards investment in bike infrastructure to be a 'matter of course' in the everyday management of the transport network.

In a massive switch in direction for the US Department of Transportation, cars are no longer the priority in federal transportation planning: the requirements of bike riders and pedestrians and will be considered along with those of motorists.

Writing in his blog Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said: “This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized.”

"We are integrating the needs of bicyclists in federally-funded road projects. We are discouraging transportation investments that negatively affect cyclists and pedestrians.

"And we are encouraging investments that go beyond the minimum requirements and provide facilities for bicyclists and pedestrians of all ages and abilities."

"To set this approach in motion, we have formulated key recommendations for states and communities:

• Treat walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes
• Ensure convenient access for people of all ages and abilities
• Go beyond minimum design standards
• Collect data on walking and biking trips
• Set a mode share target for walking and bicycling
• Protect sidewalks and shared-use paths the same way roadways are protected (for example, snow removal)
• Improve nonmotorized facilities during maintenance projects

LaHood is linking bike infrastructure spending into the Obama Administration's quest for more 'liveable communities', which promote physical exercise and health, and reduced vehicle emissions.

State governments and cities which want priority access to Federal transportation funds will have to include trails and shares path connections in the projects.

"Bike projects are relatively fast and inexpensive to build and are environmentally sustainable; they reduce travel costs, dramatically improve safety and public health, and reconnect citizens with their communities," La Hood said.

Beijing thinks again on bikes

3 February 2010. Massive traffic congestion coupled with choking pollution has forced Chinese authorities to hit the brakes on car expansion and re-introduce incentives for bike transportation.

Beijing has decided to increase bike travel by 5 per cent over the next five years, bringing bikes to 23 per cent of all travel in 2015.

The City government is eliminating current regulations that discourage bikes, and will restrict cars. Bike lanes which were cut to make more room for cars and buses will re be reinstituted.

It will also work to relieve a shortage of secure bicycle parking with
the government building more parking facilities for bikes at bus and subway stations so that riders can easily combine transport modes.

As well Beijing is boosting its bike share scheme and by 2015 will be offering 50,000 bikes for rent from about 1,000 outlets.

The proportion of Beijing residents riding bicycles was only 19.7 percent when measured in 2009, compared with more than 80 percent in the 1980s.

Beijing's new plan is that by 2015, 45 percent of the population will be on public transport, 22 percent in a car, 8 percent by taxi, and 23 riding bikes.

China was once knowb as the "kingdom of bicycles" with some 500 million bikes on the streets. But the number plunged as car ownership took off in the past decade.

Beijing now has 17 million people and four million cars.

World’s largest Global Conference on Cycling

30 November 2009. Central Copenhagen will be the site of the first Velo-city conference next year, bringing together cycling experts, city planners, decision makers, NGOs and researchers from all over the world to discuss the potential and challenges of cycling.,

The conference, from June 22-25, will offer first hand experience of the city’s many innovative initiatives in the field of cycling.

Engagement, interaction and knowledge sharing are integrated throughout the conference programme and attendees will get plenty of opportunities to network and to learn from Danish cycling expertise.

"The European Cyclists Federation has Velo-city conferences since 1980. In 2010 the focus will switch from European to global.

Australians who attended the Bike Futures 09 conference in Melbourne in October, and were inspired by the talks by Neils Torslov and David Sim, can get to see Copenhagen's bike infrastructure first hand at Velo-city 2010.

20,000 bike spaces for NY car parks

12 August 2009. Commercial car parks in New York City will be compelled to provide bike parking, under new laws to take effect in three months.

Commercial garages and parking lots with more than 50 car spaces are required to provide one bike parking space for every ten car parking spaces, up to a threshold of 200 car spaces. Beyond the threshold, one bike spot will be required for every 100 additional car spots.

Aimed at encouraging bike commuting, the law applies to about 1700 locations, mostly in Manhattan. Pricing will be set by the operators.

NYC also introduced regulations requiring new buildings to be provided with bike parking.

The car parking industry has two years to fully comply with the new laws.

Under its Transport Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, New York is taking massive steps to advance the level of bike riding in the metropolis.

Bike based apartments in Vienna

18 June 2009. After decades of building apartment complexes around the needs of the car, the bike has pride of place in this new development in Vienna.

"Bike City" in Vienna is an apartment complex geared around the needs of bike riders. And they responded: more than 5000 people were chasing the 99 apartments available.

While car parking space has been restricted, secure spaces for bikes are available. The building's lifts have been sized especially for bikes.

The ground floor is devoted to a “bike world” including bike rental, bike maintenance service, and fitness and health area.

Access routes to the building are bike friendly and bike parking spaces are close to the building entrances, where there are air and water points.

A total of 300 bike-parking spaces are available inside and outside the building. Only about half the apartments have a car parking space.

A car sharing system is available for occasional car use. Public transport is nearby.

Brits get rail station bike shops

May 21 2009. Combined bike parking and bike shop facilities will be introduced to British rail stations next year.

The facilities will be introduced by Northern Rail, which is run by Ned Rail, the Dutch rail operator. It operates 25 Fiets Point (Bike Point) bike shops at railway stations across the Netherlands which provide bike parking facilities, bike rental, and same-day bike servicing.

Research in Holland has shown that off peak travel is significantly higher from the stations with these facilities.
 
The first of the Northern Rail Bike Points will be at Leeds Station and expected to break even after two years.

Denmark's big boost to bike budget

21 April 2009. Denmark will spend $171 million on new bike facilities and promotion in a bid to lift commuting by bike to 50% of all workers by 2015.

The country already has one of the highest rates of bike commuting in the world. In Copenhagen about 500,000 people, or 30% of all workers, travel by bike each day.

The money will mainly be spent on improving bike lanes, adding bike parking and producing advertising campaigns.

The new initiatives are part of a massive investment in new transport systems aimed at reducing the nation's CO2 pollution.

"Now we will finally break the CO2 curve, which no previous government has managed," Climate Minister Connie Hedegaard said.

"We are putting far more resources in public transit than into roads. By taxing cars in a climate-friendly way, new emission demands on taxis and new 'green' tolls on roads, we will cut CO2 emissions and reduce traffic jams at the same time."

Car drivers will be subject to road pricing with tolls differentiated according to the amount of pollution each car emits.

Under new rules to make it will be cheaper to buy a new, more environmentally friendly car, but more expensive to use it.

New cars in Denmark are currently subject to 180% tax.