Posts Tagged ‘bicycle’
Insight: How the Dutch got their cycling infrastructure
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on December 28th, 2011
From “How the Dutch got their cycle paths” by Sarah Goodyear for Project for Public Spaces:
Given the reputation of the Netherlands as a cyclist’s paradise, you might think that its extensive cycling infrastructure came down from heaven itself, or was perhaps created by the wave of a magic wand. Not so. It was the result of a lot of hard work, including massive street protests and very deliberate political decision-making.
The video [click through below] offers vital historical perspective on the way the Netherlands ended up turning away from the autocentric development that arose with postwar prosperity, and chose to go down the cycle path. It lists several key factors, including public outrage over the amount of space given to automobiles; huge protests over traffic deaths, especially those of children, which were referred to by protesters as “child murder”; and governmental response to the oil crisis of the 1970s, which prompted efforts to reduce oil dependence without diminishing quality of life.
The Netherlands is often perceived as an exceptional nation in terms of its transportation policies and infrastructure. And yet there is nothing inherently exceptional about the country’s situation. As the narrator says at the end of the film, “The Netherlands’ problems were and are not unique. Their solutions shouldn’t be that either.”
Watch the video. It’s inspiring (“…it seems so simple”) and frustrating (“aaargh…it seems so simple!”) at the same time.
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Open Survey: Melbourne Bike Share Impact on Individual Travel Behavior
Posted in Research, Seeking by Kate Archdeacon on December 14th, 2011
Photo by Daniel Bowen via flickr CC
CALL FOR MELBOURNE BIKE SHARE USERS!
Xin Yang is a postgraduate student studying in Master of Urban Planning from the University of Melbourne, currently conducting a research project on Melbourne Bike Share (MBS) program, “Evaluating the Impact of Melbourne Bike Share (MBS) Program on Individual Travel Behavior”. If you have ever used the (blue) MBS bikes before, please take just a little time (10-15 minutes) to participate in a brief online survey to have your say on your experiences with those blue bikes, and how you think things could be improved. Your time and assistance is greatly appreciated!
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8Z63993
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Christmas Cargo Bike Picnic
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on December 9th, 2011
| 11 December , 2011 | ||
| 11:00 am | to | 2:00 pm |
Read this poster on Treadlie
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Commune 2 Festival + Ride to Work + Artland
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on October 11th, 2011
| 12 October , 2011 | ||
| 11:30 am | to | 5:30 pm |
Following the success of Commune in May 2011, we’ve decided to do it all again! Commune @ RMIT Brunswick is fusing Ride to Work + Artland + Commune into one big market and festival day and everyone is invited! Download the event flyer for details, including the Moreart Spring Fashion Ride.
Date: 12 October, 2011 Time: 11:30am – 14:30 pm followed by drinks and music at 3pm
Location: Buildings 513 and 514, RMIT University, 25 Dawson Street Brunswick
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RiderLog App: Vote with your wheels
Posted in Movements, Research by Kate Archdeacon on August 31st, 2011
RiderLog Australian Capital City Screenshots (1 Jan – 10 May, 2011)
RiderLog is a free app that turns every bike ride into a vote for better bicycle facilities. Download it to your iphone now.
Your RiderLog app records basic details of your trips and anonymously uploads them to the Bicycle Network. All the travel logs are then aggregated to show when, where and why we are riding. This information is used to improve the planning of bike infrastructure and convince authorities to invest more in the locations where people ride. Click here to check out a map of aggregated rides. The Bicycle Network is an outreach activity of Bicycle Victoria in Australia, one of the worlds biggest bike rider organisations, with the purpose of More People Cycling More Often.
To Use: Start the app, choose transport or recreation, press the silver Sleep/Wake button and put the phone in your pocket, bag or bike mount to use as a bike computer. At the end of your trip, wake up your phone and save your ride details. The app will log your ride in your phone, including elapsed time and average speed. Press Map to see your route. The phone tracks your cumulative distance and time over the week and month, providing a record of your activity. More details.
Privacy Policy: You decide how much information about you and your riding gets uploaded. The data is anonymous. Unless you change the Settings no personal details are provided. If you are a member or friend of Bicycle Victoria, you can enter your rider number. If you would like to get to know us, you can choose to tag your data with your email.
http://www.bv.com.au/general/ride-to-work/91481/
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Bike Futures 2011
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on August 24th, 2011
| 12 October , 2011 9:00 am | to | 14 October , 2011 5:00 pm |
With the transport crisis a long-term reality for Australian cities, there has never been a better time to improve livability by embracing the benefits of bicycling. Bikes bring back the human scale of public spaces, changing streets from places to avoid into places to congregate. Delegates will hear how bicycling plays a key role in transforming cities into liveable spaces at Bike Futures 2011 from 12 – 14 October.
Now in its third year Bike Futures has become the key annual professional development for national and local leaders, planners, designers and builders to use bike transport and recreation to advance their communities. Bike riders have emerged as a critical indicator species of livability. In towns and cities around the world business and civic leaders, questing for the secret to attracting talent and innovation, are reaching for the Bike Plan.
Bike Futures 2011 will discuss how to take the next steps from providing bike infrastructure – essential for mobility – to changing the ways cities work. When Bike Plans are done well, we know we will find a healthy social and economic ecology. There is little doubt that bikes subtly but powerfully transform the street, calming it, warming it, making it magnetic to people and their conversation and commerce. Bike Futures 2011 will bring together world leading experts as well as some of Australia’s leading practitioners on how to best respond to the issues confronting communities as they embrace the bicycle revolution.
Keynote speakers:
- Gil Penalosa is an internationally renowned liveable city advisor and is passionate about creating cities for people. He is Executive Director of the Canadian non-profit organization 8-80 Cities and also works as Senior Consultant for the renowned Danish firm Gehl Architects.
- Gordon Price is the Director of The City Program at Simon Fraser University. Gordon has served many terms as a City Councillor in Vancouver, BC. As the Vancouver Sun declared when Price stepped down from the City Council, “‘Councillor Bikeways’ has done more than any other elected official to shape the city and the way we use it”.
The three-day conference is presented by the Bicycle Network and hosted by Bicycle Victoria.
Wed 12 – Fri 14 October 2011
Etihad Stadium, Melbourne
http://bikefutures.conferenceworks.net.au/
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Bicycle Swap Meet: August 13
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on August 12th, 2011
| 13 August , 2011 | ||
| 9:00 am | to | 12:00 pm |
Via Broadsheet
www.fyxomatosis.com
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Mineral Water in Eco-Kegs, Delivered by Bike
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on August 11th, 2011
Source: Broadsheet
Image courtesy dhmsco
From “Kegs, Bikes and Bubbles: dhmsco’s Mineral Water Revolution” by Hilary McNevin:
We got to thinking about the environmental impact of buying imported mineral water in glass bottles and found a company with a bright idea and a three-wheeled bike. A keg of mineral water built into a Danish Christiania three-wheeler bike – it’s pimped, it’s got a brolly, it’s looking good and it’s coming to a market, café or restaurant near you.
The Daylesford and Hepburn Mineral Springs Company (dhmsco) have taken a simple and very logical idea and are literally taking it to the streets. Founders and directors of dhmsco, Mitch Watson and Brylie Rankine have been selling their mineral water, which is sourced from the Daylesford spring naturally carbonated, to their customers in customary bottles, but have now taken the next step of providing restaurants and cafes mineral water in recyclable eco-kegs.
[...]
The beauty of serving water through a reticulation system such as a keg is that, while cutting down packaging to a minimum, it also eases the costs and environmental impacts of travel and shipping. The water can be sold by the glass or bottle in the restaurant and the bottles Watson supplies to the restaurants are made in Spotswood, Melbourne, rather than being manufactured overseas and shipped to Australia.
The next step is to make more Melburnians aware of the quality of dhmsco’s mineral water and the notion of the mineral water keg, which is delivered on via the keg bike.
[...]
Restaurants in Melbourne to have dhmsco mineral water on tap so far include, Little Creatures, Dandelion, The Corner Shop and Ladro. Watson is also in the process of developing syrups to add to the water in classic flavours such as cucumber, hawthorn, elderflower, natural tonic and rosehip (he’s also working on a nettle syrup but acknowledges it’s not quite ready to go).
There is the opportunity to check out the dhmsco keg bike, taste the water and the syrups at the Melbourne farmers markets (mfm.com.au) each Saturday from mid-August at its various locations. “We want people to try the syrups and tell us what they think,” explains Watson. “We’re doing research.”
Read the full article by Hilary McNevin on Broadsheet.
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Ausbike 2011 Melbourne Bike Expo
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on August 5th, 2011
| 20 August , 2011 | ||
| 21 August , 2011 |
Ausbike was born out of necessity; before the Melbourne Ausbike Bike Show 2009, Australia had no national cycling trade expo. The show was such a success that this year there will be hundreds of exhibitors from Australia and around the world. Not only has the content of the show increased, but so has the length. The show will open on Saturday the 20th of August 2011 and run until the 22nd of August 2011, with the first two days reserved as a public-only event and the last day trade-only.
Ausbike 2011 covers all kinds of cycling including: Road, Track, Time Trial, Mountain Bikes, Cross Country, BMX, Trials, Kids, Toddlers, even Unicycles! Not only will bikes be showing but also an unimaginable array of accessories to go with your bike and your lifestyle. This show is an absolute must-not-miss event for anyone interested in bikes or who works in the bicycle industry.
Ausbike 2011 Melbourne Bike Expo has an exhibition space of over 10,000sqm and an expected 10,000 bicycle enthusiasts and 2500 trade experts will attend the show. Visitors will be able to:
- See brands from around the world and speak to those who know them best
- View a fantastic collection of vintage bikes proudly put on display by many of the premier collectors of Melbourne
- Try out some of the new bikes for 2011/12 bikes
- Catch the BMX comps
- Look at the new cycling fashion trends including urban and sports
Trade registration is open, public tickets are on sale now.
www.ausbike.com.au
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Australia Post Electric Bikes: ATA EV Interest Group
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on June 17th, 2011
| 22 June , 2011 | ||
| 7:00 pm | to | 8:30 pm |
Photo: Simon O’Dwyer
ATA Electric Vehicle Interest Group June Meeting: Scott Dickason, Electric Vehicles Pty Ltd.
Electric Vehicles Pty Ltd are attending to the assembly & delivery (& continued development) of electric bicycles & tricycles for Australia Post Delivery Centres throughout Australia. Scott will discuss the new Australia Post/Electric Vehicles Pty Ltd delivery initiative & outline current developments in the electric bicycle/tricycle industry.
Wednesday 22nd June at 7pm
Room EN615, The Engineering Faculty, Swinburne University, Hawthorn Campus
Visit the EVIG website for more.
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From the March 2011 article by Deborah Gough:
[...]
Australia Post this year will bring back the bike for posties with 1000 new push and electrically assisted bicycles and tricycles after trials in Victoria and New South Wales. Victoria will get about 430 bicycles, mostly to inner suburban areas, where postal rounds are often flatter and more densely populated. The service has also signed up for an electric van in the Victorian Department of Transport’s electric vehicles pilot program. Nationally there are 378 bicycle rounds now and the new figures will nearly triple that number but will still be dwarfed by motorcycle rounds, which sit at about 6300. Andy Trott, Australia Post’s head of sustainability, said it was too early to determine how many rounds would be converted from motorcycle to bicycle but expected it to cut carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions by more than 1000 tonnes each year. “As one of the nation’s largest employers . . . Australia Post is in a unique position to introduce improvements to our operations that will have a real impact on reducing our environmental footprint,” Mr Trott said.
[...]