And all roads lead to car chaos.

While nervous people are hesitant to return to public transport, more inclined to get out and about after lockdown, and the private motor vehicle seems the preferred option of more people than ever.

An Infrastructure Victoria report from this time last year modelled all of these scenarios back when we thought lockdown was ending then. But now that strict lockdowns really do seem to be a thing of the past, their predictions are pertinent.

The report predicted public transport numbers would decrease by 50% and car travel would increase by up to 15% once everything starts to open up, with most trips less than five kilometers long.

The scene was set for a complete catastrophe on our roads, which already struggled to keep up with demand pre-COVID.

For example, average road speeds during the morning peak was expected to fall by up to 30% across inner-Melbourne suburbs. Carmageddon approaches…

But wait; bikes!

Riding your bicycle is the logical solution to all these problems.

It’s an individual, outdoor mode of transport that naturally promotes physical distancing – minimising transmission risks. It boosts physical and mental wellbeing – the opposite of a traffic jam. And it decreases congestion on our roads and calms traffic. Not to mention boosting the economy and reducing carbon emissions.

Infrastructure Victoria realised this in their 2021 report, and recommended local governments create more comfortable places to ride and offer incentives to choose active transport.

And to be fair, City of Melbourne and the Victorian state government were quick to promise 40km and 100kms of new and upgraded bike lanes, respectively. About half of these have been delivered.

So, they have built (or are at least building) it – will we come?

The silver lining of this pandemic is that there has never been a better time to jump on your bike. Millions of Melburnians rekindled their love for bike riding through the darkest days of lockdown – but now the sun is shining, the green paint is flowing, and the path is clear to pedal to a better normal.

We know it’s a little late in the year for New Year’s resolutions, but if there was ever a resolution worth promoting as we peek out of the pandemic and start heading back to the office, it’s riding your bike.

You can find support for achieving your bike riding goals at: bicyclenetwork.com.au/tips-resources/

The post Avoiding Carmageddon appeared first on Bicycle Network.

We could hear the children playing in the streets, and the birds chirping in the trees.

What also became more noticeable in that quieter background was that a significant number of cars, motor bikes and trucks were actually very noisy.

And that these same vehicle were also often driving at higher speeds.

As the data came in from around the world it emerged that drivers were taking advantage of the sparsely trafficked streets to speed, and to crash. There were even more street racing offences recorded.

It turns out there is a link: speed, noisy exhausts and putting lives at risk on the road are all passengers in the same wrecked car.

And now authorities are seeking to put the brakes on—by making cars quieter. A hoon in a quiet car is apparently less of a hoon.

New York State—which endured an epidemic of street racing during COVID—has figured it can fix the problem of speeding by enforcing the quiet.

It has recently massively increased the fine for loud exhaust from US$150 to US$1000, the biggest in the US by 50 per cent.

Car mufflers and exhaust systems must not exceed 60 decibels.

And in a critically important move, car dealers and motor vehicle workshops caught installing excessively loud exhaust systems or mufflers to vehicles can have their licence revoked.

New York City is also considering following Paris in installing noise cameras around the city— devices that detect a noisy exhaust and then photograph the number plate and issue an infringement notice.

All Australian motor vehicles are required to meet noise emission standards, yet clearly many are far from it.

Presumably, these vehicles have been modified to make them deliberately non-compliant.

State governments are clearly aware of the problems of excessive noise, especially on health, with good evidence now available that vehicle noise is associated with health and social problems such as high blood pressure, and poorer reading comprehension and attention in children.

And now we have the link between vehicle noise, speed and risky behaviours that are especially concerning for people riding bikes.

State environmental authorities and police say they welcome reports of noisy vehicles along with registration and make and model details.

Large trucks however are responsibility of the Federal Government.

The post COVID amplifies vehicle noise problem appeared first on Bicycle Network.

While we live in an unpredictable world where coronavirus restrictions and lockdowns can be snapped in place, we are lucky that we are still able to go outside and ride a bike for exercise and transport.

This page has the latest advice for bike riding in Victoria and the rest of Australia, including where and how long you can ride for. 

Remember keep your distance, stay safe and stop the spread of COVID-19. Get tested even if you have the mildest of symptoms.

The post Can I still ride my bike outdoors? appeared first on Bicycle Network.

Woollahra councillors held an extraordinary meeting last week to urgently discuss delaying the project, citing that construction would cause the booming number of people enjoying the Rose Bay promenade to cross the road to navigate the works. 

Bike riders will now have to wait until April next year for the project to resume, originally slated for July and rescheduled once already to October. 

Woollahra councillor Mary-Lou Jarvis was quoted in The Daily Telegraph saying: “It’s a sensible, pragmatic solution given we are in a once in a century pandemic and people do need somewhere to go out and get fresh air and exercise.

“The promenade has never been busier.”

But local bike advocates are concerned for the future of the project, as some in the community call for it to be scrapped altogether. 

BIKEast president Mark Worthington said the group was disappointed and concerned that changes at the December election could jeopardise the commitment to resume works in April.

“Overall we just want them to proceed. They’ve started the work, what they’ve completed is good, but it’s not complete so it’s not going to provide cyclists with an option particularly if traffic starts to pick up and create a very dangerous situation once again,” Mr Worthington said.

“The speed limit is 60km/h and it’s a high traffic road. Any main trunk route that has that high traffic and, relative to cyclists, high speed is dangerous and so we need that off road alternative.”

The cycleway was drawn up in response to the tragic death of Dr Henri Sueke who was riding his bike on New South Head Road when involved in a fatal collision with the driver of a heavy vehicle in 2015. 

Mayor Susan Wynne told The Daily Telegraph she remained determined to ensure the cycleway went ahead.

“There is an absolute commitment to cyclists and cyclist safety and this shouldn’t be seen as a total disregard to cyclists.

“It’s just about weighing up the needs of the whole community.”

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The current COVID lockdown—with the resulting dramatic reduction in traffic in the city—has provided an opportunity for the City of Melbourne to accelerate its Collins Street drainage project.

As a consequence, it is closing the east-bound traffic lanes, including the bike lane, between Queen and Elizabeth Streets through to mid-June.

The contractor, Citywide, will take advantage of the additional space to fast track the work and complete the project sooner with less disruption.

Works will be underway between 6:00am and 5:00 pm each day.

West-bound traffic on the south side of the street is not impacted.

There will be a further closure on Saturday 26 June 2021 when the north side of the street is re-asphalted following completion of the drainage construction activities.

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Inactive people with COVID are 2.5 times more likely to die of the disease than people who are consistently active.

The consistently inactive were twice as likely to require hospitalisation, and 1.7 times more likely to be admitted to ICU.

These differences are remarkable. None of the medical interventions are anywhere near this effective.

“It is notable that being consistently inactive was a stronger risk factor for severe COVID-19 outcomes than any of the underlying medical conditions and risk factors identified by CDC except for age and a history of organ transplant,” the study says.

“In fact, physical inactivity was the strongest risk factor across all outcomes, compared with the commonly cited modifiable risk factors, including smoking, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

“We recommend that public health authorities inform all populations that short of vaccination and following public health safety guidelines such as social distancing and mask use, engaging in regular physical activity may be the single most important action individuals can take to prevent severe COVID-19 and its complications, including death. “

The study was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

The study analysed data from more than 48,000 Kaiser Permanente Southern California adult patients, median age 47, who were diagnosed with COVID-19 between January and October 2020.

The patients also had their physical activity levels assessed at least twice between March 2018 and March 2020. (Kaiser is one of the few medical providers that assesses the physical activity of all patients. The Exercise Vital Sign measurement has been used at every outpatient encounter within Kaiser Permanente Southern California since 2009.)

Of those patients, just over 6% were consistently active, about 14% were consistently inactive and the remainder were inconsistently active.

“This is a wake-up call for the importance of healthy lifestyles and especially physical activity,” said study author Dr. Robert Sallis.

“People who regularly exercise had the best chance of beating COVID-19, while people who were inactive did much worse.”

Even patients who were inconsistently active had a lower risk of severe COVID-19 than those who were consistently inactive, suggesting any amount of physical activity can be beneficial.

“What surprised me the most from this study was the strength of the association between inactivity and poor outcomes from COVID-19,” said study co-author Deborah Rohm Young.

”Even after we included variables such as obesity and smoking in the analysis, we still saw inactivity was strongly associated with much higher odds of hospitalization, ICU admission and death, compared with moderate physical activity or any activity at all,” she added.

“I continue to believe that exercise is medicine that everyone should take, especially in this era of COVID-19,” Sallis concluded.

The impact of these findings should resonate will everyone who rides a bike.

This means that the people who regularly exercise—and have caught the virus—not only have a greatly improved chance of survival themselves, they have also saved the community untold millions in medical costs and greatly reduced the pressure on the overburdened hospital system.

This is leadership. Be proud.

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The research, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, collected data on the length of new bike lanes implemented over a four month period during the pandemic in 106 cities across Europe.

This dataset was compared with the number of bike riders in each city on roads with new bike paths and on roads without, and found that adding bike lanes increases the number of riders across the entire city, not just on the streets with new infrastructure.

“Within 4 months, an average of 11.5 kilometres of provision pop-up bike lanes have been built per city and the policy has increased cycling between 11 and 48% on average,” the study stated.

Paris, which implemented the largest pop-up lane program in the shortest amount of time of any of the cities in the study had one of largest increases in riders.

“It almost seems like a natural law that the more infrastructure you have, the more cycling you will have,” Sebastian Kraus, the study’s lead author told The New York Times.

This brings potential for massive health and economic benefits, with the study projecting: “the additional cycling induced by the pop-up bike lane treatment during its first months of operation has generated between $0.5 and $1.7 billion in health benefits. Thus, the new infrastructure may generate between $2.2 and $6.9 billion/y in health benefits if the new bike lanes become permanent and make cycling habits stick.”

And it’s not necessarily a big “if”. 

Though Mr. Kraus cautioned that the study’s findings were unique to the pandemic, it may not be a stretch to imagine that more people will continue to ride bikes once the pandemic passes.

Research on major disruptions to public transport, such as strikes, has shown that forcing people to experiment with new routes and modes of transit can lead to permanent new routines.

“There’s indications from mobility behavior research that as soon as you find another way of getting around, then you might actually stick to it,” Mr. Kraus said. “So I’m confident that if you keep the infrastructure, that people will continue cycling.”

The post A case to keep pop-ups appeared first on Bicycle Network.

A Darebin Council decision made last week to rip up a separated bike lane on South Crescent, Northcote barely raised a whimper, seemingly another decision buried in the council papers. But it’s a worrying back pedal in what’s been a time of startling progress.

The quip is that during last year’s lockdowns people either ‘got fit or got fat’. Some took to the streets, exploring their neighbourhoods on two wheels. Others took to the couch, exploring their Netflix Recommended for You list.

One of the hidden costs of lockdown three (or was it four, I lost track in the end), was that physical activity levels among our young people plummeted: the already disturbingly low levels among children fell to just 10%.

But pop-up bike lanes have helped reverse this trend. On South Crescent, bike riding increased by 22% and 69% amongst young people. On Heidelberg Road, where another pop-up bike lane has been installed, bike rider numbers have increased by 30% since December.

I almost cry with joy when I see the variety of people now pedalling. Roads that were only frequented by lycra knicks are now resplendent in jeans, slacks and tracky dacks.

People who have long wanted ride a bike now feel confident to do it and love being able to spend more time outside while also shaving down the hours wasted sitting in a car.

Victoria took a while to get moving. While the rest of the world started building better places to ride in May, our state started building in November. But the progress since then has been great – the City of Melbourne is fast-tracking 40 kilometres of protected bike lanes that previously had a timeline of up to 10 years and the Andrews Government has committed to rolling out 100km of pop-up bike lanes, which includes the Heidelberg Road lane.

The danger though is the South Crescent decision might slam the brakes on further progress. It shows just how easily our elected officials are spooked. Yes, it was a close call. A perilously close 5-4 vote. But the Councillors still decided to go back to the past.

Of course, the council received complaints from people who drive cars. Melburnians are frustrated at how despite the move to work from home, traffic levels quickly bounced back to pre-covid levels.

As we all know, sometimes drivers see the solution as wider roads. They won’t accept the evidence that shows that capacity of a road is determined by the design of its intersections, not its width.

Most disturbing was the handful of cyclists complained about the South Crescent lane. This sealed the fate of the bike lane.

These cyclists were unhappy with the quality of what they were given. But we need to remember that what once took years to build is now taking weeks. And they’re being built at a tenth of the cost.

Of course, that means they’re not going to be perfect. But they are better than what was there before. And we shouldn’t let perfect get in the way of better.

With many more kilometres of pop-up bike lanes to be built in the next few months we need leaders prepared to move forward despite the voice of the loud minority. Leaders who are prepared to stake their reputation on creating the world as it should be, not keep it as it is.

Most importantly, we should never forget the wise words that you can’t please all of the people all of the time.

Click here to read more about the South Crescent pop-up bike lane

The post Stay positive on pop-ups and keep people pedalling appeared first on Bicycle Network.

The coalition has released the Streets are for everyone consensus statement, which outlines three clear and practical steps needed to create vibrant, active and connected communities in a COVID-normal Victoria.

The statement found by walking or bike riding instead of driving by car an average Melbournian family could save up to $80 per day.

Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV) Senior Manager Transport, Planning and Infrastructure, Peter Kartsidimas said that last year highlighted the different mobility options available for Victorians.

“Since the coronavirus pandemic began, we’ve seen an increase in the number of people riding their bikes, walking, jogging and scooting as a way of getting around, keeping active, and exploring and connecting with their local communities,” Peter said.

“Many Victorians have told us they want to ride and walk more, but they want to feel safe to do so. The Victorian Government must build communities where all Victorians have the option of walking or riding to work, the shops or other local destinations.”

In October, the Victorian Minister for Roads and Road Safety Ben Carroll announced $13 million for pop-up bike lanes to be installed in Melbourne’s inner suburbs to help more people safely travel into the CBD in the new COVID-normal environment.

Bicycle Network CEO Craig Richards said the pop-up bike lanes are a positive step and more to be done to make it easier for Victorians outside of Melbourne’s CBD to also walk and ride.

“We welcome the Victorian Government’s move to install 100km of new and improved bike routes in inner-Melbourne, it’s a great move. We urgently need more well-connected walking and bike riding paths in suburban Melbourne and regional Victoria,” Craig said.

“The pandemic highlighted the huge differences in walking and bike riding infrastructure based on where people live. People in areas with limited walking and bike riding options are left to rely on a car to get to work, school, the shops and other public services.”

Heart Foundation Victorian CEO Kellie-Ann Jolly said providing walking and bike riding options benefits kids and families everywhere.

“Walking and bike riding are core pillars of healthy, vibrant and liveable cities and neighbourhoods, boosting mental and physical health and fostering community connection,” Kellie-Ann said.

“There is very strong public support for upgrades to walking and bike riding infrastructure and the benefit-cost ratio for investing in walking and bike riding is extremely high compared to other transport projects. An investment of $500 million in walking and bike riding trips would return a value of $6.5 billion to the Victorian community.”

The 13 groups have outlined the following recommendations:

• Recognise walking and bike riding as an essential part of integrated transport planning
• Prioritise streets for people in residential areas, around schools and shopping strips
• Upgrade cities, regional centres and local neighbourhoods by improving footpaths, bike lanes, crossing opportunities and completing missing links.

The Streets are for everyone: a consensus statement to support more walking and bike riding for Victorians was prepared with input from a working group which includes Amy Gillett Foundation, Bicycle Network, Cycling and Walking Australia and New Zealand, IPAN – Deakin University, Heart Foundation, Monash University – School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Municipal Association of Victoria, ORIMA research, Parents’ Voice, Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV), VicHealth, Victoria Walks, We Ride Australia.

Key statistics

• 3 in 4 Victorians said they want local and state governments to adapt infrastructure so more people can walk or ride (VicHealth, Aug 2020)
• More than 1 in 3 Victorians planned to travel more by foot or bike than they did pre-coronavirus, but safety is a barrier for many (VicHealth, Aug 2020)
• 8 in 10 want safer footpaths and facilities such as local shops or parks to be accessible by foot or bicycle (Heart Foundation, Nov 2020)
• More than 8-in-10 people support temporarily removing car parks to make way for pop-up bike lanes and wider footpaths around their local area (RACV poll, May 2020)
• 9 in 10 Australians support the installation of temporary bike lanes in their local area to increase safety for people riding bikes for transport (Amy Gillett Foundation poll, June 2020).

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Let’s Ride Melbourne! encourages commuters to consider choosing a bike as a convenient, healthy way of getting around and includes bike confidence workshops plus an online portal with tips and information.

Tips and information include everything from buying a new bike (or restoring a second hand clunker) to riding to work and making bike riding something you can do easily every day.

The program can also help experienced riders, with RACV’s bike-friendly journey planner map arevo also part of the show.

Arevo has current bike lane and trail information and can help riders choose the most bike friendly and efficient routes.

RACV General Manager arevo Mobility, Elizabeth Kim, said research found the COVID-19 pandemic significantly influenced how we choose to get around, and has understandably prompted people to consider alternative mobility options.

“The mental, physical and financial benefits of riding for transport, as well as for leisure, are being discovered by more people than ever before,” Ms Kim said.

“We have an opportunity to adopt new ways of getting around and choose more environmentally friendly transport options such as bike riding. Many Victorians rediscovered their appreciation of cycling over the past year.”

Bike workshops kick off on Saturday 6 March, with two workshops held in each of the Melbourne, Yarra and Port Phillip council areas.

The workshops include bike maintenance knowledge and practical riding skills, including on-road group rides.

The Deputy Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Nicholas Reece, said: “Let’s Ride Melbourne! is a great way to access helpful resources and activities for new riders who want to learn more and build confidence.

“We’re fast-tracking the installation of new bike lanes to make it safer for more people to ride, which frees up space on public transport for those who need to travel into the city from the outer suburbs.

City of Port Phillip Mayor, Cr. Louise Crawford, said: “Our scenic City is a wonderful place to explore by bike and we’re improving accessibility by adding new bike lanes to our existing network. Summer is the perfect time to re-familiarise yourself with the road rules and peddle away in Port Phillip.”

Mayor of the City of Yarra, Cr. Gabrielle de Vietri, said: “Cycling significantly contributes to our sustainability and liveability as a city and will ease congestion on our roads. Let’s Ride Melbourne! will give people the support and confidence they need to get back on the bike after this pandemic and enjoy the remainder of a COVIDSafe summer.”

Find our more about the program and download the arevo app at letsride.melbourne.vic.gov.au.

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