Home

The Australian government is slowly acknowledging the benefits of cycling as an alternative form of transport with Melbourne city Council’s approval of the Swanston Street redevelopment. Similarly another Melbourne Council, Moreland City Council has replaced eight parking spaces with bicycle parking.

While many European cities have enjoyed the benefits of supporting bicycles as alternative form of transform, the Australian government is slowly overhauling existing car centric policies. With many Melbourne roads exceeding the capacity there is a strong push to reinstate cycling lanes through these busy thoroughfares.

What many people don’t appreciate is that cycling provides many other benefits of cycling apart from reduced traveling time and environmental benefits when commuting into the city. With recent reviews to the recommended exercise participation being from 30 minutes 3 to 4 times per week to daily exercise of 30 minutes per day, this can easily be achieved through commuting to work.

While many of Melbourne’s roads are gridlocked and have succumb to the ever-increasing levels of increased car patronage, removing a lane of traffic really has little consequence as the destination point is always bottlenecked. So whether the traffic is spread over a greater distance with multiple lanes all bottlenecked at the city center, ultimately the overall commuting time is the same.

The new Swanston Street redevelopment will be the centerpiece of the councils initiative to reinvigorate the road into a major boulevard which has been in a major upheaval with each successive government failing to introduce a viable option. With increasing levels of trams and the number of cyclists doubling since the 1990s, there has never been a better time to to introduce this great initiative. The pedestrian numbers have also increased steadily from 12,500 in 1992 to 60,000 at the moment, with expected numbers topping 100,000 once the development is fully completed.

While this development will be met with this much resistance from the motor vehicle lobby groups, we need to adopt an overall transport strategy to avoid an LA style traffic nightmare scenario.

Similarly the replacement of the eight parking spaces has been calculated to the overall beneficial to the street shops that are joining is far greater given six bicycles replace one car. While the average spend per cyclist may be lower than one car user, the overall revenue per car parking space is greater.

London Mayor Boris Johnson cycling on a proposed “super highways” route with Transport Minister Lord Adonis and Kulveer Ranger, his director of transport were almost killed by this freak accident.

While “Copenhagen Style Bicycle lane” would have not avoided a tragedy on this occasion it demonstrates the fine line between seerious injury and safety for the millions of bicycle commuters in major cities around the world.

What a great initiative, with people become more reliant on the car to move about most major cities, having a car free day encompassing major streets in the heart of the city is a great way to get people exploring other forms of transport.
Walking, cycling, trams, buses and trains are great alternatives to get around, the worst case scenario is a person having to walk a few kilometers to get to their chosen destination.

Membership for the scheme will be daily, weekly of yearly, and the first half-hour of all trips will be free. Additional usage fees will apply after the first half hour.

Project benefits
The Public Bike Hire Scheme will provide a travel option that is faster than walking and more flexible than public transport, and encourage bike a healthy, green transport option.
It will also help relieve pressure on transport systems in the inner-city.