Riding a
bicycle is one of the most sustainable mobility choices. Cities and people can greatly
benefit, if they can raise the mode share of cycling. Australia in general and
Brisbane specifically has a very small bike share even thought the last few
years a lot of effort has been put in increasing bicycle use. You can see all the bikeways and shared paths on Brisbane in the maps that provide information on on-road and off-road bicycle lanes, bike shelters
and cyclepods to make your ride or walk safer and more pleasant.
Yesterday
there was a very interesting event in Brisbane – which unfortunately I was not
able to take part. Brisbane Bike Over Speed. Cyclists in their
normal cloths, their work outfit or their best suits cycled through the City
and South Bank just to make the point that cycling is not only for the “hardcore
- lycra wearing – Tour De France looking” cyclists. See the video
of their playful ride:
Some of
them were riding CityCycle bikes. CityCycle is a very good initiative that can
help raise bicycle use across the city. When I first saw the yellow bikes,
similar to those in Paris and in Dublin, I thought: Way to go Brisbane. The next couple of days I subscribed
to City Cycle and now I use the yellow bikes regularly. That is, I try to use
them every day but it seems that quite a few days I am not able to do so
because I can not find a bicycle with a helmet in the bike rack. That is one of
the biggest reasons that the overall daily trips of CityCyle remain so low. Dublin
Councillor Andrew Montague shares his experience about the bike share system in Dublin and compares it to the one in Melbourne which is so similar to CityCycle in
Brisbane. The video is from MikeRubbo artist devoted in promoting "the beauty of the body of the bike".
And then browsing
about cycling and the city I found this TEDx video of Mikael Colville-Andersen, filmmaker, photographer and urban mobility expert from Copenhangen, Denmark explaining with lots of research and
data “Why We Shouldn’t Bike with a Helmet”. Interesting comments, especially those concerning
Australia.
