Tag: development

Glendale Primary: Getting Kids to Ride to School

Glendale Primary School in the northern suburbs of Perth is, probably like many other primary schools around town, nestled into quiet suburbia surrounded by quiet streets, parkland and ovals. One look and it’s clear: this location is pure bliss for anyone keen to ride to school.

Which is why it wasn’t a surprise that the bike parking area was filled to the brim with all sized, shaped and coloured bicycles on our recent visit to the school to teach bicycle skills. Or was it? The PE teacher Tanya, who had previously invited us to run the course, said otherwise. Usually not that many children ride to school and it was the fact that the she had organised the training that suddenly everybody rode to school. We like it!

Interestingly our visit was targeting the years 4, 5 and 6 how to ride safely wouldn’t have been unusual. But the racks were STACKED with bicycles and even the younger years, who didn’t even participate in the bicycle classes, were riding to school. All because they heard about the training.

So why is it even necessary to do bicycle education at school when everybody is already riding? Firstly, it is necessary because usually kids aren’t riding to school. The average distance primary school aged children travel from home to school is 4 kilometres or less. An easy distance to travel by bike. But by car it is a blip on the radar for any parent who needs to drive to work. And that’s the core of the problem. The short distance in which you can safely drop of junior at school is just a small diversion. Why not quickly do it and make sure they get where they meant to go?

The impact of riding to school is immense: a healthier, more engaged and alert student because they used active transport, a student who took ownership and responsibility of getting from A to B, a student who is a lot more familiar with their neighbourhood, understands the risks along the way and knows which ones to tackle and which ones to avoid.

Tanya is on the ball and two years after we ran our first bicycle education program through the City of Stirling, we were back with the goal to equip students with safe riding skills. Anyone can ride fast, but not everyone can ride safely. Being able to control the bike in difficult situations, being able to survey what’s around you and make decisions on speed and distance is key. Plus, games on bicycles, which teach and practice all of these skills are fun.

Glendale’s year 6 students looked familiar, just with longer limbs and yes, they did still remember the basics of fitting a helmet, mounting a bicycle and loved a good slow race. That’s a lie. Kids hate slow races. But being able to ride slowly and balance on the bike is a fundamental skill and that’s why we do it!

The bicycle training highlights that there are always a few kids – even in year 6 – who have never learned how to ride a bicycle. With the training they have the opportunity to do so with a coach by their side, which boosts confidence.

As the students bring their own bicycles to school the training also points a spotlight at the safety and maintenance levels of kids bicycles. Deflated tyres, rusty chains and faulty breaks are common and so are bicycles that have become too small for the child to ride on. All of these discoveries, whilst frustrating for students, are essential to unearth, point out and flag with parents. Riding safely also means having safe equipment and what better way to ensure this is happening by pointing it out?

We absolutely loved teaching the bicycle training and can’t wait to be back. For those who don’t want to wait for their school to organise a customised training can enrol their child into our upcoming school holiday workshop.

 

Review: E-bikes share system in Wedel, Germany

You may have read about my newly kindled love for bike share systems. Hamburg’s citybike wasn’t the only project that made my heart flutter: In Wedel, a tranquil little city of Hamburg’s outskirts, we HAD to try the local bike share system. Why was it different to Hamburg’s citybike, you wonder? Well, there you see the boundaries of local government, literally. Wedel belongs to a different local government area, hence they opted for a different bike share system.

Here a quick review:

The excellent aspects of Wedel’s bike share:

  • This system provides E-bikes, which come with a number of advantages. Hire bicycles cater for normal sized people and anyone bigger (like my partner) than normal will find the bike fit is less than desirable. Imagine yourself borrowing the bike of a five-year old and you’ll get close to my partner’s sensation on a regular bike. While it would have been hard to pedal a small bike, the pedal assist on an e-bike compensated and provided comfort.
  • Wedel is flat as a pancake, but windy as. Again, the e-bikes enabled us to travel without kicking up a sweat. Our goal was to get around in comfort and site-see, which we were able to achieve. I might add, the sleek sit-up style made it VERY comfortable.
  • The self-serve vending machine was easy to use (despite a little paper-dispenser hiccup), accepted credit cards and made picking-up and returning the bike a breeze.
  • Access to the share system was easy: the bike boxes were 20 meters away from the train station and bus port so it was super easy to combine trips with public transport.

The challenges of Wedel’s bike share:

  • We hired the bicycles for two days and by the time we returned our trusted treadlies, both of the bikes’ batteries were starting to run low. While that worked out well for us I wondered how to charge the batteries? One of the options was to hire the bicycles for an entire week – surely you would need a charger cable or replacement battery for the entire time?
  • The system was easy to use, but I couldn’t find any options for regular users like customer cards.
  • The number of access and return points were limited to a few local government run spots (leisure centre and train stations were the ones I came across). Limiting the no doubt expensive infrastructure also limits the use.

If the city’s objective was to provide alternative transport to visitors and tourists then this goal was achieved. We were happy customers and would recommend a trip around town by bike to anyone. Whether this system supports locals’ short trips around town is questionable.

Have you used and e-bike share system? What was your experience?

Bike Share: when it’s done well

What is Bike share? Bike share systems are local government run provisions of bicycles (free or at low cost) supporting a city’s transport system. Such a system works alongside a network of buses, trains, trams, taxi/uber and private vehicles and provide people a way of getting around town without. The nature of trips are usually short and bike shares fills specific needs for users to get around town. Of course, the idea is to get people active, minimise their carbon footprint and alleviating congestion.

Many local government authorities around Australia are playing with the idea of implementing these systems. Advocates and critics cast their eyes to Melbourne and Adelaide where bike shares have been implemented. Running a successful bike share systems contains more than simply buying a bunch of bicycles, locking them at the nearest corner and waiting for people to do their thing. Risk adverse councils like to point to lack of infrastructure and costs versus uptake.

The bike share debate has left me fairly ambivalent in the past for various reasons: my bicycle is dear to me (I’ve named it for god sake!), I plan my trips with my own bicycle and public transport, which means I had no personal need. Yes, I could imagine it may be useful, but as neither Perth nor Fremantle have a bike share I also couldn’t imagine what it would be like with one. You don’t miss what you don’t have.

Well, this all was meant to change on my last stint to Europe.

What are all those red bicycles about, I wondered while doing the tourist shuffle through Hamburg and Berlin. In both cities people were zapping around town on fire engine red “StadtRAD” (Citybike) branded treadlies. Train station exits donned bicycle racks with parked citybikes waiting for their next user. I had to find out more about it.

Hamburg’s bike share website explains how it works: first 30 minutes are free, hire and return your bicycle at any station you like – where are the stations? Well, where AREN’T the stations? There is hundreds of them scattered around town!

Perfect for tourists, I thought. Yes, but actually, perfect for anyone who needs to travel a short journey as the system is set up with customer cards, mobile phone access for very fast and convenient rentals.

It makes sense. The more you know a city the more you know exactly which of your trips are worth using buses or trains for, which require a car and which one you can tick of by bike.

Did people in Hamburg and Berlin complain about traffic? Oh yes, they did. Did they have alternatives for using the car? Hell yes, and they did! In fact, the single most complained about aspect of travelling by car was *drum roll*, you guessed it: parking! Any short, quick trip by car was prolonged by finding parking that riding a bicycle made more sense.

Have you tried a bike share? What were your experiences?

Humans on Bikes: Reaching beyond the strong and fearless

I met up with Sara Stace, creator of Humans on Bikes, Board Director of Cycle and Executive Director of Link.Place.Live, at the picturesque bike friendly cafe Sassys on the Swan in Perth recently and asked her a few questions about her passion for bicycles and her work.

I wondered how her passion for bicycles started and I found her story was basically similar to mine and many others that ride in normal clothes. Sara uses her passion to inspire others via her ‘hobby’ and create policies to support more people on bicycles through her day job.This is what she had to say:

“I am from Perth originally and my passion for bicycles started when I was young. I rode my bike everywhere. I rode to school, to uni and to work. All my friends rode and I didn’t really think about it.

Now I am a transport rider and ride a cargo bike and drop the kids to school. Working on Humans on Bikes and being a board member on Cycle is really my ‘hobby’.

Only 1-2% of people consider themselves bike riders, 7% use bikes for transport and are confident riders, 33% are interested but concerned and 57% say ‘no way’ will they get on a bike. Infrastructure is usually aimed at the first two groups, the strong and the fearless and, unfortunately, fails the other groups. The 33% of the population that is interested but concerned, may ride for transport if more separated bike lanes and paths are provided.

The idea of Humans on Bikes follows a similar format as Humans of New York. People send photos in from all over the world. I also talk to people I see riding and they share their story and pose for a photo.

The biggest challenge in promoting cycling has been convincing bureaucrats and politicians. Clover Moore, City of Sydney Mayor, is gutsy and has a strong vision regarding what she wants to achieve to make a better city. Moore is often attacked by the media and this puts off other politicians and bureaucrats.

My biggest achievements so far have been writing the Walking, Riding and Access to Public Transport  and the ACT Active Travel Framework.

Changes are happening. Less people want their own car and more people are walking, riding and using public transport. More people will consider shared vehicles and use private online sharing services like Go Get, or Car Next Door  that are similar to Air BnB. In the next 20-30 years there will be electric driverless shared vehicles.

In the future we won’t need extra family cars. People will ride, walk or share driverless cars so there will be less car ownership. Everyday bike riding will reach beyond the strong and fearless bike riders to include all those interested in riding, as their concerns will be better addressed.

Imagine the future with less individual car ownership. There will be less car parking and a move to higher and better uses for parking spaces such as proper separated bike lanes, alfresco dining or more trees and playgrounds.”

Nothing is killing us…

Grunting while lifting heavy objects, running upstairs, wiping off sweat – part of your daily life? Probably not. We successfully eradicated physical activity from our life, as much as possible. Instead we reserve a sweet spot for exercise in our diaries. When we feel like it. Or have spare time. Truth is we all prefer to take the lift, drive the car. Or even better: do nothing. Unless people are motivated to look and feel better or their doctor’s prognosis of impending diabetes or heart disease have provided sufficient fear.

This isn’t really news. In 2012 10% of the population of Australia aged 15 years and over said they were on a diet trying to either lose weight or other health reasons. We know that our screen time, which means sitting in front of work computers and TV’s at home, is taking up 58 hours per week of an adult life. Only one in ten Australians takes the recommended 10.000 steps per day. Hands on your heart, are you “moderately active” for 30 minutes most days of the week as the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare suggests?

Profoundly baffling health advise has been rare: we know that our diet and exercise affects our health, our heart, organ and brain functions, mood. Everything we do, from the foods and drinks we choose (or not) to ingest to the amount of time we move, influences who we are, how we feel and how productive we are. Also no news is that these daily choices aren’t great: 63% of all Australians are overweight and obese. The prognosis isn’t rosy: most of us will develop type 2 diabetes and heart disease in the future. If these are too abstract a term think amputated limbs, clogged arteries, lost eyesight. Lost quality of life.

Yet, what are we doing about this? Nothing.

Occasionally swapping a muffin with an apple just won’t cut the mustard. Taking a walk on the beach on the weekend doesn’t mean our sedentary lifestyle has just been turned around. Signing up to Jenny Craig or buying a gym membership may be fueled by motivation. But statistics don’t lie and they tell us that neither diets nor gyms are the solution to our current conundrum.

Creating lasting change in our diet and lifestyle requires a basic understanding of two driving forces: motivation and habit. Motivation means a person has a reason for acting or behaving in a particular way. This reason could be to feel happier, look slimmer or it could be an upcoming test at our GP. We consciously remind us of the reason for our behaviour and this conscious process doesn’t last for a long time. Habits come into play. Habits are a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up. Habits don’t need reminders. We just do.

If contemporary diet and lifestyle are causing diseases, the only solution is to create a culture that fosters healthy habits.

There is no easy quick-fix. Our current culture favours all of the habits that make us sick: from city designs that put cars first instead of active transport like the use of buses, trains, walking or cycling. Poor quality food that is cheaper, faster and sweeter on the pallet. Think of any celebration whether it is Christmas, Birthdays, ANZAC Day or Easter, each one comes with its own set of sweet treats that are part of the tradition. Think of how we treat each other: You’re sad? Here, have a piece of chocolate. You did great in an exam? Congratulations, have an ice cream.

If we want to change a situation caused by a multitude of factors then there is no one solution and neither policy changes nor sole individual champions can be the answer. One thing is clear though if we do want to change anything we can’t start with nothing. We’ll have to tackle everything. From consumer driven demands, fairer access to better infrastructure all of it must be on the table.

 

 

Launch of strategy paper: “Our Bike Path”

 

When we doodle around town on our bicycles we easily forget how much work goes into the stretch of path we’re using. Developing a bicycle network isn’t simply a matter of scribbling some lines on a map and hand it to the man with the shove excavator to make it happen.

Perth’s shared path network may not be perfect, but it’s taken a while to get to a point where we can access and use a fairly functional network. What many don’t realise is that Western Australia has a small, yet effective number of cycling groups which have pushed the development so far. Gill and I will talk more about these groups and introduce you to some of the faces that have shaped the city so far (*Gill nods*).

Competition for funding, membership and support hasn’t always created harmony amongst these groups and this is why WestCycle’s launch of the strategy paper “Our Bike Path” is a milestone.

The launch last Wednesday as part of Bikeweek 2014 and UWA’s Bike to Uni breakfast (read: free food and coffee, of course we were in!) meant plenty of people on bicycles got together. We were munching, slurping hot goodness and dreamt of an even better, more cycle friendly Perth.

Cynics may put it all down as a pipe dream, but having all of the cycling groups be part of the 18 month process of developing the strategy is one thing, having them agree is another.

If you haven’t had a chance to grab a copy, have a read here.