Road users on two wheels

The picture painted by the blood of injured cyclists is verified in a statement by Dr James Taylor, head of Sandringham Hospital Emergency, close to one of the famous rides along Beach Road. In his statement Dr Taylor said “cycling injuries has all the hallmarks of an epidemic” and he continued “this epidemic of trauma injuries chiefly affects adults of a productive age”.

The promotion of the car culture in Victoria is revving up at this time of the year with the Formula 1 Grand Prix coming to town taking over one of Melbourne’s finest parks with gently swerving roads ideal for cycling at other times of the year. The supercars racing on the track pollute the atmosphere with noise and CO2 emissions. To top it off the super cars arrive on special giant cargo planes that also pollute the air on their way across the globe.

The marketing of the F1 race this year suffered a set back when Toyota announced they would pull out of the F1 circus for the 2010 season.

Toyota is commencing the production of hybrid cars locally, with electrical and petrol engines acting in tandem to lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. However, the small efficient diesel engines that are powering the Toyotas European competitors are still more fuel efficient and release less CO2 into the atmosphere. While the Toyota Camry reportedly releases 150gm of CO2 per kilometre, the Volvo V50 Drive will release 122gm of CO2 per kilometre when it appears on the roads in Australia towards the end of 2010.

There are some positive media stories being released in advance of the 2010 F1 race in Melbourne. Among other eye catching headlines it was recently revealed that the Schu, Michael Schumaker, the Ferrari driver that retired from the sport a couple of years ago, has announced he is back for the Melbourne F1 GP.

But the question remains, if the Schu is heading our way for the F1 racing who is footing the increasing hospital bills that the car culture is contributing to here in Australia?

Police are talking about the explosion of cyclists spilling over from our under dimensioned, badly maintained, and disconnected bike paths onto our roads. Health and traffic experts agree that there are obvious positives for public health and the health of our urban environment.

Cycling friendly Victoria has a $38 billion transport blueprint for the next decade. Some of the big ticket items are the lane duplications of the Monash and the Western Ring Road which will reportedly cost $2 billion each.

While cars and roads thus receive plenty of taxpayers’ money, less than one-third of a per cent is earmarked for the upgrade of bicycle paths. This mainly goes to the creation of “Copenhagen lanes”. The Traffic Director of Copenhagen City, Nils Torslov recently toured Australia and said that “Copenhagen lanes” are not being favoured in Copenhagen any more. Instead the favoured new infrastructure is the “green cycle routes” where a whole lane of car traffic is given over to bicyclists. The City of Yarra have designated several streets which lead from student accommodation in the north to destinations in the city in the south and to the University of Melbourne.

The goal for all thinking people is to convert car commuters to bicycle commuting. But to do so we have to make it safer to ride bicycles on our roads.

The Amy Gillett foundation is working to make our roads safer for its most vulnerable users. The forgotten fact is that most bike riders also drive a car and do taxi runs with the kids, go shopping after work etc. Perhaps an alternative campaign for next year could be a message displayed on the back of your car that you support the Amy Ride and care about bike riders because you are one of them.