In response to David Hurburgh ('Bike lane reality check', Oct 5), advocates of the Sandy Bay Walking and Cycling Project have taken a reality check. It's called research. It comes in the form of data from other cities as well as data on our own riders and residents. Hobart City Council has undertaken various surveys and bike counts to determine actual and projected levels of use. Lower Sandy Bay and Taroona has a particularly high proportion of residents who would like the healthy option of commuting, shopping and visiting by bike. 2012 data show 60 bike riders per hour on Sandy Bay Road. Roger Geller's work in Portland, Oregon shows that if you only cater to the 'strong and fearless' who don't mind mixing with cars, then you'll only get a few percent of people riding. Provide separated facilities, as is proposed along Sandy Bay Road, and you get dramatic uptakes in cycling. If the facility is upgraded, people will ride. Again, data from many other cities shows what is possible. The Swiss city of Basel is built on the steep banks of the Rhine and yet 23% of journeys are made by bike. In Bern, where many roads have a gradient of 7%, 15% of journeys are made by bike. Traffic engineers at the Council have demonstrated that Sandy Bay Road is wide enough to accommodate a variety of modes of transport, without disruption the flow for buses and cars. Given health benefits of physical activity and the possibility of overcoming hills with pedal-assist electric bikes, Hobart needs this infrastructure to give residents the option of leaving their cars behind. 

There is a plan to make bike riding along Sandy Bay Road an experience so enjoyable and safe that any person, aged eight to eighty, could ride it. It will be the nicest part of the ride to work, the best part of riding to Nutgrove Beach on the weekend and a highlight for Hobart visitors.

Unfortunately Hobart City Council is poised to sabotage four years of preparation and consultation into a project that was going to ensure that walking and cycling become a popular form of transport and recreation along Sandy Bay Road in the future. Read the details at the following link and sign the petition calling for a fairer

http://www.communityrun.org/petitions/support-hobart-city-council-to-build-the-best-sandy-bay-walking-and-cycling-project-possible

Please find attached the Bicycle Tasmania submission to the Integrated Transport Options inquiry.

 Getting more people riding, more often is our vision for a healthier Tasmania. Taking that bike out of the shed and giving it a dust off, even if it’s just once or twice a week, has a lot of positive benefits, including fitness and social contact.

 Cycling involves all the major muscle groups and can be a high cardio vascular exercise without weight bearing stress to muscles and joints. The Cycling25 project in Hobart followed 25 volunteer non-riders who committed to riding 40 km or four times a week for a year. Twenty one people finished the program and, in return, kept the bike they were given at the start of the year. There were highly positive outcomes around average fitness, improved mood, and an increase in recreational riding with family and friends.

Many people I speak to about bike riding say they would like to ride more often. One of the main barriers is lack of low-stress routes between people’s homes and destinations. We need routes that don’t require riding on roads that exceed people’s tolerance for traffic stress, and that do not involve long detours. Tasmania is slowly working towards implementing key arterial bike networks in urban centres but needs to be moving faster to tackle the challenges we face around obesity, work stress, cutting carbon, tackling congestion and providing cheaper travel options.

 Providing infrastructure that makes cycling a fun, cheap, social way to get around is an important part of tackling many complex social-environmental challenges. Bicycle Tasmania, Heart Foundation and many other groups are working towards getting local and state governments to prioritise funding and planning to make these low stress connections a reality to get more people riding, more often.

Emma Pharo, Facilities Development Manager

Bicycle Tasmania

In reply to Annie Betts (QuickViews, June 13), the Degraves St, South Hobart bike lane is formalising a popular route for riders. They are going uphill from the South Hobart Rivulet path to access residences of South Hobart and trails of Mt Wellington. This contra-flow lane means that riders don’t have (legally) to mount the footpath or (illegally) ride up the street against the oncoming cars. The cars now park adjacent to the bike lane rather than the kerb, which provides a buffer between the riders and moving cars to the benefit of both parties. Councils and the state government have made myriad commitments around active transport for health and carbon emission reduction benefits. Hobart City Council is to be commended for their investment in the South Hobart Rivulet tracks, of which Degraves St is an important feeder route.

Emma Pharo
Facilities Development, Bicycle Tasmania

The Labour-Green government can start making savings next month if it invests appropriately in bicycle facilities such as bike lanes and cycleways when it hands down the 2012-2013 state budget in April.
 
Decades of inaction in providing for cyclists when building and improving the road network has led to spiraling claims by bicycle riders through MAIB, costing over $80 million since 1990 according to the Menzies Research Centre analysis reported this week (‘$80m bicycle prang payouts’, Mercury, 23/4).[1]
 
Tasmania has fallen so far behind all other Australian states in providing a low risk and easy to use bicycle networks that the state may be held liable for cyclist crashes and face claims from insurance companies for failure provide equitable amenity for all road users, says peak bicycle rider membership organisation, Bicycle Tasmania.
 
The equivalent to the RACT for bike riders, Bicycle Tasmania says its members are increasingly concerned that the state budget for new bicycle facilities is now $0 despite the increasing number of riders. The organisation offers personal accident and third party insurance to members but says this only offers slight peace of mind for most who are forced to share the road with cars and trucks without adequate infrastructure.
 
Bicycle Tasmania Facilities Development Officer Emma Pharo said ‘the Tasmanian Government needed to acknowledge the 19% of Tasmanians[2] who ride a bike each week and start funding real projects on the principle urban bicycle networks in Launceston, Hobart, Devonport and Burnie’.[3]
 
‘If the Labour-Green government wants to make savings this budget then it must look no further than to allocate capital to where there will be strong return. Through work done by Transport and Main Roads in Queensland there is now an accepted estimate that every 1000 new bike riders are worth $15 Million over 30 years. Every $1 Million that is spent on cycleways will equate to $20 Million in health savings alone to the community’ she said.[4]
 
In its submission ‘Creating Healthy Connections’ to the community budget consultation in January, Bicycle Tasmania detailed 428 km of cycleway project opportunities but fears that Tasmania’s bike riding potential will be ignored due to ignorance of senior government officials about the funding required to support greater participation in bike riding.
 
‘It has been made clear to the State Government that an allocation of $15 Million over the next three years is the minimum investment required to support more Tasmanians riding more often’ said Ms Pharo.
 
‘With bicycle facility projects such as Sandy Bay Rd, nearing a ‘shovel ready’ stage, the State Government must reward local councils for their planning and consultation work by providing an annual allocation towards capital works on the principle bicycle network’.
 
Media enquiries: Emma Pharo – 0447 341 105

Council was persuaded by an amendment put forward by Philip Cocker and Helen Burnet to endorse in principle the project in its entirety, rather than go with the weak recommendations of Infrastructure Services Committee. 

They successfully argued that Council needs to move each of this project's components along if we want to be successful in attracting Federal grants funding. This means that we don't just stop at Marieville Esp to the Casino but move on all sections of the proposal.

Thank you all for your support of Bicycle Tasmania and for the effort that many of you put into emails, advice and coming to the Council meeting.  Emma Pharo