Bikes on Stanley
With three times more cyclists spinning around even the sceptics in Stanley Streets coffee shops are starting to admit the cycleway is being used. And suddenly there’s a bike or two in each platoon of traffic moving in the City.
Watching the overcrowded shared path from Pyrmont @ King Street cyclists divide into three categories, the Screamers, the Drop-Bars and the Sit-Ups. The Drop-Bars travel quickly and take advantage of the traffic situation – you need to be very alert on a bike so this comes naturally – and are generally well behaved using Cycle lanes in main roads – Drop-Bars see a major benefit from the Cycleways. The Screamers have been there all along, travel very very fast and appear to yell at each other for encouragement (it’s quite common!). They travel too fast in pedestrian areas, and have found (correctly) that its quicker to use the road at traffic signals than to use a Cycleway and take up a lane on Pacific Highway because “There’s nowhere else to go”, (they are right in that case). The Sit-Up are the new cyclists, generally obeying the rules, welcoming the Cycleways. I joined the Sit-Ups nearly a year ago.
Cycleways are part of civilising a City, one where’s there is a choice to move around more slowly and more in touch with the surroundings; keeping away from main roads means breathing more fresh air, listening to sounds, not to mention being healthy. Janette Sadik- Khan the transportation planner for New York said NY needed Cycleways to remain a competitive Global City; NY no less! London has the same, it’s not all about getting cars off the road, it’s an extension of City life style.
Using public space is all about anticipation and courtesy, I’ve not had one problem with a car driver but that maybe because whilst I weave through traffic standing still I try to keep out of the way when traffic is moving including, tut–tut, using quiet footpaths. Yes I go onto footpaths in the City. And where there are pedestrians I follow them and travel slow enough to stop very quickly, never using the bell; it’s a simple courtesy to share the space.
Cycleways in the City are not a freeway for cyclists. Taking videos from a bike of how pedestrians walk out into Cycleways shows a complete lack of understanding, if drivers had that attitude they would kill a pedestrian a day in the City which is why there are driving tests and licences! Read the situation, anticipate; go a little slower in Kent Street when pedestrians are jay walking; the bell is no answer to the Mobile Phone anymore so than a car hooting a warning.
It would be easier to find videos of stupid behaviour by cyclists on footpaths. There are the tragic stories of how a cyclists killed a child on a footpath, (got 6 years gaol), this not normal behaviour any more that the occasional car driver who mounts the footpath and kills someone; tragic but not normal.
That said cyclists are, by definition, on the high side of risk takers, going out into a lane of traffic on a few kilos of metal is uncomfortable; when cyclists are pedestrians they are probably the jay walkers! They also want to get from A to B in the shortest time, no different to a car driver or pedestrian; so most take a combination that includes Cycleways, a preference for quiet streets and the occasional park or footpath to avoid a one-way street and skipping that red light when there’s on one around. Everyone is learning and when the bike network is complete it will lessen conflicts and increase safety.
Being on a bike skinks the City, suddenly there’s time to go to the Fish Market at lunch, or visit that restaurant on the other side of town. Weekend use the Cycleway to pick up bread in Bourke Street, get over to Centennial Park with the kids. I use my car a little less, use the bus a little less, use the City a little more. NY we are with you, thank you Clover.
