{SYD} Two-wheeled remedy for urban headaches

Norm may not of ridden a bike for 45 years, he kinda looks like a dyed
in the wool MBTC/Audax rider. On ya Norm!

*******

Two-wheeled remedy for urban headaches. August 15, 2006
http://tinyurl.com/gqjas

Pedal to the mettle … Wollondilly councillor Norman Jew has become a
vigorous campaigner for cycle paths since getting back in the saddle.
Photo: Brendan Esposito

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NORMAN JEW had not ridden a bike for about 45 years, but when he took a
fancy to a woman who was an avid cyclist he took to the saddle as well.

The romance with the woman did not blossom, but Mr Jew's love of
cycling was so strongly rekindled that he is now a crusader for
off-road bike and pedestrian pathways in suburbs across Australia.

"I was 62 and feeling it," Mr Jew said of the time he got back on his
bike. "I bought a $250 second-hand bike [and] the freedom and the
enjoyment of it all came back … I really felt 10 to 15 years younger."

The Picton resident was elected to Wollondilly Shire Council in 2004,
largely on his shared-pathway platform. His zeal has convinced two
fellow councillors to buy bikes, and construction will begin this month
on a pathway through Appin.

Mr Jew has also taken motions to local government conferences calling
for off-road pathways - at least two metres wide with safety zones in
the middle of road crossings for cyclists - to be mandatory in all new
developments.

"I have probably taken on more than I should have but I'm now 68," he
said. "It's a matter of how much longer have I got to do all these
things?"

Australians' over-reliance on the car and the subsequent lack of
"active transport" - walking and cycling - is a large factor in the
obesity epidemic.

John Pucher, an American professor of planning who has spent the past
year with the University of Sydney's institute of transport and
logistics studies, is working with Australian and Canadian academics on
a three-country comparison of transport systems and their impact on
people's travel behaviour and health.

What he has observed here comes as no comfort: he thinks Australia is
as bad as the US when it comes to urban design and lack of physical
activity.

"Australians are so sports crazy; they are just nuts about sports,"
Professor Pucher said. "But there's something we have in common: there
seems to be a lot of armchair sports fans … they are not getting any
physical activity while they do it."

He advocates solutions that encourage cycling and walking, including a
huge expansion of bike lanes, priority signals for bikes at
intersections, improved pedestrian crossings, more car-free zones and
reduced speed limits in busy pedestrian areas.

Chloe Mason, a visiting fellow at the University of Technology, Sydney,
and a sustainable-transport consultant, works with companies to develop
transport access guides - maps on business cards or brochures that
explain how to get to places by public transport, walking or cycling.

Canterbury City Council, for example, improved the route from local
train stations to Canterbury Hospital when she created an access guide
for it.

"With the cycling movement, the challenge is to get people to do it
more for a purpose than for recreation," Dr Mason said.

The City of Sydney Council's new cycle plan, which includes 20 new
cycle routes through the CBD and bike parking stations incorporating
showers and change rooms, recognises that fear is one of the biggest
deterrents to would-be Sydney cyclists.

But research shows that the more people ride, the safer the roads
become for all cyclists.

One study found the ACT, Queensland and Western Australia, which have
the highest per capita distances travelled by bike, were safest for
cycling. NSW, where cycling is least common, was the most dangerous.


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cfsmtb