I knew roundabouts were bad news

The last few weeks I've had two closeish interactions with motorists at roundabouts failing to 
give way.  Pursuing another local bee in my bonnet - the unexplained removal of the hoop bike parking racks in Pier street in Altona (anyone know why they have been removed, btw?) I stumbled over and read with much interest the Hobsons Bay Strategic Bicycle Plan.  Fascinating and sobering reading.  The map of where the accidents have happened - lots of blood red spots indicating accident locations  on the map of our local area - certainly makes you think
as you ride along the same roads.  I found the analysis of the bicycle accidents causing injury or death in my local area (5 years up to 2001) particularly attention grabbing.  Large number of crashes between 6-8 am - the cycle commuter rush from our neck of the woods - and most common age group 30-39 - commuters again?  

The bit that really caught my eye was the graph on Traffic Control and the commentary:

"A significantly higher proportion of cyclist crashes in Hobsons Bay occurred at roundabouts
compared to that of all road users in Hobsons Bay and the Melbourne Statistical District average for cyclists. This is likely to be due to the higher than average number of roundabouts on main routes through Hobsons Bay and the fact that cyclists are not well suited to this form of traffic
control."  (p. 30)

Well that's good to know that we are not suited to roundabouts.  A better way to have put it might have been "this form of traffic control is not well suited to cyclists".  

Further into the report, it notes

"A review of bicycle casualty accidents at roundabouts revealed that 70% were right angle
crashes where a cyclist on a roundabout was struck by an entering motor vehicle.
Accordingly, bicycle riders would benefit from an alternative treatment where bicycles can
be kept off the road carriageway at a roundabout." p. 58


I've been wrestling - fruitlessly so far - with VICROAD's Crashstats to see if I can get an update on Hobsons Bay roundabout accidents  from 2001 to now.  Be interesting to see if the next 5 years, after the Strategic Plan, have made 
any difference.  I can't say I can see any sign of "alternative treatment".     The plan suggests a sort of bike path round the outside of the roundabout, which would require the cyclist to give way to everyone coming and going which in the world we are in I doubt will work.  
Most commuter cyclists and the lycra brigade would ignore that sort of set up.  

Hmmmm.  No easy solution that I can see.  Rob's idea of changing driver liability to require motorists to prove they were not in the wrong in a
collision with a cyclistis appealing.  

But the frequency of accidents at roundabouts indicates its something wrong in 
the underlying infrastructure, in the basic design, as well as in the attitude of the people behind
the steering wheels.

Anyway, I for one am adjusting my route to avoid roundabouts wherever possible from now on, and I'm twice as careful going into them.   And I'm going to follow vote4cycling's advice and write to my local member to encourage the commonwealth 
to put some $ into local government for improving cycling infrastructure.

Economic of bike commuting #2, roundabouts, better dorky than dead

Rode every day for another week.  Once again, I deprived Connex, who run the train system here in Melbourne, of $27.00.   Coming home last night though, my front light became increasingly feeble, so down to the supermarket for a set of rechargable AAA batteries - $21.95.   A small cash  net profit for the week then.  Of course the benefits are not only financial - 
I'm feeling a bit fitter and enjoying life more, which of course is priceless.

I've found a slightly shorter route for part of the trip, - a bit more on road but a bit faster too - so the total for this week 295 kilometres.   Added to last week's 318, I've ridden near the equivalent of Paris to Brest.  Took me two weeks to do it though.  How people do it in 25 hours straight or less, I have no idea.

Had another incident with a car not giving way at a roundabout - from which I've come to suspect that maybe there is a visibility issue.  From behind, car headlights pick out all the reflective bits and pieces on coat, bike, ankles, shoes, bag etc.  At a roundabout, the headlights aren't actually pointing at you, so maybe they just don't see us?

Whatever, I've adopted a philosophy of better dorky than dead - so I've got a light cable tied to my helmet, and a sort of reflective, flashing sash thing that I was given as a gift and had never used before.  I figured it wasn't much use sitting in a box so now I ride along emitting an errie green light.  Hopefully the car drivers are too busy laughing to run me over.

Tally for the week Monday to Friday:
Distance: 295 kilometres
Rained on: not at all - absolutely beautiful weather, a bit nippy in the mornings but.
Near miss with car: one - another roundabout.  hmmm.
Near miss with another bicycle: some guy heading towards me decided to pass another cyclist on the yarra trail on the narrow ramp leading down to the pontoon as I was heading up it.  Scared the heck out of me - don't know what he thought about it.

This morning

Can't say I was that keen to get out the door this morning. But soon as I got round the corner,  I was glad I'd made it.

The economics of bike commuting - a week's experience

Well I managed to ride to work and back every day this week.  I would have tallied over 300 k on the odometer for the week, but the poor old computer didn't like the rain tonight and gave up the ghost.  

One thing people say about commuting by bicycle is that it saves you money.  I suppose it might if you keep at it, though I tend to find that either I buy bicycle stuff which cancels out any theoretical savings, or things break.  This week I saved on the usual weekly ticket - round $27.00 - but I bought one of those dinky helmet mirrors for - you guessed it - $27.00.  So I was breaking even till the bike computer went west.   

Week went like this:  Monday full of resolve - no worries.  Tuesday - bit tired and stiff, but steely determination stiffled the persuasive voices that whispered "catch the train ... its really not so bad being crushed ".  Wednesday feeling rather sorry for myself, but ok once I got going.  Coming home a low point, tired, hungry, late, cold.  Thursday a real struggle to get going but again, once out the door, that early dawn world is so beautiful that the transition till the muscles and the body warms up passes almost without noticing.  Friday, actually not too bad at all.  Maybe crashed through a pain barrier or two there.  Got rained on for most of the way home but arrived home a bit damp but feeling pretty good all in all.

Tally for the week Monday to Friday:  
Distance:  305 kilometres
Rained on: twice
Near miss with car: one - not my fault -   see "I'm big you're little" post
Near miss with another bicycle: one - probably my fault - just didn't see the guy on the pavement along King street as I crossed the road at the lights, and I wasn't expecting him to be there.  Dammed hard to see, those cyclists.  

I'm big you're small get out of my way - a policy issue?

Now the weather is picking up I feel like there is no excuse for not riding to work. Well, for me its a 60k round trip, from Altona to Hawthorn and back, so my usual excuses are: its too far, I'm too busy, I'm too tired, I don't feel like it. But I figure if I take public transport it takes an hour each way at least, and if I ride it takes me about an hour an a half, so really its only one hour extra each day.

Whatever, last night, about 6.30, at a well lit round-about intersection near Williamstown, a car from my left, who should have given way to me, decided not to. I make it a rule to establish eye contact with cars in that situation, and no question he saw me. I've got good lights, reflective thingeys on my ankles, I'm wearing regulation fluro. He saw me, but I think he thought, "I'm big, you are little, get out of my way", and drove straight through. The adrenaline surge got me the rest of the way home, and hey, I managed to get out of the way. I try to avoid the cyclist paranoia about cars, but sometimes ....

Makes you think. A friend has recently returned from Finland, and has been telling me about the wonders of Finnish bike paths - wide, clearly marked, lots of them, and as a result lots of people use them. From the

FINNISH ROAD ADMINISTRATION site you can get an idea of what they are doing:

Some 4,945 kilometres of cycling lanes and pedestrian ways have been constructed along highways and the network has in recent years expanded by about 100-200 kilometres annually.


Special attention is paid to the quality of these lanes to ensure maximum riding comfort and to make cycling more attractive. Finland has a total of 16,000 kilometres of bicycle and pedestrian ways.

Cycling is an important means of transport both in terms of mobility and exercise; consequently, cycling lanes are termed the country's most important venue for physical exercise. In addition, biking is heavily endorsed in the Ministry's programme on cycling 2001, setting the goal of doubling bicycle traffic by the year 2020.

Hard not to contrast that with the piece in The Age on Saturday:

"Despite evidence that cycling was a far cheaper and faster alternative, the State Government's investment in transport infrastructure was still skewed towards the provision of roads and public transport.

The Department of Infrastructure spent more than $450 million on public transport franchises in 2004-05 and $289 million on arterial road networks. Less than $10 million was committed to bike routes. As a result, Melbourne has about 30,000 kilometres of roads, 380 kilometres of train line, 500 kilometres of tram tracks and only 1500 kilometres of bike paths."

Election coming up - I wonder if there is a Fedral bike infrastructure funding scheme coming from any of the major parties? Instead of throwing money at filters that don't work, and advertisements that just waste our tax dollars, treat us like idiots and annoy the heck out of everyone, why not do something useful?

4 trails - Gardiners Creek, Outer Circle, Main Yarra, Capital City

Living in the Western suburbs of Melbourne, most of the bike paths of Melbourne are a fair way away, and we don't get to try them out unless we make an effort.  Never been on the Outer Circle Anniversary trail, so this Sunday we thought we'd fix that.  

We took the tandem, got one of those great Sunday Saver tickets, and caught the train to Gardiner Station.   Along Gardiner's Creek path till a path with a sign Anniversary trail 2.5 Km appeared.  Headed off along this, which turned into a gravel path, which then split into multiple paths with no signage as to which was the one to follow.  Grrrr.   Signage on Melbourne bike paths can be pretty dismal in my experience, but I suppose it adds to the sense of adventure. The one we chose ended abruptly, so we ground up hill through the leafy suburbia till we hit the trail.

  


Ride a tandem through this?

The number of intersecting roads and totally un-navigable obstructions for tandems on this trail made us realise how lucky we are over in the west - our trail builders seem to assume that if you are silly enough to ride onto a road then its your problem - which makes for much less getting on and getting off.  

There are some lovely bits of the trail, through the cuttings of the former train line.  We took a thermos and sandwiches and enjoyed them mightily in a nice little park near Burke Road.
Across High Street, the trail goes through some nicely landscaped 
plantings of Australian native shrubs and trees, till it crosses the Eastern Freeway.  

A bit bleak out there waiting for the interminable traffic lights while 
the cars whoosh past, along the freeway, off the exits, over the bridge.  So many of them, so few of us.    We followed the signs to the Main Yarra trail, which meant that we rolled down a steep hill, went under the bridge, then had to schlep the tandem up the steps on the other side.  Smart money would be to go directly across the road, but nothing to suggest that.

Headed round the Yarra Boulevard - again getting moderately confused by the signage.  A sign saying "Main Yarra Trail - Fairfield" looked very tempting, especially as it was down hill, but we debated for a while and decided to continue on the Boulevard.  We were rewarded by passing through a small flock of Black Cockatoos.   Lots of screeching and swooping. Got passed by groups of people on mountain bikes with damp streaks of mud up their backs.  Looked uncomfortable but I'm sure they were having fun.   

Crossed the bridge over the Yarra onto the Capital City Trail in Abbotsford.  Rotten stairs again - they definitely aren't designed for Tandems - we had to practically carry the old thing down the stairs as the cranks would crunch onto the concrete at each landing otherwise.

Had a coffee and reviving muffin at the Collingwood Childrens Farm, then continued along the 
Capital City Trail round the back of Carlton and Parkville, past the back of the Zoo - ah, the heady pungent whiff of exotic animal urine -  till Kensington, where we sprinted over the hill and down to South Kensington station just in time to catch our train home.  All up the trip took a bit over 4 hours.

Its great that our bike paths are there, and there should be more of them.   A ride like today shows how great they can be, but also that there is plenty of work still to do.

Geelong Queenscliff Rail Trail

Last week, we persuaded the kids to go stay with Grandma, Grandma to have the kids stay over, and Grandma and the kids to stop by and feed the dogs.   We both arranged to take Friday off work, booked a VLINE ticket to South Geelong (you can check the timetables online but you need to actually go to a station to book) and a room in a nice old B&B in Queenscliff (Maytone), and that was about it.

Friday morning,  got the kids off to school, patted the dogs goodbye, put a change of clothes in the panniers, then onto the tandem and off to Footscray station.  

By 11.oo we were at South Geelong station. The Rail Trail is about one kilometre further, along Carr street, which is on the opposite side of railway line from the platform.  The start of the Rail Trail is well signposted, and once you're on it, little navigation is 
required.  Sufficient maps are available from the Railtrails Australia, and there is a Bikely map that lets you print out a detailed cue sheet if you are really keen to know elevation and distance between roads.
 
The weather forcast for Friday was for rain and possible hail.  We seemed to have a tail wind most of Friday, and started off in sunshine.  The trail has chicanes at every intersection, probably to discourage trail bike riders, and to stop cyclists flinging themselves under passing motor vehicles.  They might be navigable on a single bike, but on the tandem, we had to stop at each one,  Anne would have to get off,  sometimes lift the rear of the tandem round 
to squeeze through,  then cross the road, repeat the performance at the chicane on the other 
side, then ride on to the next intersection.  The novelty of this procedure wears off fairly quickly.

The overall distance is around 32 kilometres.   Drysdale is located neatly halfway between Geelong and Queenscliff.  We headed down the Geelong-Portarlington road - the road before the Drysdale station - into Drysdale township.   We timed our arrival with a major downpour, so retired to a cafe (Confessions) for a great lunch and a pot of tea. 

By the time we'd restored the inner cyclists, the rain had passed.  We found our way back onto 
the trail, via Princess street.

The scenery gets prettier from Drysdale on, and more rural.  One unique aspect of the Bellarine Rail Trail is that it actually does have a railway line, and a functioning one at that.  As we cycled we could hear the sound of a train whistle, and sure enough, there was the Bellarine Peninsula Railway works train, with a couple of chaps clearing fallen trees from beside the tracks. 

A bit further on, and we could feel the air temperature dropping and a ragged squall line of cloud approaching.  A railway bridge over a creek looked like the best shelter at quick notice, so we propped down there till the storm passed.  

After the storm had passed we put on rain pants as the path now resembled a creek and the tandem has no mudguards. (Not yet.  Next enhancement!)  We picked our way through the puddles down Marcus Hill into Queenscliff. 
Some fantastic views from here.

We got to Queenscliff round 3.00, and found a public convenience where we could clean up a bit, as we were worried that our accommodation would faint at the sight of two mud splattered sodden guests.   We need not have worried - they were used to cyclists.  A very relaxed welcome awaited us, and a garage for the tandem for the night as well.  

Dinner in the pub (fantastic seafood paella and pasta - perfect cyclist food), a bottle of red, a very sound night's sleep, a terrific breakfast next morning, and we were on the road again by 9.30 am.   

The trail had dried out overnight, and no rain, so we retraced the route, 
following our bike tyre marks back to just miss a train.  A pleasant wait in the sun reading the Saturday papers, a 55 minute train trip, and we were back home by 3.00, feeling like we'd had holiday