Reminder of why I ride, Death of a cyclist.

I rode four out of five days this week. Popped a spoke Monday in Yarraville, just about exactly half way, so I squeaked on slowly to Abbotsford cycles and left the bike there to be fixed. Picked it up after work - $15 and great service. Not feeling too well on Wednesday so I used the train. Coming home on Wednesday night, waiting at Flinders Street, the message came over the PA that Werribee line trains were not running, and all us Werribee people should catch a Syndenham train to Footscray, then a bus to Newport as there had been a level crossing accident at Yarraville. The experience of the trip home was reminded me of all the reasons I ride – the train was grossly overcrowded, people physically crushed up against one another. It took an interminable time to get through the loop, with long periods of time when it just sat, and all the crushed people got hotter and the sense of desperation grew. It stopped again just outside Footscray, waited, started, stopped suddenly so everyone fell over as far as they could being packed tight, people started looking green and ready to pass out. At Footscray, a huge crowd of people milling around while Met employees wandered around looking harassed but offering no guidance, control or assistance. People in wheel chairs, parents with a young child in a stroller, people everywhere not knowing where to wait, or what might happen next. A bus pulled up, nearest people surged on, general panic and chaos. We gave up, and walked to the other side of Footscray to catch the regular bus that goes through Altona. That was packed too with people who had had the same idea, but at least we got on, and we got home, somewhat later than I would have got home had I ridden my bike.

While on the bus, I overheard someone saying that it was a cyclist that had been involved in the level crossing accident, and indeed that proved to be the case. The Age next day ran a brief article on the incident. I don't know anything beyond the account in The Age, but it's all too easy to imagine. It's such a waste of a life, and I'm so sorry for his family and friends. Every day I see cyclists taking risks of varying degrees, just to get that bit ahead, to get where they are going a bit faster. I know I've done exactly the same sort of thing, and every now and then there's the chance that you get it wrong, you miscalculate, and you either get a bent bike and some bruises, or you get killed. There is a huge amount to be done to build safer cycling infrastructure, but at the end of the day, we've got to develop safer cyclists as well.

Anyway, back on the bike again for the rest of the week, just pottering, but I get there. I'm developing a new commuting style where I really don't push – just put in about the same level of effort that I would if I was walking. Seems to take about 5 -10 minutes longer but my energy levels are higher and I suppose I will slowly get fitter over time.

Saturday morning Anne and I got up early, before the wind kicked up, and rode over to Newport then back round through Williamstown, had breakfast at the Rotunda on Williamstown beach, then home. Good to ride just for the pleasure of it.

Tally for the week
323 Kilometers
Rained: 1 - Monday Night
$ spent on bike stuff: $15 for the new spoke and wheel true, plus I cracked and bought a cue clip, $10
Near misses: none.

 

 

 

RTB 50k

I made the mistake of assuming the trains ran on Sunday morning on our line, so after wasting 10 minutes sitting on the station at Seaholme - which almost at the end of the 50 k ride - we realised we'd have to ride in or be way late. I persuaded my wife Anne to come on the tandem on the promise of an easy one way ride back to Altona with a tail wind, so she wasn't too happy to find we had to do a sprint into town into a headwind.

Forecast for the day was for 31 with a strong Northerly, and even before 8.00 the hot wind was kicking up. We missed the start, but intercepted the ride in South Melbourne. We met up with Tony a friend from work at Clarendon Street, and enjoyed a relatively easy ride thanks to the tail wind over the Westgate. Very jolly crowd despite the heat, and the tandem seems to cheer people up. Anne was really chuffed to get over the bridge, and Tony took the photo of us below just as we got to the top – a nice moment to have captured.

We stopped off for a coffee at Nosh in Newport, highly recommended. By the time we got back on the road, the main group of cyclists had gone, and except for one school group which we kept running into, we hardly saw any other riders for quite a while. We rolled down through Williamstown and round the bike path to our place for another morning tea. Anne declined the option of another ride over the Westgate into town. As Tony and I headed back the heat was getting serious, and every patch of shade along the way seemed to be sheltering a group of red faced cyclists. A real pity about the weather. Saturday was just beautiful for riding, but I wonder if the experience of Sunday will actually put some people off.

We got to the gardens about 1.00, had some lunch, watched the race on the big screen and generally got cooked by the sun, then I rode home again, very glad to have the tail wind. As I rode home under the bridge, there were still plenty of cyclists heading up and over – a sight I'd never seen before. I wound up doing a smidge under 100 k for the day. A good time had by all I think.

Windy week

I rode every day this week, and the days have started to blur. Lovely day Monday, rain in the morning and again going home Tuesday, fine for Ride to Work day, windy Thursday going in, windy coming home Friday. A couple of nights there I found it a real slog getting home,
down Millers Road with the wind coming straight off the Bay, and me grinding along
at about 13 K per hour. Bruises from my fall the previous week have come out in spectacular fashion, and all in all I found myself feeling a bit sorry for myself a few times this week.

Sorry to frighten you - but here's an illustration of what can happen if bicycles and cars come into contact. Best avoided.

Nice to see so many people trying out cycling on Ride to Work day. Quite a few red faces and bikes wobbling gamely along. A huge sea of cyclists at Fed Square – the queue for breakfast seemed to bisect it diagonally when I got there, and as I had a meeting at work I had to miss the bacon and eggs. Next year I’ll try to get there earlier. Saw some pretty awful cyclist behavior on the way home on Wednesday. A line of cyclists are winding through the bit of Footscray Road bike path which is adjacent to the big ferris wheel construction. One guy decides to pass some of the line. Another guy decides to follow him. Cyclist approaches from opposite direction. First guy has probably taken the approaching cyclist in his calculations, and slots into the line going our way. Second guy hasn’t seen the approaching cyclist and a head-on is very narrowly averted. You wouldn’t overtake in a car if you couldn’t see that it was safe ahead to do it, why do people do it on bikes?

Whatever, I think the number of cyclists along my commute went up a bit Thursday and Friday – pity the weather wasn’t a bit kinder. If only we’d had a few days like today, with light wind, blue skies, balmy temperature. Its just magic to be out on a bike on a day like today.

On Friday, another exchange of viewpoints with a van driver at that intersection at the bottom of Parker street – almost a re-run of a previous encounter a few weeks back. Van wants to turn right, cyclists heading straight across Whitehall street. Cyclists have right of way. Van believes it has right of way. Vigorous hand signaling from Van driver. It’s a nasty intersection that one, and one which I will avoid in future.

Tally for week

288 k
Rained on: light sprinkling Tuesday am and pm.
Nearish miss: right turning van failing to give way.
Punctures: none
Paintstripping head winds: 3, Tuesday night ,Thursday morning, Friday night.
$ spent on bike stuff: None.

Red lights, hard ground

I rode three days this week. A funeral to attend on Thursday and a meeting in Bendigo on Friday always meant a short commuting week, but as it turned out, three days was all I could have done. Fine weather like on Monday and Tuesday seems to bring more people onto the bike paths - both cyclists and pedestrians - and the level of excitement goes up correspondingly. Riding home Tuesday night, towards the city, about opposite Melbourne High on the Yarra Trail, I was pottering along on my side, with a group of pedestrians heading towards me on their side. Next thing I became aware that a cyclist is heading straight towards me, passing the pedestrians. Rapid application of brakes and some evasive action all round, plus an exchange of some expletives ensued, but no harm done on this occasion, except perhaps to the pedestrians' estimation of cyclists.

On Wednesday, after a frazzling day, I headed off home with rain threatening. On the Yarra trail, my pannier decided to give up the ghost - its one of those panniers that converts to a backpack, by means of a panel that zips on over the backpack straps. Zip totally clackered. Dang. Stop, convert to back pack. Start again. Rain starts. Stop, put on rain coat. Ride along north bank of Yarra. My timing seems totally off this night, and I miss every light change. Interminable traffic lights seem to be taking forever. Steamy in rain coat, back pack uncomfortable, mood fraying.

Next bit is a bit foggy, and as riding through red lights is a traffic offense which can incur a hefty fine in the state of Victoria, my account below may or may not be accurate. I know I rode past the Mission for Seamen to the lights across Docklands Highway at the intersection with Batmans Hill Drive. I might or might not thought that the lights were going green for the traffic coming out of Batmans Hill drive and so I could head across, even though the pedestrian lights were red facing me. And I might or might not have found myself half way across 5 lanes of impatient traffic on a wet melbourne night when the lights they were facing turned green. Cleared lanes one, two and three. Lady in a four wheel drive in lane four didn't see me, because she didn't expect an idiot on a bicycle riding across the traffic . Front wheel of my bike might or might not have collided with fender of said four wheel drive and with considerable velocity I might or might not have hit the road. Prospect of getting hit by another car made me bounce up again very quickly and I managed to get to the central traffic island, and reassure lady in the car that I was fine (My sincere apologies to her for what happened - I'm sure it didn't improve her evening either. Terribly sorry)

A few cyclists rode past like I was invisible. A pedestrian who'd seen what had happened came up and asked if I needed any help - special thanks to her.
My bike's front wheel had a significant buckle but was still ridable with the front brake slackened right off. I'd just about wrenched the brake hoods off the handle bars, but apart from that the bike was still ridable. I'd landed on my right arm, deep cut and grazes just below the elbow, and my right leg hurt. I felt sort of shakey and shocked. But way the worst thing was that I couldn't believe that I'd been so stupid. I'd never think of running a red light in a car, I'm a law abiding middle aged LIBRARIAN for god's sake, but for no particularly good reason I'd risked serious injury or death for a few seconds off my commute time, because it was raining, because I was tired and in a bad mood.

As I was wobbled slowly home I had plenty of time to berate myself, in between feeling increasingly sore and sorry. I got hit by a car that went through a red light 21 years ago - (still using the same bike today) - and, though this was a less serious encounter in terms of velocity, the ground this time was as hard or harder, and that feeling like every muscle in your body has been wrenched a bit was all too familiar.

Salters Cycles retrued the wheel beautifully for $20. I've got some spectacular side-plate sized bruises turning a ripe shade of greeny purple now. Hopefully the whole experience has been sufficient to teach me not to be so dumb in the future. Not ever.

Tally for the week:

170 kms
Rain: Wednesday night
Near misses: one
Hits: one
Punctures: none
$ spent on bike stuff: $20 to fix the buckle in the front wheel

A quiet week, middle-class inner-urbanites

A quiet week on the commuting front. I had all day meetings in town three days this week, so I only got to ride Monday and Tuesday. I'm going to call this week "recovery", not slacking off, which I suspect is a more accurate description. I used public transport the other days, which reminded me why I like the bike. Public transport was smelly, noisy and over-crowded, and actually more tiring than my usual 56k round trip on the bike.

Interesting article in today's Age "Cyclists on the rise, but does this mean fewer cars?" which reported an increase from the 2001 to the 2006 census in the number of people reporting they rode to work on census day - from 1% in 2001 to 1.3% in 2006. The article quoted extensively one Melbourne University transport planner, Dr Paul Mees, whose reported view was that the increase in cycling to work had come almost exclusively from "middle-class inner-urbanites."

"If they used to walk or take public transport there is no environmental benefit" Dr Mees is reported to have said.

As the average distance reported in the article is 12.5 kilometres, my hunch is that Dr Mees is off beam on the walking at least - can't see too many of those middle-class urbanites walking 25 kilometres a day to work and back. But indeed, many of them could have been taking public transport, which as anyone who uses public transport at peak times knows, is at or beyond capacity. So all those people cycling are actually making space for more people to take public transport, and leave their cars at home.

Dr Mees also points out that the increase is "a blip compared with 1951 when 10% of trips to work were made by bike", and he concludes that "if all ( Melbourne 2030: getting cars off the road) has done is get people who used to walk or take a tram on a bicycle then it has failed terribly.

If my experience is any guide, people who commute also use the bike for other things that they might once have used a car for - take the half a ton of metal a couple of k down to the shops to return the dvd or pick up a litre of milk. Reducing those trips can't be a bad thing.

I'd be happy if my superannuation increased 30%, and it somehow seems counter-intuitive to be lamenting a similar increase in cycle commuters, where-ever they come from. Could be wishful thinking, but my guess is that the more people use bikes for transport, that will encourage more people still to use bikes for transport. The commuters will encounter on a daily basis the shortcomings of the road infrastructure, and some will keep hammering away at the relevant councils to improve that infrastructure, which will make a more propitious environment for more cyclists. Who knows, maybe even the commonwealth government might wake up that supporting cycling infrastructure could make sense on a whole lot of levels. The commuters will encourage their friends and work colleagues to think about cycling as a viable alternative, not as some weird fringe cult. When people do try commuting, like on ride to work day, they will see lots of other people doing exactly the same thing. There is real potential for a virtuous spiral there, which we should be celebrating and encouraging, not bucketing.

Not that collectively we could not be doing a whole lot more, particularly for groups who are under represented in cycling - something like the CTC Cycling Champions program that has just got lottery funding in the UK might be a nice idea. But at the end of the day, I think the core is 1) developing safe road infrastructure for cycle transport, 2) removing some of the incentives for people to buy and drive cars (stop dumb things like salary packaging for cars or carparking!) , and 3) developing some incentives for workplaces to provide adequately for cyclists.

Pity the Age couldn't have cast round a bit more widely for responses on this one.

Anyway, Tally for the week:

120 K (its a recovery week, ok?)
Rain: none on the commutes - Anne and I got soaked Friday night on a quick ride down to the shops where we thought we would only be a few minutes and who needs a coat?
Near misses: none
Punctures: none
$ spent on bike stuff: none