The Conversation: Australian cities are far from being meccas for walking and cycling

[Thoglette]

The Conversation: Australian cities are far from being meccas for walking and cycling
Australian cities are far from being meccas for walking and cycling

In theory, Australian cities are ideal for walking and cycling. They have mild climates, stable and wealthy governments, as well as sporty, outdoorsy and increasingly health-conscious residents. Despite this, the data show that overall active travel (especially cycling) is still marginal.
Academic research has unequivocally demonstrated that substantive changes can occur only through a combination of high-quality infrastructure, pricing policies and education programs. In Australia, as elsewhere, myriad barriers conspire against such an integrated approach.

They propose three interventions
1. Ideas: Active travel must become normalised as an integral part of transport planning.
2. Interest: Councils must secure strong political support for walking and cycling
3. Institutions: More government funding for active transport – independent of political cycles – must be provided, while at the same time allowing more local planning autonomy.

Otherwise nothing new. But good to see.

[g-boaf]

http://www.sterzing.com/en/sterzing/lei ... -bike.html
http://www.sterzing.com/en/sterzing/lei ... paths.html

This is one town we could learn from. The biggest thing is that you can ride on pretty much whatever road you want without intimidation from drivers. They support this kind of transport, it's a normal thing in the town.They have far more challenging terrain around the town as well.

Some of the traffic on some of the roads around there is a bit busy and it is heavy vehicle traffic too, but they are all okay around riders. It's fun to ride around there and it feels safe. A lot of education and enforcement is needed to bring about the change here.

Our roads are not hard to ride on, it's just the traffic culture that makes it difficult.

Divided active travel community? That's certainly true. Since it is so divided, I think some riders just tune out from advocacy completely or they have a mistrust of advocacy organisations where some advocacy organisations have supported ideas that are contrary to our interests.