Monday, February 22, 2010

Weekend training cycle

The Saturday morning training ride just got a little safer in Sydney when Kingston Council approved a 12 month trial of no-standing restrictions on one of the most popular cycling circuits on Saturday mornings. An article in The Age gives the details.

The media has been full of articles recently that accuse cyclists of being a lawless bunch. It is good to hear of measures being taken to make the sports cyclists lot a bit safer. Creating safe sports cycling routes on weekends would be an excellent initiative to reduce the risk.

The city of Durban in South Africa reserves one lane of the main arterial into the city from the north (NMR Avenue) for cyclists on weekends. It is a popular training route running parallel to the beach and has had several deaths.

In 2009 New York City closed city streets on three consecutive Saturday mornings and gave them to cyclists, joggers and impromptu markets. It was called Summer Streets and was a huge success. They are doing it again in 2010 because of the popularity. Wouldn't it be great to try something like this in Brisbane as part of Bike Week?

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