RiderLog

Data on cyclists choice of routes is invaluable for planning and prioritising investments in improvements to the network. Bicycle Victoria have recently launched an iPhone application that will assist in providing some more information on trip making and route choice of cyclists. Cyclists record their ride and the route, purpose and speed data gets uploaded to The Bicycle Network's RiderLog system. This information is available for the individual to have a look at their riding history. But of more interest to us is the fact that a Google Map of the routes used will be made available to government (without personal information) to allow them to use it in planning.
The information is unlikely to be a statistically valid sample but it will be able to give an indication of route choice. Providing information on travel speed along sections would also be useful. If it could be linked to, or used to inform, Google Maps' bicycle route generator - even better.

Bicycle portraits

I have blogged previously about my work in South Africa supporting cycling. It was hard work because there was very little understanding in the planning and engineering industry of the needs of cyclists. Bicycle facilities are thus few and far between and hence there are few brave commuter cyclists out there .
But they are there, and two avid cycle activists and photographers are documenting them in a new book - Bicycle Portraits. It is a beautiful collection of portraits and stories of cyclists and their bikes. Check out the great promotional video here. I loved the music - a Zulu version of Papa was a Rolling Stone.


They are still raising the money to self-publish the book so help them out here.

Looking after pedestrians and cyclists in Sydney

Sydney has embraced bicycles and pedestrians. The City is spending $76 million over the next 4 years on rolling out 200km of cycleways in Sydney. Part of the investment is to improve the lot of cyclists in the CBD. To improve the permeability of the one-way road system and to improve safety for cyclists they are delivering a number of separated bi-directional cycleways through closing curbside lanes.
This photo of King Street (from the Council web site) shows the type of facility. The maps below show some of the CBD cycleway links they are building.








The ABC reports that Council is considering restricting vehicle access to George Street between Bathurst and Market Streets to just taxis and buses, rolling out a 40kph speed limit throughout the City. These are part of the recommendations of Gehl Architects which recommended a more holistic mindset of traffic and public space planning that looks after pedestrians and cyclists and improves the visual amenity of the City. Anyone who has walked up George Street from would agree with that. This shot from Google Streetview of George St shows why it would not win any awards for people friendly design.
I look forward to doing a tour of these projects in my next visit to Sydney.

Bike share around the world

Construction of Brisbane's CityCycle bicycle share/hire scheme has started. The number of stations where you can hire a bike is quite staggering and will make the scheme very useful to get around the centre of Brisbane. The map below comes from the BCC web site.

CityCycle will bring Brisbane alongside the hundreds of other cities worldwide with bike sharing systems. The Bike-sharing Blog is a fantastic record of how these systems are being rolled out worldwide. The blog has a fantastic Google map that illustrates how the bike sharing revolution is being rolled out all over the world and provides links to the web-sites for each of the different schemes.

Bike share

Public bicycle hire schemes are the current international trend. Denver opened a new 500 bicycle share scheme in Denver on 22 April as reported in Transit Miami. The Company rolling out the scheme is B-Cycle, a partnership between Trek bicycles and Humana.
The B-cycle bikes are fitted with computers that track mileage and interpret this for the rider in terms of calories burned and carbon offsets earned. This info is downloaded when the bicycle is docked and registered users can access the information on-line to track their personal fitness.

The article in Transit Miami reports that Broward County in Florida recently approved B-cycle as the preferred supplier to deliver 200 bicycles at 18 stations in Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood Beach, and Pompano Beach. Here is an artists impression of one of the bike stations .