Are bike lanes just for recreation?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ส.ค. 2024
- I was in a meeting of active transport advocates recently and we were told a tale how a decision maker said that "80% of cycling in Brisbane is recreational", implying that increasing budget spend on cycling infrastructure is therefore not justified.
But firstly, is that figure true? And even if it is, does it mean investment in cycling infrastructure, both in terms of dollars but more crucially road space, a waste?
Come down the cycling participation, public health and economic cost benefit analysis rabbithole with me!
Sources:
Queensland Household Travel Survey data series:
www.data.qld.gov.au/dataset/q...
Queensland Household Travel Survey general information:
www.tmr.qld.gov.au/community-...
National Walking and Cycling Participation Survey 2021:
www.cwanz.com.au/national-wal...
A picture of Overweight and Obesity in Australia - 2017 - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/45f6...
National Obesity Strategy 2022-23
www.health.gov.au/sites/defau...
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Reports:
www.aihw.gov.au/reports/overw...
www.aihw.gov.au/reports/risk-...
www.aihw.gov.au/reports/child...
E-bikes and physical health benefits
ebiketips.road.cc/content/new...
Physical activity of electric bicycle users compared to conventional bicycle users and non-cyclists: Insights based on health and transport data from an online survey in seven European cities - ScienceDirect
www.sciencedirect.com/science...
Cycling Investment in Queensland
www.tmr.qld.gov.au/Travel-and...
0:00 Intro
2:30 The Survey Says!
10:49 Fighting a public health epidemic
16:05 Economics of physical activity
18:34 E-bikes: The secret ingredient
21:00 Infrastructure means you can "ride to the ride"
26:11 Summing up
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That cycling map is so embarrassing for this city.
The great thing about cycleways is that they can turn any trip into recreation! Excellent video, very thorough.
Thanks Chris! So right, riding (at least where it's low stress) makes transport fun and enjoyable.
When was the last time you heard someone say "oh I can't wait to drive to work this morning!"
Thanks Chris. Another top video presentation.
Cheers Bob! Thanks as always for sharing!
I enjoyed the NotForBikes video recently about how the Netherlands is one of the nicest places to drive. In short it is because so much is spent on cycling infra that most people are riding and the roads aren't congested NEARLY as much...
Excellent video Chris... lots of great points.
If you're right that the 80% figure came from that study, then it's clearly a misunderstanding or misrepresentation of the data because "80% of bike trips are for recreation" is not at all what that graph means.
Great work
Yes. The discrepancy between the surveys could be explained if people riding for transport were riding more often. For example someone who commutes on the bike 3 days per week, and does one recreational ride on the weekend does around 24 out of 28 rides per month for transport but is weighted equally with someone who rides once per month in the participation survey.
@Astrompr Note that roads are a coherrent network, bike lanes are not. Whe a bike lane is built, it is often just following a major throughfare for cars. Since it is only useful to people going that way= who may not wish to use the dangerous road it abruptly ends on. It attracts recreational cyclists! It doesn't connect you to many places so it doesn't serve transport the way the connected road network does! An abandoned runway is great for recreational driving, but it doesn't take you anywhere! If they built one road, but it didn't go very far and then dumped you onto a monster truck corridor, it wouldn't make driving much easier.
Excellent video Chris....much of this is applicable to my space in Trinidad and Tobago, and it's right on the money in addressing the issues. Great work and much appreciated, I know how hard it is to do videos like this! Like the Tom Flood shirt!
As someone (retired) who only rides for shopping (most days) and recreation (every day), it does annoy me to read the anti cycling comments on social media of some (although probably a minority) of motorists that money spent on people like me is wasted, and that we should not even be in the road space. So your presentation of the data is very interesting and backs up what I have thought for a long time.
The area where I live (Buckinghamshire UK) has very little really good infrastructure although things are improving very slowly.
It's also frustrating that people will point out that new infrastructure is money waisted because it is not used, not wanting to look at the longer term picture.
Excellent video by the way.
Thanks Graham. It's disheartening when someone tells you that you're not important, and that's what it's like.
If my videos can reach a few people who think that way and soften their mindset then it's worth the time I put into it I reckon
Excellent video, keep up the great work
Thanks mate!
Lets go! made it into a Chris Cox video 26:30
Ha! Thanks for the flyby hi!
awesome
Excellent! Great to see some reasoned arguments backed up with well researched data, you are making a great contribution, keep up the good work!
As a danish person having commuted on a bike in Melbourne for the past 3 months, I strongly agree with your argument! Many times I think to myself how much I like Melbourne, but how much better it could be if just there were a bigger emphasis on cycling, walking and public transport, rather than those metal box of death
The worst bit is Melbourne doesn't think about orbital routes in either public transport or safe cycling infrastructure. If you want to get to Brunswick or Fitzroy from Essendon or Pascoe Vale, you either have to head into the city then back out on the train, or catch a slow winding infrequent bus and there are no decent protected cycleways except the inner circle line (on Moreland Rd theyve painted some scary bicycle gutters where even I as an experienced rider wouldn't go).
@kyletopfer7818 yep good point!
Also bike paths are cheap! Compare 1km of bike path or separated bike lane, vs 1km of a single general traffic lane.
Interesting Stats. With e-bikes and tough economic times cycling participation will increase I reckon. Of course if you look at the Big-Big picture everyone subsidizes motorists. Just recently a new concrete multistory car park was built at my nearest train station in Perth. I read it costs $60,000 per car park for these yet they pay $2-00 per day to stay there, taxpayer subsidy of course.
Same here in Brisbane. Have a look at the Springfield Central Park n ride. A monstrosity. $44 million for I think 700 carparks?
Great choice of topic given the council's current stance. My only feedback would be to try to make the same main points in 10min rather than 30.
Cheers. Appreciate the feedback too. It's funny, sometimes I get feedback that I don't give enough detail about points I make, like it's just my opinion and not supported by evidence. Then I provide evidence and it's too long. It's even been suggested do a short version and a long version.
That's a lovely idea until you understand a video like this takes me upwards of 16-20 hours of work to research, script, plan, film, edit etc.
So my blunt response is, you get what you get ;-)
@@ChrisCoxCycling That's fair, and there's always going to be an audience. Depends what your goals are.
Chris whilst I support alot of your work and I like this piece, I fear that this framing bows to the recreation argument and allows politicians to further a self-fulfilling prophecy; cycling in Aus is still (viewed or not) as a recreational activity and is dominated by lycra-clad types because it hasn't been unlocked as a real, effective mode of transport.
-In NSW WA SA and Vic, you can't bring bikes on buses or country trains. In Melbourne, Gold Coast and Adelaide you also can't bring them on trams.
-The interchange facilities/routes between bike infrastructure and train/light rail/bus/ferry are mostly pretty poor, meaning the potentially winning combination of [bike-public transport-bike to destination] falls apart.
-Most of the routes aren't direct between key destinations and so on. In Sydney the bike routes are often long, circuitous and much less direct than the car routes and that's often because planners aren't willing to take space away from cars. We should instead look at which streets should get priority for buses, for bikes § pedestrians and for cars and design them accordingly.
-The infrastructure that does exist isn't connected to the places and routes people want/need to go in many cases, with big scary gaps in the network which even I as an experienced rider hate and try and avoid.
-There is no priority for bikes anywhere, in the Sydney and Melbourne CBDs you end up actually going quite fast on the infrastructure that is there but then having to stop at every red light for ages as the cycles are timed for maximum car movements. In Holland they have spent years building underpasses and safe roundabouts at key points so bikes have a safe smooth nonstop journey, as well as designing routes to run through parks where possible.
Result is you take a look around a city in Holland there are almost no lycra-clad riders or people there for pure recreation, it is almost all people that recognise it is the most effective and pleasant way for them to get things done.
I appreciate your comment. I can see where you're coming from. I did spend a lot of time making the argument that recreational cycling is fine. But you're right, cycling as an efficient, safe, sustainable form of personal transport is where the big value comes from.
It's a catch-22 though. Without the infrastructure most people aren't willing to start riding for transport. Without people riding, councils and government won't build the infrastructure. As such the disjointed infrastructure we have in the suburbs is perceived as recreational and a "waste".
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that that's fine, but let's link up the bike routes and connect them to useful destinations and then see what happens. If it initially means more or longer recreational rides, that's OK, it builds to more transport trips.
@@ChrisCoxCycling agree with all of that, what we need is politicians with vision and seriousness and determination with a community of hard-working engineers and thinkers behind them. We have to cut emissions by 50% within the next 7 years, transport emissions are a real drag right now but in all major cities we have begun the hard work - Cross River Rail and Brisbane Metro will begin to add a spine of reliable fast public transport through the core of the city, in comparison to those projects building enough connected cycle paths to get people around to use interchange stations is child's play!
28:45 Yes, I did go the other way actually. I started with the plan to cycle commute to force me to get some exercise in every week, but it just wasn't enough. For various reasons I'm not always able to cycle and since the late unpleasantness a some of the stuff I do is remote now, so I started a 20-25 km route I could take more often.
What city are you in? Is there infrastructure to make that easy or do you need to be "enthused and confident"? Judging by your user name (unsafe velocities) that could mean an unsafe cycle city, or unsafe speed? 😉
@@ChrisCoxCycling I'm in Melbourne. Definitely requires being enthused and confident, but I've just made a change to my commute to stay on shared paths for 90% of my journey (up from 50/50). It does add 10 km (!) to my commute (for a total of 30 km each way) but it's much nicer. I've never been "strong and fearless" but even my quiet route has me counting down to the inevitable.
Haha! The username could be a bit of both tbh -- I do ride too fast downhill. It's actually from a Star Trek quote, chosen at the time because I'm a massive car enthusiast (ironically): "I will always be puzzled by the human predilection for piloting vehicles at unsafe velocities!" (Data, ST: Nemesis)
I know what you mean. I wouldn't consider myself "strong and fearless". I've ridden on roads that are most certainly LTS4 - like 80kph/100kph country roads with no shoulder - and I most certainly was not fearless... I avoid those sorts of environments, and have gone longer, rougher, sometimes even off road (as in dirt) routes to avoid particularly uncomfortable roads. I do that because I'm "enthused". If I simply wanted to get from A to B in the most convenient way, those kinds of destinations I would just drive (and sadly I often do).
And to be honest, sometimes the longer route is more enjoyable and who doesn't like a bit more time riding on a nice path?
@@ChrisCoxCycling Absolutely. Avoiding fast, shoulderless roads is a big part of my route planning. Even 60 km/h without shoulders seems sketchy.
can't wait to see you out in the streets and shout g'day! -another radical cyclist
I'll look forward to it!! Better than the "get off the road ya bastard" I get sometimes 😉
Trying to pay attention to the video, but got distracted by the lizard turning up around 15 minutes in.
On the subject of e-bikes: When I first bought mine I weighed 130kg, and could barely ride around the block without aching for days... 18 months later, I can ride 80km in a day, have gone on multi-day trips, and am having to replace my wardrobe as my clothes keep getting bigger somehow.
That's amazing. Ebikes really are a magic potion to be honest.
And the beautiful eastern water dragon definitely did take the attention off my ugly head, that's not a bad thing 😉
Sure, because, not being forced to own a car, pay for everything related to it, get a driver’s license and also, just being able to drive, is just for recreation, lol 😂…
There was a little law introduced back in the 90's to make 'cycling safe' but it had the actual effect of stopping people riding for anything but sport... then we were only left with the 'brave' cyclists... who still commute to work like it's a race. This combined with the lack of spending on decent cycling infrastructure as the 'brave' often don't want or need bike lanes & bikeways - was a win for Government - "Bicycle safety solved!". It's been very hard to get normal people back on bikes since this stupid helmet law, even if it were repealed overnight, as many roads are just too hostile.
Yeah I'm toying whether to tackle that vexed issue of the helmet law. The impact it had on participation, but also questioning whether changing it now would actually do anything to reverse it? It's so ingrained in people's psyche in this country. It took more than a generation for it to do so, so would it take more than a generation after it was repealed for people to get past the helmet obsession?
@@ChrisCoxCycling In my experience you'll get nowhere... but a partial repeal (ie. bikeways & footpaths) would be a sensible & palatable start... and might help drive better infrastructure, etc.
Why is there such a desire to get rid of helmet laws? Are people so opposed to messy hair, looking dorky and spending an extra $15 that they feel we should get rid of them? Seatbelts look dorky. Airbags are an expensive hassle to maintain. We should probably get rid of both?
Frankly I am not sure if I would be alive, or at the very least not permanently injured, if it wasn't for my bike helmet. I am still recovering from my injuries now, and while I wish I was wearing a motorbike helmet at least I survived. Sure I wish my hair wasn't as sweaty when I arrived at work and helmets don't replace the need for safer cycling infrastructure but they are still important for protecting the most vital organ in your body.
We shouldn't distract the issue of cycling infrastructure with helmet laws. The human brain isn't designed for hitting the tarmac at 30km/h regardless of if that is because you are on a dangerous road or hit a felled tree branch on the veloway you didn't spot in time.
We've not to use the roads because drivers paid for it? A- no you didn't. B- please pay to remove your smelly dangerous road, I was not consulted, I find it to be an unsafe, noisy eyesore and was ot consuolted before you paid to have it bulldozed through the place I live so you could bring in your death machine, if I pay to install a 2000 watt amplifier and loud speaker for my guitar right outside your yard, is it cool for me to play all day? After all, I paid for it, fair is fair right!
Yeah it's a very odd mindset that people have that they've "paid" for their car and registration and somehow that entitles them to destroy the neighbourhood, AND for government to destroy everyone ELSE's neighbourhood with never ending road widenings.