Again, I find myself asking, "Why?"

[via gizmodo, thanks tom]

Melbourne sans car

Melbourne Metblogs reckons Melbourne, for the most part, is a city where it is resonably easy to manage without owning a car.

Work-Life Balance

BBC Radio 4 recently had a program that discussed work/life balance:

Cycle couriers chose a leisure pursuit that almost exactly replicates their normally daily work.

Hmm, alleycats as a way of "galvanising an identity…a kind of lifestyle".

[Thanks Peter]

I don't know where he finds 'em

tom manages to find the weirdest bike designs, like this TAURUS thing—looks like a cross between a scooter and stairmaster. Right up there with the famous Treadmill Bike. The Randy Ross Stepper Bike looks very similar too.

Eyes in the back side of your head

The Nike Hindsight cycling glasses squeezes an extra 25° into the periphery of the normal visual field. Use of Fresnel lenses at the very edges do the trick and because the corner of your eye doesn't see detail very well they reckon distortion is not particularly noticeable. But the benefit of being able to detect movement in the over-the-shoulder blind spot could be enormous. Sounds like a brilliant idea to me—the sort of thing that seems obvious once someone else has thought of it!

[thanks tom]

Bike ban recycled

Well, we thought the bikes on trains ban had been well-and-truly binned. Unfortunately it appears to have been the recycling bin:

Bikes will be banned from buses that replace V/Line trains to the North East and tourism experts fear that may put the brakes on one of its emerging markets.

Due to track duplication work:

V/Line will introduce a temporary timetable from 9 November, 2008 which will involve the operation of road coaches between Albury / Wodonga and Seymour. Trains will connect with coaches to run between Seymour and Melbourne in both directions.

However:

Bicycles will not be permitted on board coaches during the works.

Apparently bikes can still be carried on the XPT, but there are restrictions:

CountryLink train services have only three spaces available for carrying bicycles, surfboards or snowboards. Coaches have one space reserved for this type of item. Please reserve a place when purchasing your ticket and limit the weight to 20kg. A fee of $12.10 applies. Please note you are unable to book bicycles, surfboards or snowboards online.

If you are taking your bicycle please arrive 60 minutes before the scheduled departure, disassemble the bike and pack it into bicycle boxes. You can ask at your station about obtaining a bicycle box or source one from a bicycle retailer.

That doesn't really look like progress to me.

via [publictransport]

Social climber?

For all climbers, social or otherwise, The Alpine Ascent Challenge is open for business: climb at least four of North-east Victoria's big hills between 30 November and 24 March. If that's the kind of thing you're into…

Achiever?

Nominations are open for the 2008 Australian Bicycling Achievement Awards

Discoverer

On Sydney Cyclist, Polak discovers:

By cycling I can now leave home at 8:15 and get home at 4:00. This saves 1h 50mins everyday. That means I get 9h 10mins extra time per week.

You can't beat the maths. It took him 12 years at school to catch on, but better late than never!

Poseur

A $2,500 Tricycle? This must be a misprint. No, that's no misprint:

Designed especially for the kid who has it all, I guess, comes a tricycle made from Titanium.

Take head and insert in own bottom. [thanks (for nothing!) tom]

DIY 'bent

Another build-it-yourself recumbent:

No welding, done in a few spare hours, this bike is made from 2 old mountain-bikes (mtb). It took me about 2 plus 3 hours.

There's also a video.

Out in the fresh air

Urban Cyclists: Stick Together, Don't Inhale? [thanks tom]

What was I thinking?

In October last year I offered some thoughts on bike path surfaces.

Comments

Zed

Questions to the Connex Live Blog:

Adrian writes:

What is the actual policy about bicycles on suburban trains now? There seems to be a lot of confusion about when, how and who can take their bicycle on a train. The recent supposed ban on bicycles didn't help!

John Rees (chief spokesperson for Connex) replies: You can take your bike on the train, but please try to use the front carriage only and remember your fellow passengers especially if it's peak travel time.

I thought it was agreed by all, that bikes went in the back or do Connex run all their trains in reverse? Hence the confusion?

Early bird train free fares "...shows just 2700 travellers a day using the ticket on Melbourne's 15 train lines. And of those, 700 already caught pre-7am trains before the March launch..." "...The scheme...has blown out to 2 million in two years..."

So that's 000 per person - do you think that 2,000,000 would get more people cycling? Some off trains and some of roads.

ChrisS

Seriously though, the entire scenario is a bloody farce. Limitations placed upon actual users by inane bureaucratic decisions with little or zero regard about service delivery.

So as you can see - getting sustainable transport options seriously addressed is still a huge stumbling block, regardless if it's Connex or V/Line. Cynically I now think those nice round table discussions with Kosky from earlier this year were just to get us out of the media.

Although every other activist and/or stakeholder group could tell similar anecdotes.

Treadly and Me

More immediately than the Alpine Classic, I wanted to take the treadly to Wangaratta this weekend by train but…no way to get it back on Sunday!

ChrisS

Wonder if it's worth sending V/Line management a detailed missive regarding RACV's Victoria 101 campaign and pointing them in the the direction of Attraction #2.

Attraction #10 was the GVBR, but this year that's heading off for a round trip to Gariwerd & back.