Treadly and Me » census http://treadly.net Work is just something I do between bike rides Mon, 09 Jan 2012 04:11:33 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Ride and Be Counted Day http://treadly.net/2006/07/27/ride-and-be-counted-day/ http://treadly.net/2006/07/27/ride-and-be-counted-day/#comments Thu, 27 Jul 2006 05:49:43 +0000 Treadly and Me http://treadly.thingoid.com/?p=192 A good idea from MASSBUG:

Tuesday 8th August is the next ABS Census which will be counting how many people ride to work.

Now is the time to work on any of your friends not yet cycling to work. Talk about petrol prices, public transport fare increases, health & fitness benefits and climate change. Offer buddying. Start extra bike buses.

image of MASSBUG poster

MASSBUG also offers some posters to help encourage people to ride:

Why does it matter?

According to the Bureau of Stats:

Information about workplace addresses helps us to understand the journeys people make to travel to work…

This information, when combined with information on how people get to work and the availability and use of cars, is used to plan for roads and public transport.

Daytime populations of particular areas are also estimated from this information so that services can be located where people will be during the day, rather than where they live.

When it comes to planning I’m sure this is not the only source of such information, but it’s still pretty important.

OK, so let’s get in early and make 8 August an extra Ride to Work Day – or maybe we should call it “Ride and Be Counted Day”?

[via VeloSydney]

Update 6 August

The ABS is awake to shenanigans, according to The Australian:

Some people like to mess with the Census by, for example, saying they cycled to work on Census day (to encourage local governments to install more bike paths) or by writing “Jedi” under religion. But Mr Williams said it was important for people to do their civic duty and complete the Census properly. “The Census is used by business, government, to plan services,” he said.

Well, I’m not suggesting anyone falsely claim they rode to work. As I said in the comments I’d much rather they actually did ride – then continued to be a regular bike commuter after that.

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