bikes

On Friday afternoon, I drove from Bondi Beach to Katoomba. It took nearly three hours for the 120 km journey. For the first 60 km, I was stuck in traffic jams almost constantly. Yes, I'm well aware I was part of the problem. I saw only one bicycle on the entire trip, a person riding illegally on an empty footpath. But who could blame him? The bike lanes, which were little more than a white line between the gutter and two-tonne of angry vehicles, were a death trap. I saw very few pedestrians. Throughout the inner-city, from Bondi to Concord, it was just a line of we stupid people in cars. I also saw very little public transport. The occasional bus stuck in the same traffic jam as me. I wondered if there was any incentive to catch a bus for my fellow motorists. I was astonished to see some lanes were blocked by parked cars. Legally parked cars on a major road! One person's convenience was enough to bring two lanes of traffic to a crawl. One single car owned this valuable real est...

Welcome to the launch of  'cycling to Bohemia'  In the days before 'social media,' authors pleaded with their publishers to host a book launch, usually at a local bookstore. The publishers stumped up a few bottles of wine and some finger food and organised a fellow author to say something encouraging about the newly-released book. It gave old friends a chance to catch up over a glass of wine and perhaps buy the author's book. Everyone was a winner - free grog and book sales! Now, books can be produced and published electronically, without the author ever having to leave his/her study. So many people are omitted in this process - editor, designer, proofreader, publisher, distributor, salesperson.  I'm well aware of the dangers of this new world. There is no wise voice suggesting to the author that perhaps he/she needs to rethink Chapter Ten. No-one to say, 'do you really believe people want to read about you washing your cycling knicks in the hotel sink?'...

When an entitled white middle-class person meets an uncouth lawbreaker, the outcome is frequently the same. Lawbreaker swears and walks away. WMCP writes a column in a newspaper calling for the restriction of liberty , so WMCP can go on feeling all smug and secure.       Hello Elizabeth Farrelly. I understand you were abused by a person riding a bicycle illegally on the footpath. I�m sorry to hear that. But I can�t understand why this abuse leads you to suggest that we should register bicycles. Yes, if registered, you could have reported his number to the police, but I doubt that would have achieved much. Police usually need more evidence than a finger-pointing pedestrian saying, �Officer, arrest that man!� And how often have you reported red-light running cars when you�re out on your morning walk? How often have you confronted pedestrians who cross illegally?         When a journalist such as yourself, interested in town planning and architecture, wri...

This year I cycled over ten thousand kilometres in eleven countries. I'm very lucky to have a job that allows me to spend so much time in the saddle rather than behind a wheel or gazing at a computer.  Here's my Top Ten rides of 2014, in no particular order. Number Ten - Adelaide beach ride I spent two weeks working in the South Australian capital early in the year. Every afternoon, I'd leave our rented accommodation in Semaphore and head south along the beach road to Glenelg. To my right was the Gulf of St Vincent and endless miles of beaches, to my left an assortment of Adelaide beach houses, including some bluestone marvels. On return, I couldn't resist cycling on to Boat Harbour. Although it's almost all on-road cycling, there are bike lanes most of the way. Number Nine: Lake Burley Griffin Loop, Canberra. Mostly on dedicated cycle paths, this forty kilometre loop is one of the gems of the nation's capital. From the parks and open fields of Yarralumla to cyc...

I'm in the middle of my third cycling trip to Europe in the past four years. Over the years, I've ridden thousands of kilometres in France, Germany and Austria and also spent time in Belgium and The Netherlands. I don't claim to be an expert in all matters of cycling safety, but my experience in Europe is starkly different to my every day ride in Australia. While there's no doubt cycling infrastructure in Europe is light years ahead of what the majority of us experience in Australia, I don't believe it's necessarily the only contributing factor as to why I feel so much safer here in Europe than back home in Australia. While it's vital that we all continue to lobby for infrastructure that separates cyclists from cars, I think there's one simple law that could dramatically change the culture of road use in Australia. Unfortunately, it's not the 'a-metre-matters' trials that are currently being conducted in Qld and soon to begin in the ACT.  It...

The beauty of the bike path is two-fold. It keeps we cyclists away from cars and trucks and allows us the opportunity to go where motorised vehicles can't hope to explore. The perfect example of this is on the border of the Alsace and Lorraine regions of France. A ride I'll call the 'day of the ghost canal.' After a day spent cycling along the Canal du la Marne au Rhin from Strasbourg to Saverne, we began our second morning on the canal cycling in the direction of Nancy. For fourteen kilometres, the path followed the waterway, through a narrow valley of orange-leafed autumn trees and dotted with quiet villages.  After Lutzelbourg, we came upon the Plan d'incline Saint-Louis-Arzviller - a marvellous feat of engineering that allows canal traffic and incredibly a section of the canal to be lifted nearly fifty metres in elevation through a system of counterweights. I'm not much on scientific explanation - perhaps a photo will do the trick?  It achieves in forty minu...

I�m currently cycling from St Malo in France to Budapest, Hungary. Over the last seven weeks, I�ve gotten lost at least once a day. I take a wrong turn or miss an important sign and end up scratching my head and trying to convince a local to tell me how to get out of their town. And then, at the end of a long day in the saddle, I pedal slowly along the streets of a town looking for my hotel. I�ve got the address and a screenshot of the location on my iPad, but it often takes an eternity to find the cheap lodging located down a narrow back alley. My last resort is usually to ask a local, except my Czech language skills aren�t the best. Or to open Google Maps to pinpoint where I am, so I can navigate the hell out of there.  Except that takes data. Expensive data involving roaming charges and all manner of bullshit clauses that phone companies add to mobile plans. Frankly, I�d rather stay lost. Last week, I met a fellow long distance cyclist in the Czech Republic who had navigated al...