Fahrradsozialismus

There’s a new bike shop in town, especially good news for those living in North Belconnen. I found it whilst going through allclassifieds, which incidentally is a good place to look for second-hand bicycles if you live in Canberra.

Nifty logo aside, I’ve dealt with Simon before who used to run the bike shop at Lyneham, he did a great job on one of my clunkers (before I started to tinker around myself) which was flatly rejected by another shop because it was “too old & not worth servicing”, I highly recommend his expertise & friendly service.

Website here.

Since Monday Canberran cyclists have been able to catch the bus for free if they bring their bike along with them.

I always thought it a great idea for buses to have racks for bikes to encourage cycling, though I’m not too sure whether there is any rational rationale behind it. I myself have only used the racks once, and that was when I got a puncture and didn’t have a spare tube with me. Indeed I don’t see myself using it unless this happens again. On the rare occasions where I did catch a bus since I’ve started cycling, I left the bike at home.

It might have something to do with the fact that the bus services in Canberra isn’t exactly what you’d call developed. Many routes come once every 30 minutes during weekdays, and every hour on the weekends, making it quite inconvenient as you’d have to plan rather carefully around the timetables.

Still, irrespective of exactly how efficient & effective such a system is for Canberra, as a highly visible & cycling-specific infrastructure it does demonstrate the government actively promoting bikes as a commuting alternative, and that is something commendable in itself.

More info here at ACTION Buses’ website.

Civic to Conder via Weston. Good commuter route for those living in Weston to Tuggeranong. Also a good alternative route to the City going passed the scenic Molonglo River instead of via Woden.

Tour de Aldis! If you must have weird & wonderful German candies from all of the ACT Aldi stores in one day (or other equally legitimate reasons), knock yourself out.

I’ve always wanted one of these dutch workcycles, they look great, and can carry pretty much anything you throw at it. They are the perfect solution if you have small kids or have extreme cargo needs. I was delighted to see something similar today on my way home from the City, I’ve always thought these types of trikes would be quite wide, but in reality they take up little more space than a normal bike, and certainly no more room than a recumbent trike you often see in Canberra.

The Trike is an Christiania from Copenhagen, available in Australia from PS Bikes.

On a somewhat related note, saw this video on the development of bicycle infrastructure in Copenhagen over 40 years, some very heartwarming comments by the commuters, as well the cute, inescapably Scandinavian accent.

In stark contrast, another great cycling culture - the Chinese, especially in cities like Shanghai & Beijing, is slowly marginalising cyclists in favour of automobiles. Bikes are no longer allowed on many of the roads, and existing dedicated cycle lanes are either removed or narrowed in order to accommodate the exponentially increasing traffic burden. There are even some academic studies (not surprisingly funded by an auto company) suggesting that bicycles are a cause of major traffic congestion, and even recommending the reduction of bicycle use. It is true that traffic regulations are often taken as subtle suggestions by many road users, unfortunately a phenomenon witnessed in many other aspects of life as well in China, but it is ludicrous to even suggest that bicycles places a heavier burden on traffic conditions than cars. It may be a sign of progress where more and more people are able to afford private cars, but it is sad to see the loss of one of the things worth preserving.

Melba to Civic via Jamison. Obviously not the best commuting route if you live in Melba, but a great way for getting into Civic if you live on the Southern side of Lake Ginninderra. The route is quite scenic once outside of Cook, and convenient for shopping in Jamison.

Civic to Tuggeranong and Woden. The route takes you right pass Woden Plaza & Tuggeranong Hyperdome, and the cycle paths are quite good for either commuting or exercise. Lake Tuggeranong is small but quite beautiful. Taking the path along Erindale Drive instead of Lake Tuggeranong gives you some variation.

From Melba to Civic via Gungahlin, probably not the best commuter route to Civic if you live in Belconnen unless you feel like a bit of exercise, but it is a very pleasant ride with a gradient resembling the one through Bruce, though the distance is longer making the climbs easier. The cycle paths in these newer suburbs are wider & in better condition, and the ride along Gungahlin Drive is very scenic, with a long strech of well paved cyclepath for sprinting on. The route is also very good for commuting if you live in the Gungahlin area and want to get to either Belconnen or Civic on bike paths alone.

A short ride around Lake Ginninderra, not quite as scenic as Lake Burley Griffin, but a good start for some light exercise if you live in Belconnen. Also there are a few nice restaurants & cafés next to the lake.

These are mainly shots from my commutes & leisure rides around Canberra, hoping to show just how beautiful (though perhaps a little monotonous for the aesthetically fatigued) a city can be to someone, and for a cyclist how great it is to have such good cycling facilities.

Most of these shots are taken within a 20km radius from the city centre unless specified, and are either taken directly on the bike paths, or very close to them. For motorists, it can be difficult (not to mention dangerous) to appreciate the vista without one’s immediate surroundings too attentively, but it is taken for granted on a bike that you can enjoy the view as leisurely as you like. After all, it is much easier to stop impulsively on a bike than most other modes of transportation.

Photos from China:

There’s an article from the Socialist Left Party of Austria that carries the namesake of this blog (the only other result for Fahrradsozialismus as of 8 September 2007, incidentally), though my initial inspiration came from a term with a more sinister (ironically not in the Latin sense) connotation. Out of sheer curiosity, and armed with what little Germanic fragmentations left scattered in my brain and a dictionary, I was able to figure out the gist of the article.

It focuses on the diminishing number of free city bikes on the streets of Vienna due to theft, with the government claiming that basically people are simply not good/honest enough for the system to work. Whilst the article itself seemed a somewhat feeble criticism of capitalism whilst offering little constructive suggestions itself (apart from introducing an egalitarian distribution system, the answer to all your problems) as to how exactly the system can work. As fond of Utopian ideologies as I am, the article unfortunately did not make the inherent contradictions of capitalist economics any clearer to me. Having heard of such systems before, it did however made me wonder as to exactly how such system works. To my delight I found that the system was not a failure after all and is going strong, though it seems that it is no longer ran by the government, and now attracts a nominal fee (perhaps to the mortification of SLP that a capitalist venture came to the rescue).

The project itself, named Citybike Wien, is simple enough; there are stations around the city where bikes are stored. All you need to do is register an account linked to your bank or credit card either at the terminal or on their website, after which you can then check the bike out. Not unlike short loans in some libraries, the rent rate is free for the first hour, €1 for the second hours, €2 for the third, and €4 for every subsequent hour up to 120 hours, with a flat rate of €600 for bikes not returned after that time, thus making it more ideal for short distance commutes. There are over 50 stations in the city, each housing at least 10 bikes.

The system is of course not unique to Vienna, with similar programs either private or public in other European cities such as Copenhagen, Paris, Barcelona, Stockholm, and apparently some cities in the United States.

It’d be interesting to see a similar system introduced in cities like Canberra. Hubs are located at major shopping centres & bus interchanges, but with a modified time-frame. The free period is perhaps 4 hours, targeting the tourists & leisure riders, and a nominal fee of say $2 (anything less than a single adult bus fare) for 12 hours usage blocks, for the occasional commuters, allowing people to comfortably cycle from the various bus interchanges to work & back.

This of course needs to be a government-funded or subsidised program, as it’d offer very little if any financial return, but is done as a public service, plus it’d look rather good in any pollie’s portfolio.

It is true that most Australian households already have bicycles, but still relatively few use them for commuting, so the question is that even if such a program is initiated, with such firmly entrenched car culture, are people more likely to cycle to work? That is difficult to answer, but I do know that although most of the bikes are fine for the occasional Sunday outing, but they are not the utility/city bikes designed specifically for commuting. Perhaps such program cannot be introduce alone in places like Australia, but more crucially must be part of a wider scheme designed to alter the perspective Australians have toward commuter cycling.

But some would call that cycle imperialism.

Came across yet another article addressing a driver’s attitude towards cyclists on news.com.au. Whilst no longer too surprised at such apparent display of what can easily be regarded as hatred, it is somewhat curious to observe that from what little data I can discern sieving through the author’s predilection towards vibrant decoratives, the cyclist did not actually infringe upon any road regulations, for as I understand it the cyclist is allowed to use the full width of the road if no dedicated path is available. Whether this is something courteous, safe or indeed wise to do on a busy city road is a different issue altogether. Whilst I applaud the lone rider on his tenacity & audacity in defending his right, I fear many cyclists like myself would not be nearly as confrontational, regardless of road skills. It is simple physics that if any collusion happened, regardless of who is responsible, the cyclist will almost always walk away worse off, if he/she is still able to walk at all.

Cycling is often regarded as being reckless dangerous for both the rider & other road users, whether this is a result or the cause of the decrease in cyclists is unknown, but it is certainly does not encourage any potential cyclists. I personally would think if anything, cyclists, especially those riding alongside traffic would be far more cautious & defensive then car drivers, for the same reason given above.

It is somewhat sad to see that the mentality of regarding cyclists as road vermin, combined with caution/cowardice such as mine to avoid road usage forming a sort of vicious cycle with the latter enhancing further the conviction of the former by the representative lessening of what is already an under-represented road usergroup. With the commuter cycling population being as low as it is, it is difficult to see the situation improve anytime soon without significant changes in road planning & public awareness in these cities.

It is articles like these that make me again thankful for the superlative cycling infrastructure (as opposed to public transportation) in Canberra, which includes extensive shared cycle/footpath all over the city (in addition to the dedicated cycle lanes on many artery routes, sometimes on the same route), thus reducing the need to use car lanes to a minimum. Canberra drivers also seem to be a lot more accommodating towards cyclists, but being a smaller city, Canberrans are more laid back to begin with. Indeed occasionally drivers would slow down or give way even when they have right-of-way, often resulting in confused scramblings from both side (far more ridiculous-looking if you are on a bike).

It shouldn’t be an us vs. them sort of thing, god only knows we get enough of that from every aspect of human interaction, and perhaps it is simply instinct to behave so, but at least we are given the ability to discern & isolate such emotions, and can to a degree check these primordial drives. You can indeed say I am a dreamer, but I know, and sincerely do hope I am not the only one. Man may have brought many unspeakable evils unto the world, but tolerance is something uniquely human, too.

Article here.

Something actually useful for the first post, none of that self-indulgent, introspective, wise-cracking tripe you’d usually find in an initial post - there’ll be plenty of time for that later.

A few routes for getting around on a bike in Canberra, so far all the routes start in Belconnen, but I’ll be gradually adding more for the whole region. As these are mainly commuting routes, most are on shared cycle/walk paths, and are therefore suitable even for those just starting to commute without having to deal with traffic, especially during peak hour.

Routes from Melba to the City via Bruce, passing UC & AIS and directly under the new Gungahlin drive extension. This is one of the shorter routes into the City from Belconnen, but there is a bit of a climb coming back from O’Connor to Bruce, and segments of the path through O’Connor are really sidewalks. Kangaroos & bunny rabbits are common sights going passed the AIS.

Another way is going through Kaleen, again under the Gungahlin drive extension (though of course at a different point). The paths are much wider with fair streches of flats where you can get considerable speed. The gradient is also a bit smoother. It is however a bit longer.

Melba to Kippax. Smaller alternative (in the literal sense, they don’t have specialised goth/emo grocery) shopping centre to Belconnen Mall if you live in Northern Belconnen. The scenery is rather pleasant as the route goes along Ginninderra creek.

Melba to Belconnen Mall. Good for starter commuters, especially if you were catching buses from the suburbs.

The loop around Lake Burley Griffin from Civic, possibly the best scenic & leisure route in Canberra. Most of the touristy spots are either on the route or within a short distance from the path. A must for any cyclist visiting Canberra.