Copenhagen and Amsterdam join forces in Canberra

Maya123 said :

I sometimes want to take my bike the other side of Hindmarsh Drive. When younger I would ride and walk my bike over the Red Hill Saddle.

I always went via Hughes.

Maya123 said :

As someone who cycled for years to work, I know about the temperatures in Canberra, and the temperatures are not too extreme to cycle, when most people do, early morning and late afternoon. (How often do you cycle to work to speak from experience?)

I spent a twelve month period riding my bike absolutely everywhere I needed to go, back when I was around 20 years old. I rode to work every morning and home every afternoon from the highest hill in town to the factory in the valley floor, only a mere 2km away but 80 meters difference in height. The ride home was uphill. Summer, winter, autumn and spring I rode [if I wasn’t walking] and I quickly grew very tired of it. Summer afternoons were the worst, straining on the pedals with steel capped boots, whilst attired in cotton drill shirt and shorts. I ended up loathing bicycles, but had no alternative thanks to loss of license.
I know full well what it is like riding in the heat and believe me when I say it makes little difference whether it is three in the afternoon or six thirty, it is still hot. I clocked up over 4000km in that twelve months, often riding out of town to go camping at the lake or fishing at the river. Be it thirty or forty degrees it feels pretty much the same to me. I rode in wet weather too and it doesn’t matter if you have a raincoat on or not, you still get saturated down to your undies.

wildturkeycanoe said :

Maya123 said :

As for your comment “temperature extremes”. I still maintain we have a milder temperature then the Netherlands. We don’t have to ride to work in sub-zero temperatures in dangerous conditions through snow and ice.

Sure they get snow, but their average temperatures for winter aren’t sitting at the extreme of -32 degrees but closer to the average of zero. It is also much easier to put on a warm winter coat to embrace the winter chill, than to strip down into a pair of budgie smugglers to ride in plus 40 degrees. Riding warms you up, it doesn’t cool you down.

Postalgeek said :

There are electric bikes now. The world’s moved on.

Anna G said :

e-bikes flatten hills!

That isn’t cycling, that is just a mild powered, electric version of a motorcycle. It’s a bit like comparing a Segway to walking, totally different mode of transport.

As someone who cycled for years to work, I know about the temperatures in Canberra, and the temperatures are not too extreme to cycle, when most people do, early morning and late afternoon. (How often do you cycle to work to speak from experience?) We only get a rare day over your quoted “plus 40 degrees”, and that would likely not be in the morning or evening when most people are cycling to work. On hot days I didn’t rush my ride – slowed down, so as to limit how sweaty I got. Wore deodorant too :). In 2016, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, there were no days in Canberra over 40C. The hottest day was 39.3 °C at Canberra Airport on 13 Jan. I found riding in winter here early morning (particularly) and late afternoon to be worse to ride in than at the same times in the day here in summer. Cold air hurts the lungs. (I wore a balaclava to reduce this.) Then there were the layers of other clothes, which all took time to get into and out of. I was tempted to list them, but I won’t bore you.

We however don’t have as many wet days as the Netherlands. About half of the days each month in Amsterdam have rain, snow and/or hail. (However, on wet days here (or at least the worst of them), I caught the bus, and then walked two kilometres the other end to work.)

wildturkeycanoe said :

Maya123 said :

As for your comment “temperature extremes”. I still maintain we have a milder temperature then the Netherlands. We don’t have to ride to work in sub-zero temperatures in dangerous conditions through snow and ice.

Sure they get snow, but their average temperatures for winter aren’t sitting at the extreme of -32 degrees but closer to the average of zero. It is also much easier to put on a warm winter coat to embrace the winter chill, than to strip down into a pair of budgie smugglers to ride in plus 40 degrees. Riding warms you up, it doesn’t cool you down.

Postalgeek said :

There are electric bikes now. The world’s moved on.

Anna G said :

e-bikes flatten hills!

That isn’t cycling, that is just a mild powered, electric version of a motorcycle. It’s a bit like comparing a Segway to walking, totally different mode of transport.

If you had any knowledge of e-bikes in Canberra you would know that that they must be pedelacs which require people to pedal. Bikes with throttles aren’t allowed in public spaces, so your analogy with Segways is redundant.

You would also know that ebikes offer various forms of assist, and allow a range of people to cycle who might otherwise refrain from the sport; older people, those with injuries or physical restraints, people in early stages of fitness training, people who simply want to commute and don’t want to sweat while doing so, or wear budgie smugglers during a plus 40 degree day, as you put it.

Maya123 said :

As for your comment “temperature extremes”. I still maintain we have a milder temperature then the Netherlands. We don’t have to ride to work in sub-zero temperatures in dangerous conditions through snow and ice.

Sure they get snow, but their average temperatures for winter aren’t sitting at the extreme of -32 degrees but closer to the average of zero. It is also much easier to put on a warm winter coat to embrace the winter chill, than to strip down into a pair of budgie smugglers to ride in plus 40 degrees. Riding warms you up, it doesn’t cool you down.

Postalgeek said :

There are electric bikes now. The world’s moved on.

Anna G said :

e-bikes flatten hills!

That isn’t cycling, that is just a mild powered, electric version of a motorcycle. It’s a bit like comparing a Segway to walking, totally different mode of transport.

local1 said :

If we leveled all the hills in Canberra more would ride bikes. Copenhagen and Amsterdam are flat.

e-bikes flatten hills!

HenryBG said :

Will these ambassadors be removing Canberra’s hills and temperature extremes and reducing the average cycling trip distance by 70% in order to make Canberra more like their hometowns?

There are electric bikes now. The world’s moved on.

HenryBG said :

Will these ambassadors be removing Canberra’s hills and temperature extremes and reducing the average cycling trip distance by 70% in order to make Canberra more like their hometowns?

Here in the real world, the average Canberra commute is 10km further than the average commute in Copenhagen or Amsterdam, and usually includes hills.

This is the reason why so few Canberrans use a bicycle, so this is what needs to be addressed.

For those who have further to cycle, investigate Bike and Ride (bus):
http://www.transport.act.gov.au/getting-around/bus-services/passenger-info/bike-and-buses

I sometimes want to take my bike the other side of Hindmarsh Drive. When younger I would ride and walk my bike over the Red Hill Saddle. Now retired, these days I use the readily available bus and put my bike on the rack to get over Hindmarsh. This wouldn’t work for large numbers of cyclists, but it works at present.

As for your comment “temperature extremes”. I still maintain we have a milder temperature then the Netherlands. We don’t have to ride to work in sub-zero temperatures in dangerous conditions through snow and ice. As you don’t appear to have read my earlier comment on this, here is the link again, showing real “temperature extremes”: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=cycling+in+the+snow+in+the+Netherlands&client=firefox-b&sa=X&biw=1687&bih=989&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ved=0ahUKEwjX8vyI2rTSAhUS6GMKHZeHCPUQsAQILQ

Will these ambassadors be removing Canberra’s hills and temperature extremes and reducing the average cycling trip distance by 70% in order to make Canberra more like their hometowns?

Here in the real world, the average Canberra commute is 10km further than the average commute in Copenhagen or Amsterdam, and usually includes hills.

This is the reason why so few Canberrans use a bicycle, so this is what needs to be addressed.

wildturkeycanoe said :

Yet again another push for increased cycling for Canberra, based on the success stories from Amsterdam and Copenhagen. I’m sorry to say that apart from the geographical differences, there are also the climatic factors to consider in trying to convince Canberra to follow their lead.
The European climate rarely gets into the low twenties during summer, whereas we had it so hot this year that bees were dying and hives melting. Warnings from emergency services for the public to keep hydrated and hide from the extreme heat go against the principle of riding to work and back daily, at least during summer heatwaves.
There is a downside to an increase in cycling for our little city, patronage of public transport. How will Capital Metro keep its balance sheets in the positives, when everyone ditches the tram for cycling instead? How can a government promote a free mode of transport which is in direct competition to a “new” technological wonder that hasn’t even left the station?
I also wonder how our cycling infrastructure would handle half the working population riding everyday instead of driving or catching the bus. Where would everybody park for one? How do they share the paths, with a massive increase in bikes?
I’m sure somebody will get a warm, fuzzy feeling from this announcement about foreign diplomats promoting cycling, but I am not going to jump up and down in excitement.

I agree with the negative points you’ve raised in terms of comparing Canberra with the oft-cited cycling utopias of Europe, but I don’t think anyone is expecting a huge shift or change in behaviour. For example, even a 1% increase in cyclists regularly commuting would still be around more 4000 Canberrans on bikes every day. I think GovCo would be pretty happy with a sustained increase like that.