15 October 2013

Tomorrow is Ride2Work Day

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Shane Rattenbury already knows your excuses for not participating in ride to work day, and has answers for them… well some of them.

Don’t be lazy, try riding to work tomorrow.*

You might just like it.

Is your place of work, school or recreation out of reach on bike? Then why not combine a bike ride with a bus ride to get where you need to go, Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Shane Rattenbury, said ahead of tomorrow’s national Ride2Work day.

“With longer daylight hours in the switch over to daylight savings and the weather starting to warm up, now is the perfect time to dust off your bike and think about alternate transport options to get to your destination,” said Mr Rattenbury.

“The ACT Government provides various facilities for Canberrans to bike and ride, including bike lockers, bike cages, bike rails and bike racks on buses,” Mr Rattenbury said. “With free bike parking facilities at over 20 locations across the ACT, as well as over 80 percent of ACTION’s bus fleet fitted with bike racks, cross-town travel with a bike is easy.

“There are so many opportunities to bike and ride, on weekdays you can ride part of the way to work and catch the bus for the rest of the journey and on weekends catch the bus into town centres and then ride between different attractions and sites.

“Not only is combining bike use with bus travel a money saver, it also allows you to find your 30 minutes of physical activity for the day and has the added benefit of making Canberra a more sustainable city.”

Bike lockers are available on Athllon Drive in Mawson, Flemington Road in Mitchell, Hibberson Street in Gungahlin and at the Woden, Tuggeranong, City and Cohen Street (Belconnen) bus stations. Bike cages are available to all MyWay card holders and are located on:

— Melrose Drive in Lyons
— Athllon Drive/Beasley Street in Mawson
— Flemington Road/Nullarbor Avenue in Harrison
— Benjamin Way/Cohen Street at the Belconnen Community Bus Station
— Cotter Road/Kirkpatrick Street in Weston (due for completion in December 2013)
— Kippax shopping centre (due for completion in December 2013).

“I encourage everyone to make use of the bike and ride facilities across Canberra, as doing so will help make Canberra a more sustainable and active city,” Mr Rattenbury said.

The ACT Government also has 14 park and ride facilities across Canberra, as well as two currently under construction

To find out more about the bike storage facilities available or to get access to them please call Canberra Connect on 13 22 81. Information on the bike and ride and park and ride facilities is also available on the Transport for Canberra website at www.transport.act.gov.au

*Unless you can’t. There’s like a billion reasons it might not be feasible. I tried to list them then I realised the list would go on forever. If you can’t you can’t, but most people won’t just because they don’t want to.

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Fortunately new buildings that are being built in the CBD are stepping up their game to include higher end and more of ‘end of trip’ facilities. If you do ride to work, or engage in any sports activity and feel that your showers are lacking in the building – get in touch with the building manager and put forward the case to improve these facilities. Get a few of you to get behind the campaign and you may see results. With the amount of empty office space around at the moment – building managers/owners will work hard to keep the tenants in that building.

As for riding in rain + thunderstorms – you are right, in winter it is a bit of a downer, but in summer when it is scorching hot and you can feel the earth cooling – it does bring an almost childish smile to your face, memories of jumping in puddles and running through the sprinkler come to mind. If it does become bad you will often see people seeking refuge under bridges (Adelaide Ave), where a few people will stop and have a chat. Motorcyclists will often do this as well.

Not everyone is in a major rush to get home, stop and smell the roses sometimes people. You will notice things about Canberra that you never had if you just slow down and smile.

wildturkeycanoe6:44 am 17 Oct 13

bryansworld said :

I know lots of six year olds that are able to walk or cycle their backpacks to school.

Watson said :

Why would you not ride a bike in a business suit?
Why would a 6yo not carry their own backpack when riding?.

Well, mine happens to be a non-generic 6 y.o, who inherited from his parents a gene that limits growth to the lower end of the scale. At barely a meter tall and weighing probably only twice what the backpack is when fully loaded, it isn’t easy to lug that weight especially when you have only just learned the art of balance on two wheels. You try carrying a pack half your weight whilst riding and see how you go. I bet you’d be complaining and struggling too. It’s just school for crying out loud, not the navy seals.
As for the business suit thing, If you have to ride slowly to avoid perspiration, it makes the whole point of cycling redundant because a) you won’t be getting fit and healthy and b) your journey becomes impossible to do because of time constraints and c) you might as well just walk or catch the bus. Also, arriving at work to have to wait in a queue for the shower to get tidied up for your business meetings means you also now have to leave earlier again. The single shower in the ground floor lobby will need to be expanded to cater for this new and popular trend, but until it does, driving will be the only option.
People, the infrastructure isn’t ready for mass cycling. There aren’t enough showers at work and parking is limited outside [or inside] most buildings.
Has anyone considered the added benefits of having to carry a puncture repair kit and pump every time they ride? The amount of times I’ve seen cyclists by the side of the road, frame upside down with wheel stripped away? How often do cyclists get punctures compared with the relatively reliable automobile steel radials? In winter weather you also need a good jacket, gloves, beanie and in the rain you just don’t ride. How convenient is that? How about those summer afternoons when the good ol’ thunderstorm hits, just as you are leaving the building? That’s a real dampener to your feel good, environmentally friendly healthy alternative. What do you do then, catch a bus? Oh, but the bus will take you 1 hour and 45 minutes to get you home, whereas riding would only have been 40 minutes.
Bad luck.
Good on those who are doing it, but I have plenty of reason not to.

Growling Ferret9:05 pm 16 Oct 13

I just want this wind to piss off. Riding into the 40kmh headwind for the last month has become tiresome

p1 said :

Watson said :

And what is wrong with riding slowly so you don’t sweat? I don’t get why everyone on a bike thinks they’re in a race. I don’t usually see people who walk to work (or walk to and from bus stops) shower when they get there.

This is answered by this.

Watson said :

After all that, I stopped riding to work when I moved from about 5 kms away from my office to about 20kms away. My average speed is only about 20kph, so driving saves me 1 hr and 20 mins, and more because I have to drop a child off at school first. I miss it a lot. But I couldn’t afford the mortgages closer to town, even after taking into account the extra I spend on petrol.

Most of us, after weighing up competing factors of time, fitness, cost and smugness, will often rule out riding when the time taken to reach work (and be ready to work) becomes unacceptably long.

So if I ride to work, I ride fast and shower. I have no problem stuffing work clothes in a bag.

Yep, I’m 30km from work and too stoogy to pay 50 bucks a week in parking (complete waste of money) so when I started work in the City 9 years ago I started taking the bus. One thing and another I started riding, took me 1:45 the first time now I regularly do it in 1 to 1:10, similar to the bus.

So speed is important to me Watson, so yes I have a fast bike, wear lycra and ride as fast as I can to get to work.

For the nay sayers, I also manage to drop the kids off to school a couple of days of the week. I leave the car at the last drop (there are two). It shortens my ride but I still get exercise and save money.

pink little birdie6:33 pm 16 Oct 13

pink little birdie said :

Growling Ferret said :

There was probably triple the normal amount of riders on the Sullivans Creek path this morning enjoying the sunshine and saving $13.50 in parking. Winners.

Free Breakfast does that!

I counted 10 cyclists, 3 pedestarians and 1 set of pathworks on my 20 min ride to work today.
Stupid day to start path works on a heavily trafficked path.

The path workers looked as though they were used to cyclists by the time I went through though.

I emailed EVERYone of the Ginninderra MLA’s about my path issue. I’ll see what response I get from them.

Watson said :

And what is wrong with riding slowly so you don’t sweat? I don’t get why everyone on a bike thinks they’re in a race. I don’t usually see people who walk to work (or walk to and from bus stops) shower when they get there.

This is answered by this.

Watson said :

After all that, I stopped riding to work when I moved from about 5 kms away from my office to about 20kms away. My average speed is only about 20kph, so driving saves me 1 hr and 20 mins, and more because I have to drop a child off at school first. I miss it a lot. But I couldn’t afford the mortgages closer to town, even after taking into account the extra I spend on petrol.

Most of us, after weighing up competing factors of time, fitness, cost and smugness, will often rule out riding when the time taken to reach work (and be ready to work) becomes unacceptably long.

So if I ride to work, I ride fast and shower. I have no problem stuffing work clothes in a bag.

I rode my bike to work for years, most days wearing a suit. I never had any issues, a little bit of deodorant and a leisurely pace so as to not push myself too hard and “build up a sweat” and I was fine.

Unless you have some sort of condition where you sweat uncontrollably when you engage in any exercise, this is hardly an excuse.

Also putting a suit in a backpack does not ruin it.

pink little birdie1:51 pm 16 Oct 13

Ezy said :

For those not wanting to ride with a suit in their backpack – check out Henty Designs. An Australian made bag that is made for the commuting suit wearer.

I have a lot of friends in Melbourne who enjoyed their ride to work day with multiple cafés in and surrounding the CBD offering free coffees and bike shops offering free minor mechanical work. It is a great initiative and riding to work needs to be encouraged. I love my morning rides in from Kambah to Manuka most days – I even take the long way to check out the rowers on the lake, this time of year it is the nicest time of day.

and the ducklings. The cute little ducklings on the lakes 🙂
Agree it’s lovely riding at the moment, baby ducks and flowers.

For those not wanting to ride with a suit in their backpack – check out Henty Designs. An Australian made bag that is made for the commuting suit wearer.

I have a lot of friends in Melbourne who enjoyed their ride to work day with multiple cafés in and surrounding the CBD offering free coffees and bike shops offering free minor mechanical work. It is a great initiative and riding to work needs to be encouraged. I love my morning rides in from Kambah to Manuka most days – I even take the long way to check out the rowers on the lake, this time of year it is the nicest time of day.

I drove today, but rode Monday and yesterday.

Heh.

bryansworld said :

I know lots of six year olds that are able to walk or cycle their backpacks to school.

Could you introduce them to my seven year old who is unable to carry their bag from the house to the car …. a massive 2 1/2 metres?

pink little birdie12:48 pm 16 Oct 13

Growling Ferret said :

There was probably triple the normal amount of riders on the Sullivans Creek path this morning enjoying the sunshine and saving $13.50 in parking. Winners.

Free Breakfast does that!

I counted 10 cyclists, 3 pedestarians and 1 set of pathworks on my 20 min ride to work today.
Stupid day to start path works on a heavily trafficked path.

The path workers looked as though they were used to cyclists by the time I went through though.

Why would you not ride a bike in a business suit?
Why would a 6yo not carry their own backpack when riding?
And what is wrong with riding slowly so you don’t sweat? I don’t get why everyone on a bike thinks they’re in a race. I don’t usually see people who walk to work (or walk to and from bus stops) shower when they get there.

The style of riding is one limitation, the other main one is the type of bikes sold here. To use your bike for commuting, you need full mud guards and pannier rack/s. Upright bikes are more suitable for riding slowly and especially women feel more comfortable on them. And you need a decent seat with springs, not the hard torture devices lots of bikes come with.

After all that, I stopped riding to work when I moved from about 5 kms away from my office to about 20kms away. My average speed is only about 20kph, so driving saves me 1 hr and 20 mins, and more because I have to drop a child off at school first. I miss it a lot. But I couldn’t afford the mortgages closer to town, even after taking into account the extra I spend on petrol.

I know lots of six year olds that are able to walk or cycle their backpacks to school.

wildturkeycanoe said :

If I could carry a 6 foot ladder, power tools, extension lead, drums of cable,hand tools and assorted sundries, I might consider it.
Likewise, if my wife could carry her laptop, textbooks, suitcase of towels, sheets, pillow cases and change of clothing and shoes, she might also consider this an option.
If my 6 year old was big enough to carry his school bag with it’s books, lunch box, hat and drink bottle then I wouldn’t have to carry it for him – as we ride our bikes to school. Yay, one out of three isn’t bad.
This still means that we are a two car family and nothing will change that no matter how much the government or Greenies try. The public transport options just don’t work. If it really was that easy, don’t you think people would already be doing it? Stop beating the dead horse, we’ve heard it over and over again and the carcass is starting to smell….

Growling Ferret8:24 am 16 Oct 13

There was probably triple the normal amount of riders on the Sullivans Creek path this morning enjoying the sunshine and saving $13.50 in parking. Winners.

No way am I riding anywhere with my spinal injury! I love it but I know where I’ll end up despite my lovely shock absorbers!

wildturkeycanoe6:30 am 16 Oct 13

If I could carry a 6 foot ladder, power tools, extension lead, drums of cable,hand tools and assorted sundries, I might consider it.
Likewise, if my wife could carry her laptop, textbooks, suitcase of towels, sheets, pillow cases and change of clothing and shoes, she might also consider this an option.
If my 6 year old was big enough to carry his school bag with it’s books, lunch box, hat and drink bottle then I wouldn’t have to carry it for him – as we ride our bikes to school. Yay, one out of three isn’t bad.
This still means that we are a two car family and nothing will change that no matter how much the government or Greenies try. The public transport options just don’t work. If it really was that easy, don’t you think people would already be doing it? Stop beating the dead horse, we’ve heard it over and over again and the carcass is starting to smell….

MWF said :

I’m not riding to work tomorrow because:

1: I am fully suited in business suits.

2: I am going for an interview and while I’m sure they’ll appreciate my effort, I’d hate for them to have to endure my smell for… which will probably be cut short due to my smell.

Holden Caulfield10:20 pm 15 Oct 13

MWF said :

I’m not riding to work tomorrow because:

1: I don’t want to

2: I don’t have a bike

+1

But I’ll be walking to work, like I do most days.

I’m not riding to work tomorrow because:

1: I don’t want to

2: I don’t have a bike

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