Cazzbo is back

Cazz has been on tour in the Netherlands. She brought back this photo which proves that even nice, bicycle-riding Dutch parents leave their kids locked in the car while they go shopping...

Boston Messengers Riding on water

What we did today

Still school holidays here and I've been taking the girls out on their bikes every day. It makes for a great (no cost) activity for them. They love the independence of being in charge of their own vehicle.

We stopped at Newtown Square to eat some of the choc-chip cookies we baked yesterday and watch the passing fashion parade. I love sitting here and watching all the people go by. Especially the ones on bikes!

We found this Love letter on the sign in the square so I took a picture of it for Nosey in Newtown.

Then we stopped to take this shot for the Newtown Flikr group

Destination Arrival!
Cheeky Transport is our favourite bike shop. You always get a warm welcome here. Adam gave us cold drinks and some free spokey dokes for the girls. We bought some cycle gloves which the girls have been wanting for a long time.

The girls put the spokey dokes on straight away.

Couldn't resist snapping this one for Flikr


Then we went and had some sushi for lunch

After doing some shopping and riding home again we were pretty warm so we had a dip in the pool and then watched this cool video. Mother will be home soon so we have to get started cooking, this is what we are going to make.

mammals biking through the dying days of the petro-dinosaurs

We need a solution to the global warming caused by cars, but biofuel isn’t it. If the production of biofuels is big enough to affect climate change, it will be big enough to cause global starvation.

The market responds to money, not need. People who own cars have more money than people at risk of starvation. In a contest between their demand for fuel and poor people’s demand for food, the car-owners win every time. Something very much like this is happening already. Though 800 million people are permanently malnourished, the global increase in crop production is being used to feed animals: the number of livestock on earth has quintupled since 1950. The reason is that those who buy meat and dairy products have more purchasing power than those who buy only subsistence crops.

Monbiot

Cora Urquhart Potter

Cora Urquhart Potter quoted in the New York Times in January 1896

"There are many reasons why women ought to patronize cycling. Three, however, strike me with particular force. The first is that it give one the gratification of being one's own master or mistress; another is the simplicity of exercise, while the third is the fact, to which all riders can testify, that it improves the physical health, thus benefiting us mentally and morally. Since I began riding I have been capable of much additional hard work, my appetite has been improved, and I sleep better, and from every standpoint I am an enthusiast about cycling."

Via Bicycle Diaries

Bicycle Ambos

We saw these guys in Hyde Park yesterday getting ready for the opening night of the Sydney Festival. About five minutes later two of them passed us going flat out up Macquarie St. They don't have sirens but I guess they don't need them to cut through traffic.

Janette Sadik-Khan

If only our RTA had a boss like Janette Sadik-Khan who was appointed to be the commissioner of New York's Department of Transport in April.

According to Sadik-Khan, New York streets should be brimming with activity, not cars. She wants to see broad sidewalks filled with people and elegant street furniture, public plazas with places to sit and chat, and bike lanes where children feel safe on their bikes. “Whether you’re cycling and you lock up to a fanciful bike rack,” she says, “or you’re a pedestrian and you come across a fabulous open space that makes you want to linger—that, I think, defines the quality of life in cities.”
Getting there means “we’re going to have to do some things a little differently,” she warns. “We’re going to have to get people out of their cars.” To that end, Sadik-Khan is rolling out pilot programs as fast as she can—new public plazas, wider sidewalks, a bike-rack design competition. Her mission, fundamentally, is to remake the real estate between buildings by, as she puts it, “reclaiming the street from cars.” In traffic-management circles, such a statement is practically heresy.

Surprise appearance!

Look who we found in the latest brochure from the Nature Conservation Council

Urban Cyclist Project

If you'd like to have your photo taken with your bike for the UCP write to me at SBARHQatYahoo.com.au

Janice Turner - Radical superhero of the streets

Cyclists, meanwhile, are anarchists, irritating, irrelevant, ill-disciplined individualists. And while political fashion dictates that Ken must celebrate the proliferation of cyclists, you just know he’d love to put them down brutally, as Lenin and Trotsky did the Kronstadt sailors.
No doubt Ken will have his prejudices confirmed by the Department for Transport report that reveals the richest fifth of the population, predominantly white and middle-class, are the most likely to cycle. But it is not the expence of cycling that makes it the preserve of the privileged, but the arrogant sense of entitlement necessary to ride the urban mean streets.

Times online

The wonderful Mona Caron

Swiss-born and Car Free all of her life, the talented Mona Caron has been biking to her work as an illustrator and muralist in San Francisco since 1996. She does some fabulous bicycle activist art but her website is worth exploring for anyone who appreciates good art. I especially loved her illustrations for children and this picture titled Cafe

Most people will probably recognise her from her fabulous Critical Mass posters.

I recently spotted Mona at work in this photo on a Brazilian website Apocalipse Motorizado

You can buy prints of Mona's work here and you can hear Mona talking about her bike and her philosophy here.

Black Rider

My shirt a black flag

Dropping fast down Bedford Street

Floating on the wind

Sydney Bike Riders

Peak Oil - How Will You Ride the Slide?

Men who drive 4WDs

Click for larger image.
Via Freewheeler

Punctures

Why is it that punctures always seem to come in groups? I hadn't had any tyre trouble for months then last week I heard something scraping on the fender and stopped to have a look. I found this massive screw sticking out of my tyre.

Then tonight I was cruising down Bedford St and heard something going click click every time the wheel span around. It was a bloody thumb tack! Stupidly I pulled it out and then found myself pushing a heavily laden bike all the way home.

Both punctures happened near Newtown Square, could it be a saboteur? A deranged motorist? Or maybe it's the Demon SUV driver...

CRITICAL MASS HARBOUR BRIDGE RIDE

Spread the good news far & wide...

Yes, it's that time of the year again!!!

Friday 30th November 2007

Meeting 5:30pm for 6pm departure

Hyde Park Fountain

www.criticalmass.org.au/sydney

Join cyclists far and wide as hundreds and thousands converge for the ride over the Harbour Bridge... ON THE ROAD!!!

Critical Mass is an organised coincidence that occurs every last Friday of the month in cities worldwide whereby large numbers of cyclists happen to be cycling in the same direction at the same time, reclaiming city streets for a split second to realise the ideas of community and safe, fun, sustainable transportation.Critical Mass is open to all types of cyclists in various age groups, backgrounds and skill levels.

It is recommended that you wear your helmet and have working front and rear bike lights or else the coppers might hassle you and prevent you from participating in this fun, free event.

The ride commences at the Hyde Park Fountain at 6pm. There is usually a high police presence to "escort" cyclists. The ride ends at the Noodle Markets in Civic Park, North Sydney around 7pm.

There will be a large number of cyclists returning back to the city in order to make it to the Bicycle Film Festival being screened at Dendy Opera Quays, starting 7:30pm. If you would like to join us, it is advised you purchase your tickets IN ADVANCE as these screenings will probably sell out. More info at:www.bicyclefilmfestival.com

So come along, bring your portable sound system, dress yourself up and your bicycle up to celebrate non-motorised transportation in Sydney!

Whoo hoo!

BESPOKE ART EXHIBITION

WEDNESDAY 28 NOVEMBER
OPENING 6:00 PM

BESPOKE an art show inspired by the bicycle.

A gathering of the cycling tribes.

Celebrate the opening of an exhibition inspired by the bike.

Video installations, sculpture, paintings and graffiti with trial exhibitions.

All welcome to the opening party:

Wed Nov 28, 6pm onwardsBike parking available - bring a lock.
Mori Gallery168 Day Street, Sydney

Artists:

Evan Croker

Vivian Cooper Smith

Lucas Ihlein

Michael Gormly

Reg Mombassa

Nick Strike

Mickie Quick

Davey Mac

Jessica Gerron

Sarina Tomchin

Lyndal Campbell

Trevor Hoppen

Arlene Textaqueen

Michelle French

Jake Lloyd Jones

Jeff Hamilton

Adam Leddin

Kurt Pederson

John Domeney

Ian Frazer

Bicycle Film Festival Rolls into Sydney

2007 Bicycle Film Festival

Don't Miss the Celluloid Cycling Celebrations

The International Bicycle Film Festival lands in Sydney on the last week of November this year with a gridlock-free program of films, art and gigs made by, for, and about cyclists.

'Don't miss' events include:

BESPOKE An art exhibition by established and emerging artists, designers and careercyclists. Where: Mori Gallery, Day St, Sydney
Free exhibition: Nov 23 - Dec 01 2007 (open 11-6pm, Wednesday to Saturday)
Come to the opening party: Wed Nov 28, 6pm

SYDNEY FILM SCREENINGS
Where: Dendy Opera Quays - East Circular Quay
When: Friday Nov 30, drinks at 7:00pm, sessions start 7:30pm + Saturday Dec1, sessions start 1:30 pm Free bike valet parking provided by Cumpler.
Book your tickets early on (02) 9247 3800.
Limited festival passes available. Last year individual film sessions soldout.

BIKES FOR TRANSPORT YEAH! PICNIC
Vego treats, bike blender cocktails, scavenger hunt and other bike hi-jinx provided by Cheeky Transport. Everyone welcome, as long as you ride. Where: Pyrmont Point Park Pirama Rd, PyrmontWhen: Sunday, Dec 2, 1pm till sundown

Green Way

I'm very excited! The other day I read in the paper about this old freight line that runs through the inner west. I know the line well because I ride over it every day in Summer Hill.

The line runs all the way from the Cooks River to the Anzac Bridge. Can you imagine what a fantastic bike path it would make? A safe, flat, off road path lined with trees that runs all the way into the city! Imagine! The path could be linked to what many say is the only really useful bike path in the city which is the one that runs along Cooks River. The Cooks River path is great but unless you're going to Botany or the airport it's not really that useful for commuting. If it linked to the CBD it would become hugely popular and could change the nature of the whole area.

The rail line is being shut down because the old flour mill you can see in the picture is being shut down and is going to be redeveloped into residential accommodation. Naturally the developers want to put in some sort of transport link for the people who will live there. Of course the focus is on light rail or something similar because cycling isn't seen as a valid form of transport in this town and anyway you can't make any money out of it.

If you don't live in Sydney you might be surprised at how horribly under resourced the cycling commuters are here. You might assume that a rich, modern international metropolis like Sydney would have at least a couple of decent bike routes into the centre of town but sadly that's not the case. In Sydney the "proper" way to get to work is to ride alone in a car, usually in the middle of a massive traffic jam. Cycling is still seen as something people do only for recreation. Those of us who drive bikes do it on the road, mixing it up with the cars and trucks. Sydney has a lot of hills too which tends to put people off. That's why old disused railway lines get me so excited, they are built with little or no gradient. No traffic and no hills means no excuses for lazy Sydney commuters not to get a little exercise twice a day.

Right at the tail of the article that I have linked above I found a reference to a man named Bruce Ashley and an organisation called Friends of the Greenway they are lobbying for a cycle path to be considered. Bruce is quoted as saying "There's huge demand for a cycle way from the Cooks River to the Anzac Bridge. That needs to be considered as a higher priority than just light rail." Bruce is SO right. I don't even mind sharing the space with light rail if necessary but the cycle path needs to be a top priority. Sydney is desperate for some decent bicycle infrastructure.

It took me a fair bit of googling to find the Friends of the Greenway but they sound like a great group and have already achieved a lot through community based grass roots action. You should check them out and give them your support.