Protest ride a success
It was a great sight, 150 Pedal Power members and supporters riding together along Northbourne Avenue, quietly taking over a whole lane, normally devoted to cars.
A diverse group joined together to call for separated bike-only paths along Northbourne Avenue and highlight the need for safe, convenient cycling infrastructure all over Canberra.
This event also marked the 20th anniversary of the installation of the first on-road cycle lanes in Canberra on Northbourne Avenue.
While addressing the crowd and talking to the media, Pedal Power David Whitney said:
“While Canberra’s cycling network has come a long way in the last 20 years, Canberra bike paths and lanes are still patchy in many areas and few are segregated from traffic, constantly putting cyclists’ lives at risk.
The ACT is promoting significant investment in active travel, but projects are being rolled out too slowly. The Government has promised to build a separated cycle-only path along Northbourne Avenue multiple times, yet they are still failing to deliver on this vital infrastructure.
Over the past decade, data has been collected about crashes in Canberra, including deaths on the roads. The data is limited to incidents that were reported online or to which police responded, but we do know that more than half of these crashes happened in the inner northern suburbs, with concentrations along Northbourne Ave, as well as areas in the city that have bike lanes.
About 43 per cent of the Northbourne Ave incidents were attributed to a “side swipe” from a vehicle travelling in the same direction and about 41 per cent of the Northbourne crashes resulted in injury.
Pedal Power has been campaigning for better cycling infrastructure that is integrated on this arterial road and this mass ride aims to highlight that dedicating one lane of the road to active transport is not only possible, but needed.”
A special thanks to John Widdup the other volunteers who led the ride.
Read more about this event in the June edition of the Canberra Cyclist digital magazine, available to members only.
