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Bicycle sales rise in Australia
Data released yesterday revealed that - for the ninth consecutive year - consumers bought more bicycles than cars.
From http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24882601-2,...
And how much money is spent on road infrastructure? And how much on bicycle facilities? It's a fcuking disgrace!
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Maybe. Probably. But neither does cycling give much money for use of that road or land. You scratch my back, and all that. I agree that more needs to be done to improve cycle access, but a statistic showing more bikes were sold than cars does not mean that more money should be devoted to bike access than for cars. What are most of those bikes sold used for? What percentage of those bikes are actually used on the road? A minority I would say. Most are child's toys that get ridden in the back yard or on the front driveway.
The solution? Everyone should ride off-road!!
Ditty, you are missing the point. Road projects get billions of dollars per year. Cycle spending is a fraction of a single percent of this. And I am talking about the need for more spending on cycle infrastructure for both on and off road riding.
Does anyone know where we can find the relevant stats on spending on 'road' infrastructure versus 'cycle'?
Update: According to this, the budget allocated by NSW government was "$1.9 billion on Roads" in 07-08:
http://www.treasury.nsw.gov.au/bp07-08/bp1/budspch
I seem to recall that spending on bicycle related projects was pitiful in comparison. Will try and drag up some numbers.
I agree, but most of the new infrastructure for motorists around Sydney is paid for through tolls. For a country that has a large number of 4WD, main roads like the Pacific Highway are too narrow as it is. If they had built main roads wider, maybe it wouldn't be such a huge deal to put in cycle paths. As for off-road - we're back to the maintenance and sustainability issue. The Government over here is so short sighted. It's all about quick fixes. It’s easier to close a trail, than to rethink how we can turn our natural habitat into a tourist attraction for mountain bikers etc. like they have done in other places around the world.
Well, that’s my rant for today
Bwwwwaahahahahaaaaa... you mean the toll goes to pay for a small part of the interest payment on the borrowed capital? OK, so of course tolls cannot pay fully for any road - the toll would be way too high and no-one would use it. Infrastructure is meant to be beneficial to the whole community and therefore it's fair enough to use public funds (our taxes don't forget) to pay for them. All I'm saying is that bike riding (both on and off road) is beneficial to the whole community too so a little more public funding should be given to that.
As long as bikes keep outselling cars its got to be some sort of progress the numbers will eventually add up to the bean counters and things will change for the better (slowly). A break down on the types of bikes sold would be very interesting information I know there is definitely more people commuting by bicycle than there was 20 years ago.
The more bikes the better.
The City of Sydney has allocated 77 million dollars over the next four years. Read more here http://www.clovermoore.com/main/?id=1845 towards the bottom under "INNER SYDNEY CYCLE NETWORK"
Talking about infrastructure and slow progress the cycleway on King Street between Sussex and Kent street has been finished for about six or so weeks now its currently barricaded with a cycleway closed sign on it.
What’s the hold up I hope where not waiting for some official to organise a photo op to cut a ribbon and say how wonderful it is what’s the hold up? Its crazy that cyclists still have to dice with the dangerous traffic coming of the western distributor and up King St when there is a perfectly good cycleway just sitting there unopened.
What I'm saying is that it's not just our taxes that pay for our roads. We pay pretty high tolls for most of the new roads (and old ones - Sydney Harbour Bridge/Tunnel). That might only pay for the interest on capital borrowed, but it's still money coming in. I don't agree with this, I'm merely pointing it out.
I agree that there should be more public funding for on and off road cycling.
Ahhh... editorial from New Year's Day of SMH:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/01/01/123068...
So $6.7m from $2.2b... I make that 0.3% - pathetic! Of course this doesn't include off road facilities... but I think we can safely say bugger all (government) money is spent on providing them in NSW!
From end of Dec:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/time-to-pedd...
I have heard that the RTA claim their annual expenditure on cycling is higher than it really is because much of it is 'spent' on highway shoulders. Shoulders are needed for road maintenance and safety reasons anyway, but if they paint a bike logo on it, they can claim it as cycling infrastructure. Sneaky b@stards!
I noticed they did that Rob at Artarmon on Hampden Rd. They just painted a skinny ass bike lane between the parked cars and the right lane of the road!