Tuesday 28 September: BIKESydney monthly meeting

Our monthly meeting focussed on developing our IT strategy which will allow us to better communicate and collaborate and our mapping project which will produce three self guided ride maps. Josh Capelin from the Sydney Bicycle Film Festival attended and we talked about ways BIKESydney could be involved in the festival. We are hoping to hold a BrainsTrust Q+A on bike culture as part of the festival in November.

Saturday 25 September: Sydney Sustainability Markets and Live Green House

On Saturday Nick Bonich  and Elaena Gardner spent the morning at the Sydney Sustainability Markets and the afternoon at Live Green House talking to people about all things bike.

The markets were unusually quiet but many people we spoke to wanted advice about buying a bike. There was lots of interest in the Cabby from families – a lady from Pakistan who lives in Darlinghurst wanted to to be able to ride her children to the park instead of driving them – a heavily pregnant woman and her partner were thinking about how they could transport their new baby by bicycle – two mums with toddlers were interested in riding with the kids. And we spoke to maybe three other people who were on the brink of buying a bike to get around town.  Nick  did a sterling job of convincing a young woman that should could definitely ride a bike from Clovelly to the City.

At Live Green House in the afternoon we let interested people take the Cabby for a ride in Hyde Park (closely supervised by Nick). That seemed a big hit. Again – most people we spoke to were families with small kids.

The Bike Library was of great interest. Quite a few people who were interested in the Cabby were very excited to be able to take it for a trial over a weekend.

Friday 24 September: Invitation to appear at the Staysafe Inquiry

BIKESydney has been invited to give evidence at the NSW Parliamentary Staysafe Inquiry into vulnerable road users. You can read our submission on the Staysafe website. We have received great feedback about the submission. After the hearings we’ll be looking at how we can further progress some of the issues raised in the submission.

Tuesday 21 September:  World Cities and the Cycling Revolution

BIKESydney and Camwest partnered to deliver our third BrainsTrust of the year.  About 35 people attended the presentations which included:

• World Cities on the Move: What are London, San Francisco, New York + Paris doing to encourage bicycle transport and why by Elaena Gardner, President BIKESydney, Churchill Fellow 2009
• Community Gains + Individual Benefits: Lessons from Melbourne, Brisbane + Copenhagen by David Borella, Vice President BIKESydney, Bicycle Representative Sydney Traffic Committee
• A Bicycle Oriented Society: Culture, space and language and why it matters by Adrian Emilsen, BIKESydney Member, Sustainable Transport Planner

It was great to meet so many enthusiastic  people advocating for and working in sustainable transport and city planning . We were also delighted that one of the audience members was so inspired by the evening that he is planning to start a bike bus to the Parramatta campus of the University of Western Sydney.

Sunday 19  September:  Bike Valet at Randwick Eco Festival

A gang of BIKESydney and other bike advocacy folk attended this free seminar at Parliament House.  The presentation looked at issues of: speed; intersection treatments on separated cycleways; the importance of consistent road markings and signage; and how road users in Melbourne treat advance stop boxes.

Wednesday 8 September: Shared Path Markings video launched

We’re experimenting with how we can use video to demonstrate, illustrate and inspire. Today we launched the first BIKESydney video which calls for feedback on the City of Sydney’s new shared path markings.  It was released on our own website, Sydney Cyclist and Facebook.

Tuesday 7 September: Green Ups

This month’s Green Ups celebrated cycling – and marked the unofficial opening of the Union Street cycleway in Pyrmont (an important part of the city’ bike network).

David Borella, BIKESydney Vice President, spoke at the gathering of 200+ people about  the challenges, desire for and joy of bike infrastructure.  Great talk – David!

BIKESydney also ran the bicycle valet parking sponsored by the City of Sydney. Julian Somosi marshalled the bile corral and Abhi, Seed, Elaena braved the bitingly cold wind and bad jokes to park about 180 bikes. Lots of happy folk!

Saturday 4 September: Shared Path Ride

The City of Sydney is trialling a new approach to signage on shared paths (paths shared by bike riders and pedestrians). After a late morning coffee and muffin we checked them out (in the rain) and gathered feedback to be sent to the City of Sydney. The new designs could eventually be rolled out across NSW.

Friday 3 September: Newtown Bike Library Launch

Elaena Gardner, David Borella and Paul Boundy attended the opening of the Newtown Bike Library. BIKESydney is partnering with the Watershed on this exciting project which will allow people to borrow cargo bikes and a range of trailers at a very reasonable price.  If you’ve ever wanted to try out a Gazelle Cabby – here’s your chance.

Thursday 2 September, 2010: Meeting with Bicycle NSW

Elaena Gardner met with Omar Kahlif (Bicycle NSW CEO), Jenny Burn (Bicycle NSW President) and Jenni Gormley (Push On Editor) to discuss opportunities for the ongoing professional development of bicycle advocates.  More about this later but a conference later next year is looking likely.