Fwiends, Romans, Countrymen; lend me your ears for 4.51
And watch this super interesting snippet on the evolution of cycling in the city of Utrecht, in the Netherlands. You might think I'm just saying that, but it's truly fascinating how the Dutch completely changed the nature of this city. I look at these images, and I look at the three hour long "peak hour" that Sydney suffers under, and I know which I'd rather have for my community.
Although Utrecht was once just as obsessed with the car as Sydney now is, they have become a byword for bike-friendliness, so much so that Utrecht hosted the start of the 2015 Tour de France.
Note the statistics on helmet wearing and injury, in stark contrast to current thinking in Australia.
And to answer the inevitable "but it wouldn’t work here"’ , the second link is a Ted Talk by city-planning guru Janette Sadik-Kahn, who for six years was New York City Transportation Commissioner, and who implemented 350 miles of bike lanes, as well as the Citibike scheme which sees an average of 36,000 Citibike trips in the city every day. The bike-specific talk starts around 8.53.
https://www.missionbicycle.com/blog/five-best-ted-talks?utm_source=Mission+Bicycle+Company
If you can bike it there, you'll bike it anywhere, eh ?