I cant ride with helmet on as it leads to a terrible affect on my vision from very small temperature rises i found out from an opthmalogist recently this is called uhtoffs phenomonen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhthoff%27s_phenomenon

After being fined and given warnings I have given up cycling and i only ask that people will also try to help me by voting for the LDP as they are the only political party willing to remove this discriminatory law which the labour party introduced.

Please join online for free so they can have the membership numbers to contest the next federal election. Goto the link below to join.

http://www.ldpsa.org.au/join

ogden…

My favourite viewing sport is Tour de France, I love watching the gentle undulation of the column rolling through the countryside, so much better than the noisy polluting car races this country enjoys.

It would be wonderful to have our own Tour of Australia, much more environmentally friendly from the point of pollution and humane treatment and preservation of animals – recently thousands of kangaroos were killed in Bathurst just to clear the track for car racing.

Also, they may argue that old, European cities are usually denser, often poorer, slow to ‘modernize’ and just too ‘Latin’ or ‘Dutch’, or ‘Balt’ or ‘Nordic’ for Australian conditions (Latin or Nordic indeed; I think of the architecture, the bridges, the cathedrals, the coffee-shops – a gift of the Arabs – Mediterranean culture, carnivals, jugglers, music and masques in the street). Which corner of the world do these mothers think the bicycle came from anyway?
We have to be careful here. A bicycle culture is no less real and free in Winter as in Summer, as I found out in Colorado winters, cycling to work through Denver’s snows; so perhaps Violeta – or Dottie on her Azor Oma in Chicago – might grace us soon with clips of commuting cyclists in drizzle and snow on sit-up bicycles, to round out the picture?

Years ago, sitting in my crane in Whyalla, I read ‘Richard’s Bicycle Book’ – the original one, about 1974, I think. In it, Richard Ballantyne argued that modern man was too mobile, too car-bound for his own good. He went onto claim that some loss of mobility would be a Good Thing. These arguments will be hard to win in Australia, for all the usual reasons.

However, it is possible that some of these arguments are being made for us: What is the true cost of rising obesity in Australia? The true cost of car accidents throughout Australia’s communities? What are the real – and often immeasureable – benefits of a return to a calmer, more balanced way of living? (How exactly do you measure increased autonomy and a return to sanity?). And what are we to make of the culture-wars over global warming, except that, whatever else the bicycle may be, it is incapable of being a threat to the planet?
In Australia we are very far away from European and American centres’ of experimentation. We do our own experimenting, thank-you. We ‘experimented’ with compulsory helmets and the result has been stupid and sad, a kind of Swiftian farce. We are now fatter and less healthy than before, there is less cycling, our politicians don’t get it, but this don’t matter ‘coz they don’t care. Instead we are offered ‘fun rides.’ I don’t deplore Australian fun rides, but surely we ought to be able to see them for what they are – the bastard child of cycling chic, a concession from on high to the penned-in feeling of all those who yearn to promote a return to ordinary, upright, practical, everyday cycling throughout Australian communities.

Australia faces unique difficulties. I’ve slowly come to the belief that the biggest obstacle is not distance, nor high winds, nor brutal summers, nor even a collective loss of memory, but the indifference and ignorance of our rulers. And it is a very queer, Janus-faced indifference: on the one hand cyclists are small in number, politically and electorally insignificant – who will in all cases be expected to do as they’re told.. or else.. – cf Sue Abbott; on the other, this is Australia, sport is king, and we insist on protecting you from yourself! Thus we have a crux between the convict-authoritarianism of our past, and the modern, liberal impulse to ‘save’ us from ourselves.
I believe that the vacuum created by the decline in religious belief is being filled by a new role for politicans: moral improvement! They know what’s best for us, and by Jesus, or Yahweh, or Vishnu, they’re gonna make sure we do what’s best for us!! My authority is CS Lewis, for Lewis, who was very smart indeed, understood very well where Nanny-State buffoonery would lead:
‘ Of all tyrannies a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive….for it will be pursued without end with the full approval of the oppressor’s conscience.’
How is all this to be undone, and our rulers persuaded to reconsider?
Sikhs in Britain were able to persuade UK authorities that they should not be compelled to wear uniform-helmets or caps at any time, and certainly not when carrying out their professional responsibilities. It offended their religious precepts. More power to them! I, too, have religious convictions, and I do not see why our political classes should pass laws that mess with my head.

We need to look beyond Australia, to the example of other countries’ experience. The power of global blogging may, with persistence, broaden the horizons of our civil servants and politicians. Theirs is very much a failure of imagination. Is the old-fashioned, upright, load-bearing, Old Dutch too much.. too simple, too unthinkable?

In the meantime, I salute the courage, dignity and persistence of Sue Abbott. Surely more of us can now stick our helmetless heads above the parapet?

Milo.

P.S. Mike, re your train travel troubles, have you thought of a Brompton? They surely meet your criteria: sit-up, carry loads and fold down to little. I’ve had them on trains and buses.

Did you also see the interview with David on this blog? Plus, take a look at Bike Share and helmet’s don’ t mix? Mike

Happy new year to everyone!

http://www.loschimangosdelacapi.blogspot.com/

happy new year from argentine

It’s the norm in most of Europe.

Why isn’t it the norm in Australia? Maybe because cycling on roads has been associated with racing. You see people with all their gear, just like the riders in the tour de France! Speed is everything!

It’s really weird. We must be one of the few country where the specialized use of a bicycle has overtaken its more fundamental usage.

Australia is lacking a more casual cycling culture when using a bicycle is simply a daily mode of transport to go to the train station or the shops for example. The lack of bicycle parking is one of the hurdles. Unnecessary and counterproductive helmet law another one. Who wants to bother with a nearly useless helmet just to cycle to the local shop?

Europe is so far ahead of us when it comes to cycling.

We are the dumb ones who seem to put extra efforts to discourage cycling. More cars, more traffic jams, more pollution, more dangerous cycling, more fat & unhealthy people who lack exercise, that’s the way to go!

No wonder almost no other country has followed our “lead”. The results aren’t pretty.

I used to read Australian Cyclist when I lived in Australia and was a member of the state cycling organisation. I agree that showing a helmetless cyclist seemed to be akin to showing drug use for that magazine. If such a picture was shown, it was usually taken in Europe and accompanied by a disclaimer that it was taken in Europe.

In contrast, the latest issue of the UK equivalent to Australian Cyclist, the CTC’s ‘Cycle”, has a picture of a guy in a Santa outfit riding a bike (and if he is wearing a helmet, it is well hidden under this costume. There are pictures of helmeted and unhelmeted cyclists throughout. On p58 there is a lovely picture of two 5-7 year old girls cycling helmetless for an article on “Quality Kids Bikes”.

Looking back at Australia from a UK perspective, it is pretty clear that the Australian cycle advocates are dominated by the roadies, MTB crowd and the hardcore (10km+) commuters. People who think that workplace showers are a really important ingredient in promoting utility cycling aren’t going to get why MHLs are a really bad idea.

The Netherlands are in the middle of winter right now and what we see in our streets today is so very different from these sunny summerly pictures. Sure, there are still a lot of cyclists out there but we are all dressed so differently!
The video made me very happy as it reminded me of what we will be having again in a couple of months time.

I hope, or better: I trust this video will be inspiring to a lot of people all over the world. Even if it doesn’t show great cycling infrastructure (as the center of Amsterdam doesn’t really have that) but you do show people of all classes and age groups on bicycles in great numbers, and that is what matters.