This coming week will be an exciting one in my bike world.
Guim valls Teruel, the Spaniard who is riding around the world on his E bike will arrive in Sydney, he promises, towing his trailer with it’s solar panel.

I have my doubts Guim make it in time. He told me by mobile that today, Sunday 18th, he was lingering way too far north , one would think, doing the Nimbin markets.

He’s found that the best places in Australia to promote his E bike as the perfect Eco vehicle, (since arriving from NZ a month ago) are local produce markets.

Anyway, Guim assures me he can, if pushed, do 200 kms. a day. I guess he’ knows what he’s doing, having ridden 10,000 kms. already from Beijing.

I’m hoping he makes it in time for Friday, for a possible meeting with Lord Tony Berkeley, who I’ve been asked to show around Sydney on a bike. Lord Berkeley is a keen utility cyclist in Britain

Since, I don’t know the new bike plans for Sydney very well, I’ve asked City of Sydney’s Fiona Campbell to host the ride as I’ll make the movie.

Lord Berkeley a Labor Peer, and British rail expert, is in Australia to discuss rail freight, I believe. He is also a spokesman in the British Parliament on bike policy.

I have some wider hopes for his visit. CTC, the venerable British bike organization which contacted me, is doing much to promote cycling politically in the UK.

Going to their site, I find the CTC is making bikes an election issue in Britain with their Vote Bike campaign.

How one wishes some Pollie was putting questions in our parliament and, Oh, for bikes to be an election issue here as well.

So, this contact,and the future networking which I hope comes of it, may help us raise the political status of utility cycling here through some sort of cross pollination .

Right now, neither party at the Federal level. seems much interested in Cycling as transport.

Here is a film the CTC posted about visiting Cambridge, one of the most Bike conscious cities on Britain. Thanks to Carlton Reid for the film

The narration makes a telling point. In that town, planning automatically brings in bikes because they are so well embedded in the public consciousness. We need to get to that state and stage.

Anyway, what will be, will be in terms of who arrives. and who’s held up this coming week.

There’s plenty else that’s exciting coing up.

Maurice Wells who runs what we think it Sydney’s first bike shop, a store front in Marrickville, Glow Worm Bicycles, is making plans to host Guim. Sydney cyclists will have a change to meet him and see his solar system at the shop.

Here is Maurice in red, at the launch of his shop.

And here’s a great mural Maurice had on the shop wall

But the really big news is this. For years, the RTA, our State road body, has been working on changes in the rules for E bikes to bring us into line with Europe.

Somehow the RTA, a NSW org. seem to be in charge of coordinating the changes nationally

Friday the 16th, selected people in the bike world got an Email from Gabriel Denoury, the RTA guy who’s been working on the new policy I was not one of them, but it was soon leaked to me.

My nose is slightly out of joint in that I’d made numerous suggestions to Mr. Denoury 9 months ago when the policy was open for comment, and thought he’d promised to let me know, as a stakeholder, when the changes came through

Never mind. The important thing is that the changes are mostly very good,

In big picture terms, it will mean that the E bike will come out of the shadows here and present itself, I’m quite sure, as a very appealing alternative to the car for shortish trips

Better yet, if the 250 watt motors we will soon be allowed to use are partnered with the classic sit-up configuration, then we really have a knockout winner in terms of comfort, safety and carrying capacity for urban getting around

You may laugh, but my prediction is that 5 years from now, this will be the bike combo of choice for anyone serious about a bike as urban transport .

The very young and fit may turn up their noses at such assistance, but when they get round of carrying a kid, large shopping loads, even moving house by bike, as folks love to do in Portland, Oregon, then the E bike is going to look very good.

It will also be a bike you can be proud to be seen, I feel.

I mean how about this, superb gazelle Innegy, the Rolls Royce of E bikes? Can’t you see your self on that?

And if you want something more BMW-Like, how about this Giant Freedom Twist?

I ride a Giant Suede with a motor I added on, a kit, and the cheaper way to go.

Mine is to a somewhat grubbier Giant, but I love it just the same. (time to say again I have no financial interest in E bikes, rather something far more deadly. a philosophical interest.

Guim will spoil my party somewhat because his Wisper, a great E bike, is not a sit up. I can forgive him that, given the long distances he rides. I guess he’s not going to switch his handlebars for my photo op.

The changes, (thanks, Gabriel and the team) mean that we can now import these great bikes from Europe and the US, they being 250 Watts.

My friend, Dr Paul Martin in Brisbane has jumped that gun and is already on a Gazelle, tuned down to 200 watts, I assume.

Why do I think E bikes are the future of urban transport the real alternative to the car? because of the look I imagine my little Diahatsu Sirion gives me every time I leave on the bike and leave it behind

As I come out of our car port, too stuffed with junk to hold an actual car, I see my bike and my car side by side. Which will i choose for the journey ahead?

Why do I choose the bike most of the time?

Because, even though my the car is as economical as they get and quite fun to drive, the bike will feel better.

More importantly, I know there is no hill ahead which will give me pain. amd wish I was in the Sirion. I’ll work hard on a couple of rises, but no get-off-and-push, pain.

With the E bike, I control the ride, not the terrain.

I think that’s a key recurring moment in one’s transport life. If that moment and my choice, could be multiplied into millionsof people coming out, looking at their transport options and choosing the bike most of the time, that would be the changing of Australia.

And way for the better. We know our car addiction is killing us.

Now, I’m not saying the E bike is transport methadone, though my friend David Hembow in Holland might like that analogy. I’m saying its a bit intermediate and something the public, the bike hostile public, can get their heads around .

Hostile in the sense as bikes as transport. Everyone likes the ides of biking around our pretty waterways, but doesn’t count

The E bike gives that dream a chance. The regular push bike does not, not for most people who are now not riding, and not thinking of riding.

I know you don’t believe me. That’s OK, you haven’t tried one of these E bikes. When you have, you’ll believe too.

It promises to be an interesting week.

I do have a quibble with the RTA regulations, now awaiting Federal approval (Go on, Minister Garrett, give it a shove, will ya?) and that is their plan to do away with the throttle which I think is silly and an overdone copying of Europe .

You can sample a discussion the throttle on Sydney cyclist. here

As I said in a letter to Gabriel Denoury, if we are going to copy Europe so slavishly, let’s put our gas prices up to the same level as theirs. i.e double, and then spend the extra money on bike-ways, like they do over there.

How about that. eh?

1. Collaborating with James Schwartz .
2. Growing a second bike culture.
3. Electric bike predictions. A big future for them.
4. Round the World E bike Rider,Guim Valls Teruel, is almost here
5. Sydney’s first all E bike shop is open and will host Guim
6. Bicycle NSW to host Guim also
6. The visit of Lord Tony Berkeley from GB..

I’ve made blog friends with James Schwartz who write a blog called The urban Country in Toronto.

We agreed to explore together the idea of people riding different bikes in different situations.

His movie, Bike it my Way, is responding to this one of mine, Bike it or Not, about Gill Charlton which you’ve probably already seen.

It’s great fun, collaborating like this! Anyone else want to try?

Here’s how James describes our, across-the-world movie making.

Mike Rubbo asked me if I would like to engage in international collaboration on two videos that highlight women cyclists who – in Mike’s words – choose different bikes for different hikes.

Briana’s focus is on Active Transportation and her vision is a community where people have the option to get around on bicycles without any special clothing or equipment. I took footage of Briana on a weekend in her racing gear and on a weekday in her regular clothes without a helmet.

Me again. I feel that celebrating cross over riding is really important. Especially in Australia where the sports/leisure cycling culture is so dominant, so smothering, one could say.

How about, Cross biking? That’s when you use, different bikes for different hikes.

2. We need to grow up an alternative, namely utility cycling. And it’s best that this is happening, not in opposition, but in partnership with people like Gill and Briana showing that you can enjoy both .

Jim Forbes sent me this great photo from Queensland. What does it tell me? That in simpler times, 1939 in Bundaberg, Queensland, your bike was two things.

These blokes have clearly turned their handlebars up as they ride to work, if that’s where they’re going .

(Thanks to the State Library of Queensland)

Weekends, one imagines they turned them down and went faster.

3. I predict two things are going to happen as we grow utility cycling here.

A. Most of us will be sitting up straight as these blokes are doing. Probably not by turning up drops (Is that still possible?) but by riding proper made-to-order sit ups.

B, Now, this might surprise you, I predict that most bikes for getting around 5 years from now, will have an electrical assist, a small motor for a boost.

I think will happen because sitting up straight with a small helpful motor, you end up with the perfect utility bike. It will either be charge at home by solar or even as you ride.

Another reason this makes sense is the very same reason that some people now disparage sit-ups, namely lower performance.

The motor lifts performance so that as you sit-up right on an E bike like the fabulous gazelle which won bike of the year against all tyes no face no impediments

The motor helps with the greater wind resistance sitting up straight provokes, The motor helps with carrying loads, which you’ll want to do a lot if you bike is your main vehicle, as it will one day be.

More and more small deliveries will be made by E bike, not only of you, your kids, your dog, you shopping, but business deliveries

Maybe this happen more in high bike resistance countries like Australia and NZ, where even getting people to “think Bike” is very hard.

Now, in Bruges, Belgium where I took this delightful photo (a favourite ) a motor may never be necessary, the terrain being so flat and sheltered, and the people so bike-habituated

But here, where everything’s hard, both psychologically and physically, that extra oomph, and it’s a very small oomph, will allow you to control the trip in a way which makes all the difference. .

With that boost, you create the bike experience you want to have, not the terrain dictating your ride. Flat and windless, your motor’s off. Hilly and feeling a bit puffed, motor’s on.

They’ll also start breaking records when folks discover that E bikes are so much fun

That’s why I see an E bike future here, that is when you are biking about, not working out.

This is a great article by Vincent , which sums up the E bike situation globally right now, plus the arguments against such bikes.

Did you know there are now 120 million E bikes in China, up by 20 million since last year, that they are the fastest growing marker sngment in Europe, euro-wise?

I love author Vincent’s remark about E bikes and exercise. They do give plenty of exercise but not a work out, unless you switch the motor off.

He points out that If you are seriously working out on a bike, (and most Aust. cyclists are doing just that most of the time) having a motor makes about as much sense as electro-boosting all that shiny equipment at Fitness First, or the gym of your choice.

Here’s a movie I don’t think I’ve posted before which proves, inadvertently, that the the electro boosted sit-up bike performs superbly against flat bars, and on hilly terrain.

I say, “inadvertently” because the intention was to prove something else when I got roped in as a guinea pig.

All of this is very relevant as Guim Valls Teruel, the cheery Spaniard, on his electric Wisper, bears down on us.

4. Guim is on his way from Brisbane to Sydney as I write, and will stay with Katya and I, some night next week, before riding on to Sydney, perhaps with me beside him.

5. Now, it so happens that Sydney now has it’s first all electric bike shop

Glowworm Bicycles in Marrickville Maurice Wells, who’s started it, came to a talk I gave, and we’ve become friends.

I suggested to Maurice that it would make sense to host Guim’s visit, stage a get together at the new shop, and it seems that’s now on.

It looks possible that Bicycle NSW will also host a visit by Guim to their offices. That’d be great as well.

So, as you see, so much is happening here.

6. And if that was not enough, a Labor peer, the bloke who asks questions in the British Parliament for the CTC, the venerable British biking organization, Lord Tony Berkeley is coming to Sydney next week.

CTC has asked me to host him on a bike ride around town.

Flattered though I am, I’m not the right person and so I’ve brought in Fiona Campbell Transport Officer, Cycling, for the city of Sydney.

Fiona knows much more about the 70 kms. of new bike-ways they are building in Sydney, and thus is better placed to play host to the labor Peer. I’ll just do the filming.

I suspect that CTC’s interest in me doing a film about the visit is tied in with the British Elections. CTC has a Vote Bike campaign in full swing.

Oh, how we dream of having utility cycling become a Federal issue here, with questions in Parliament, indignant voices demanding answers as to why we lag so far behind.

Will it ever happen? How ironic it is that our leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott has been in the saddle for week in an impressive charity ride from Melb. to Sydne.

Yet it seems never to have occurred to him that his great ride was the perfect platform from which to announce a bold new policy for the Coalition, surely a huge vote winner.

Cheers, Mike

Both Mickael Colville-Andersen and David Hembrow are great guys. Both are doing so much to promote utility cycling.

David takes the trouble to give me frequent good advice, especially about infrastructure which for him, is key. Safety is under the wheels, certainly not on the head as they wish us to believe here.

Mikael has run some of my bike movies on his blog, Copenhagenize.com. which has much increased their reach and impact.

He’s also supported our campaign to promote sit-up bikes in Australia (see March 18th on his bog)

But when it come to Electric bikes, sadly, we part company, they and I. Mikael regards them as lazy bikes, and David insists they are strictly for the old and/or infirm

I think that’s not true and that both go against their own thinking when they say so.

Mikael is both funny and apt when he compares a bike to a vacuum cleaner. His points is that we should not over romanticize or fetish-ize the bike.

It’s just a tool like a vacuum cleaner, and about equally sexy most of the time .

By that argument if the E bike is useful, then it’s an extension of the tool that’ll be right for some circumstances, and we shouldn’t get too worked up about it and call it names like, lazy bike

Just like some vacuums cleaners roll along, beating the hell out of carpet, and others merely suck, bikes work differently too.

David points out that people ride, and will ride more, when it’s fun, that being safe is a big part of the fun, and that being safe is in turn, a matter of separated bike paths. All perfectly sensible.

Now, if I say that steep hills and carrying loads on a bike, are not necessarily fun, depending on your fitness level, the heat of day, etc. and that I need help, I shouldn’t be made to feel like a wuss.

Hills and loads do come into the fun equation hard and fast! .

Every one of our of journeys involves quite complex option and enjoyment assessment, especially in countries where to use a bike is exceptional, and bike-ways a sparse or non existent.

Now, unless one does a Rip Van Winkle, going to sleep with the alarm clock set to wake you in 30 years time when the bike ways have all been built, unless that, you have to make do with what you’ve got, all the while kicking and screaming for separated paths.

For example, take my trip to the shops this morning , I’m just back. I’ts 11.5 kms. round trip. I went on the bike, my saddle bags ready play their role. No bike ways at all.

Here’s my bulging saddle bags on the moment of arriving back.

Here’s what they contained, arranged as nicely as I can. The weight of my load, 25 kilos.

Here too is the log slow incline on Hillside road up to the house. This, I just climbed on the last leg of the homeward journey. It goes up for 1.6 kms. The gradient is not so steep, but many people on bikes do walk up it, lazy sods.

I think you wouldn’t be at all surprised, given that hill, the overall distance and expected load , when i say that I wouldn’t have dreamt of going by bike if I didn’t have my small electrical assist, my tiny 200 watt motor.

it would not have been the slightest bit fun. Yet, with that small amount of help, it was indeed fun.

So that is why, anticipating that fun, especially the marvelous free wheeling down that same hill, the wind in my hair, on the outward journey, that I took my E bike and not the car, sitting night next to it on the drive.

I saw only one other bike during the 45 min. trip there and back, and yet I bet every driver I passed has a bike tucked away in the garage. We do buy more cars than bikes, you know. (but the wrong sort)

Yet it occurred to none of those drivers, on their various journeys, to think the bike might be practical and fun.

Now that could be, not only because they are indeed car addicted, car coddled in terms of gas prices, taxes, etc. but because the hills around here make utility cycling no fun

So, I would like David to see that the TOBs, (my short hand for trips on bikes) would/could go way up if there was not this constant preaching against the E bike as the lazy bike, the illegitimate bike, the cheating bike.,

As David love to pint out, people don’t ride bike in Holland for hair shirt reasons, the are not pedal power missionaries. They are just getting around in the most practical and pleasant way possible.

Well what if, in a much more vast range of circumstances than my colleagues will admit, the E bike is practical and pleasant? What then?

Would you rather have people in cars, for that’s where they are, on or such bikes?

I forgot to mention, that the E bike in Australia is mired in a regulative mess. For years now, state bodies like the RTA in NSW have been trying raise the legal motor size to 250 watts which would bring us in line with Europe and Japan

This would mean that we could could import great bikes like the Gazelle Innergy from Holland, presently illegal with its 250 watt motor.

That’s good. One just wishes the Fed Govt would show some leadership and hurry this along. It’s they now who are the stumbling block.

But wise as this change is, it is quite foolish to align our E bikes with the European rule that all E bikes have to be Pedelcs. This means that the motor will only come on when you pedal.

You have the choice of no motor at all, or varying degrees of automatic assistance, depending on the sophistication and price of the bike

Why is Pedelec a problem when its clearly designed to stop people treating the E bike as a low powered motor bike, i.e. one on which you can just sit and twist, not pedal at all.

Surely that’s good? you say. Well no, it’s not at all . Firstly the problem is a furphy. Even at 250 watts, the power is so low that anyone who wants to hoon around, will go for something more powerful, a motor scooter or motorbike.

Secondly, the motors all cut out at around 25 kph, way slower than you can do on an ordinary bike, and so there is no chance of a throttle turning these bikes into speed machines.

My bike has both Pedelec and a throttle which is ideal

There is some sort of moralizing behind this move. It’s like you had a limiter on your car, dictating on how you drove it for safety or ecological reasons. Which motorists would accept that their car dd not perform freely, that they were not making all decisions?

Why does it matter? With the throttle, you can use as little power as you like, use the battery as sparingly as you like, without th machine deciding for you .

For example in a head wind, I use my throttle to deliver just a touch of power, and thus conserve my battery charge.

Srcondly, at traffic lights, it so convenient to have power to get away fast and not be in the way of cars starting up behind you.

This, you can do with the throttle of course, but not with the pwdelec because you have to be in motion, pedaling, for it to kick in on most models.

Some bikes will have some sort of quick start override. But why all the complication, having more things to break down, when the solution it so simple and time tested?

Australia should have the guts to break ranks with Europe on this.

if they don’t, and Pedelec becomes the rule, people will find ways to modify their bikes to the throttle option, so infuriated will they be with Pedelec alone.

E bikes are going to be very big. Let’s get it right this time since we’ve waited so long for change anyway !

My bike blog has to give way this week to another urgent matter, the plans to sink a navy ship as a reef just off our beach. That’s Avoca Beach.

We were not consulted. We are horrified and we are fighting back. The sinking is just days away, March 27th. Yet still we think we can stop it, even though there are signs all over the Central Coast, announcing the “great day” and explaining which roads will be closed.

They expect 30,000 people to view the ship go down from the beaches and cliffs. How disappointed some will be!

Visit the web site for more info. http://noship.com.au/

I’ve made several films about why we are opposed. Now, having been handed the most wonderful protest song by local folk singers, Nick and Liesl, I’ve made this music video, The Sinking of the Adelaide.

I’m putting the lyrics here because we hope that other singers will want to sing it, especially overseas.

Why? Well, if word gets to our embassies that this song telling how we are with this action, undermining all our environmental principles, then perhaps those in the far flung embassies who care about our foreign image, will send word back to Canberra, that this is not a good idea

The lyrics for The sinking of the Adelaide by Nick and Liesl.

Standing at Avoca,
Oh, what a beautiful place
The land has been scarred before
but the oceans remain unpaved.

Standing on the beach
watching the waves roll in
Will it ever be the same?
after the sinking of the Adelaide

Chorus.
Adelaide, in her ocean grave,
a shipwreck without a storm.
A sunken ship wont help us pay for,
the oceans we cant restore.

It’s just a drop in the ocean,
but a drop I don’t want to taste.
At what point do we ask ourselves,
should we treat our oceans this way?

It’s out of sight and out of mind,
‘cept for the divers and the fish they’ll find.
I guess the Government’s made up it’s mind,
but without choices we have no rights.

Chorus.

Is it worth the risk is it worth the fight.
(Liesl repeats) Is it with the risk, is it worth the fight?

I’m just not sure this is right.
(Liesl) I’m just not sure this is right.
You and me and mother nature’s plight.

There are questions unanswered,
and there are risks we can’t deny.

We can sit on the fence
with holes in our fancy pants
But this aint no summer romance,
there will be no second chance.

Chorus twice.

Hi Folks, it’s been a long time since the last post. I’ve been totally consumed by helping to fight against the scuttling of the HMAS Adelaide off our lovely Avoca beach.

If that interests, you have a look at; The Graveyard of the Adelaide, on youtube and the two films which follow.

But now, I’ve found a moment to make the film I’ve had in head for so long, a film about a cyclist who crosses over, why rides different bikes for different hikes

Meet Jill Charlton and enjoy her company.

Jill is part of the revolution we need to have in Australia, to widen our cycling culture from the the present Sport/leisure one, to include serious utility cycling.

That means embracing the machines, the sit-up Amsterdam type bikes made for the job.

All the excuses as to why these marvelous machines are hardly seen here, are furphies. The European who ride these bikes so pervasively have hills in some parts, have daunting distances, and they have headwinds.

Nothing turns them off the best bike for the job of going A to B, the bike they’ve been riding for more than 60 years, unbroken, the sit-up.

Why the subtle exclusion of these bikes here, the put downs in bike shops? I’d hate to think it, but could it be economic?

As David Hembrow explained in Talking to David Hembrow, such bikes need little maintenance, last for 20 years and never go out of fashion.

They do have lots of accessories but these generally come with the bike in Europe, the lights, the rack, the chain guard, etc.

What the sit-ups don’t don’t need is special clothes. There is no need to Gear up Girl l with one of these.

In the film, Jill points to her padding, comfort built into her Lycra shorts. Well, why not have a comfy seat to begin with? Is that such a revolutionary idea?

As we readily admit in Bike it or Not, these bikes are slower. But is that a bad thing? Is it really good to rush around as if you were a car?

What about those slow moments all around the world, starting with leisurely meals in the Italian style?

There is a slow bike movement too, and it needs consideration here as we spin ourselves into early stress based graves.

By the way, thanks to Peninsula Pedallers for proposing that mine are the best bike advocacy films in Australia.

That’s encouraging, folks

EBWT in TV3 NZ (interview) from Electric Bicycle World Tour on Vimeo.

Guim will be looking for press coverage both in Brisbane, and as he rides down our coast towards Sydney.

In Brissie, I’ve put him in touch with another doctor friend who rides an E bike, Paul Martin, in the hopes he’ll be able to help Guim.

As he gets down our way, I hope to be able to ride with Guim for a bit and do that filming.

Meanwhile, some other exciting things have been happening. I’ve been very pleased with the response to the film I made about Melbourne councillor, Jackie Fristacky.

Using that as a calling card, I have been approaching councils in the Sydney area, hoping to find one which would be a good film subject.

It seems like I may have found one that will be more than just a movie topic.

I don’t want to say which council it is just yet, but I’ve pitched to the Deputy Mayor of this particular council the idea of a new sort of campaign for utility cycling in his area.

I put it this way. The normal planning emphasis these days is on infrastructure, building more bike ways of various sorts , plus bike parking etc. All well and good.

But really, all of this has little point unless people do fervently want to ride bikes as transport.

If few do, it’s like you are building a sporting venue for a game few want to actually play.

So, at the same time as you plan those bike-ways, let’s create an image of utility cycling which is really friendly, inviting and fashionable,

FIF for short.

That we do by running a campaign for a different way to ride , dramatically different to the speeding cyclist in Lycra on his carbon fibre machine, which is such a common sight on two wheels these days.

The Tony Abbott look you could call it.

Let’s mount a campaign for the sit-up bike, the Amsterdam style bike, knowing that it’s a posture which is far more comfortable, and which flies a flag for a new way ride.

It’s an image which says, forget the speed, the special gear, you don’t need them. Just hop on a bike like this and go, go to the shops to work to visit someone, whatever!

Each such rider we get going, will attract others. So, our slogan will be, Come ride with me

I loved this clever promotion the Hungarians have done for such cycling.

It’s clever though the hero bike (that a movie term of the key prop) is not a sit up. As with so much that’s great, I found this on Copenhagenize.com.

Why do I like this ckip winning people to cycling is very much about status, cycling seeming cool.

At the moment sports cycling is super cool for a certain group whilst leaving most of us, cold

Now, I know that’s not fair which is why I need to hurry up and cut the material I’ve shot with Gill Charlton. She proves it’s not, either-or.

In the weekends, Gill dons her Lycra and gets on her carbon fibre bike, loving the speed.

Weekdays, she’s on a sit up bike and to see her riding by, you’d never know it was the same person.

Here’s Gill at speed

and with her weekday bike behind her.

To see her on the latter, you’ll have to wait for the movie, Gill changes Stripes . I’ll call it.

So to finish up, not only am I suggesting to this council a campaign based on a type of bike, but also that the emphasis be put, not so much on commuting, but on neighborhood riding.

The area I’m looking at is quite flat, and has many small shopping centres, both of which make perfect for local bike use.

If we can boost the idea of getting around locally on one of these comfy bikes, it might be a bit of a breakthrough.

This is friend Bruce Moir, seen here with me on a recent ride around Sydney.

Bruce drives a new VW , a very sophisticated little car which tells him the amount of diesel he’s using at any given moment.

Knowing the great mileage the car gets on trips, Bruce was horrified to find that on local drives to the shops, this fuel economy was cut by half.