| Can we leave our cars at home? |
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| Blog - Smart Blogging |
| Written by Bridget O'Sullivan |
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Why is it that whilst approximately 70% of school children rode their bikes to school in 1976 only 2.5% of school children in Ballarat do today! And why, when most of the urban population in Ballarat live within a 5 minute walk of a bus stop, about 87% of trips made in Ballarat are in a car and only around 8 to 10% on public transport. And why, when approximately 95% of the population in Ballarat live within 5km of their workplace do only ~400 people leave the car at home and take the bike! Why is this so? Is it safety concerns, distance, time constraints, convenience that keeps us in our cars or is it something else? Digesting these statistics on the way to work today I was interested to have this blog post by Transport Planner Rachel Smith arrive in my inbox about why women don't ride bikes. Her investigation into cities in the world like Copenhagen, where cycling is an integral part of life for not only women but the whole community (in a city of 521,000 people there are 560,000 bikes!) revealed that a dedicated, separate network of bike lanes was the key to getting more people riding. So what about here in Ballarat? What would pursuade you to leave the car keys at home and cycle, walk or take public transport to work, school or play? |
| Last Updated on Thursday, 07 April 2011 01:36 |
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