(from the Independent Weekly via AAP)

Eugene McGee outside court earlier in 2008.

A high-profile Adelaide lawyer and his brother have lost a bid to have conspiracy charges against them set aside.

The South Australian Court of Criminal Appeal today unanimously rejected a bid by lawyer Eugene McGee and his brother Craig for a permanent stay of proceedings.

Charged with conspiracy to attempt to pervert the course of justice, the brothers had gone to the court arguing that the charge did not exist under South Australian law.

However, the court ruled the offence was properly constituted.
“The essence of the offence is the doing of an act which has a tendency and is intended to pervert the administration of justice,” Chief Justice John Doyle said in his reasons.

“Accordingly, there can be a conspiracy to commit such an offence.”

It has been alleged the McGee brothers obstructed a police investigation into Eugene McGee’s involvement in a hit-and-run crash in 2003 which killed cyclist Ian Humphrey.

A former police prosecutor, Eugene McGee was previously found guilty of driving without due care on the night he hit and killed Mr Humphrey and fled the scene.

He was fined $3100 and disqualified from driving for 12 months.
The lawyer and his brother were charged with conspiracy to attempt to pervert the course of justice following a subsequent royal commission into the police investigation of the crash.

They now face a District Court trial on the charges, probably some time in 2009.

(from )
CANDICE KELLER

THESE women are working tirelessly to prove that cycling is a sport for all people.

Bike-riding is a part of everyday life for Mary Safe, Carlee Taylor and Juliet Haslam - but in very different capacities.

Juliet Haslam

Haslam, a dual Olympic gold medallist for hockey, rides to school with her two sons Jed, 5, and Mitchell, 3, most days. Taylor is a budding professional cyclist who is taking the road-racing and time-trial worlds by storm.

Mary Safe

Safe and her husband Denis are championing road safety for cyclists in memory of their daughter, Amy Gillett, a former professional cyclist who was tragically killed in a road accident.

Yet while their motivation is different, all three ladies have embraced cycling together in memory of Gillett for the inaugural Amy’s Ride.

This Sunday, about 1500 amateur riders are expected to take to the Southern Expressway in support of the Amy Gillett Foundation. It will be the first time since opening that the Expressway has been closed to car traffic.

Entrants can choose between 25km, 30km, 60km and 100km-courses from Adelaide to McLaren Vale, with all distances starting at 10am.

So far, 1200 people have registered for the event.

Safe said she was excited by the interest in the ride and looked forward to lining up for the 60km discipline. “It’s great that people are willing to get out there and see how great bike-riding can be,” she said.

“Even people who aren’t cyclists have taken an interest in the event. They’re curious about being able to ride up the Expressway.”

In addition to raising money for the Foundation, the ride has been organised in an effort to raise road safety awareness among cyclists and drivers.

It was a road accident during a training camp in Germany that caused Gillett’s untimely death in July 2005.

Carlee Taylor

Taylor, who won the Amy Gillett Foundation scholarship in 2008, said it was a great opportunity for road-users to learn more about each other.

“If we could make sure that riding is safe on the roads, I’d hope there’d be more people out there on their bikes,” Taylor said.

“This kind of event encourages people to try cycling.

“Once they’ve been a cyclist, they’ll understand what we have to negotiate on the roads.”

Haslam agreed it was a great cause to be a part of. “Amy was a wonderful person and athlete. I’m just excited to get on my bike in support of the Foundation,” she said.

(from )
GRAHAM CORNES

WE ARE blessed. We live in the best city in the world. And it should become a cyclist’s heaven.

Of course that’s a biased view, but with all things considered, there’s nowhere else that beats Adelaide.

More particularly, we live in a city that should be a cyclist’s heaven.

Mainly flat roads, mild weather, and one of the world’s best-planned cities, are all conducive to enjoyable cycling.

Unfortunately, we are wasting an opportunity to make Adelaide, the world’s best cycling city.

The rewards are enormous, the benefits too numerous to list in entirety.

However, here are a few: health, fitness, sport, recreation, low-cost transport, pollution-free commuting and an escape from the frustration of gridlocked traffic.

But our transport bureaucrats continually seem to ignore cyclists in their planning.

For years now, Adelaide’s cyclists have demanded better facilities, more consideration and investment in cycling infrastructure.

Our demands are not excessive and certainly not expensive.

All we want is dedicated cycling lanes on which we can travel safely and efficiently. The calls continually fall on deaf ears.

While we may have lines painted on the our arterial roads and designate them as bike lanes, they are a farce.

The typical bike line in Adelaide is one of life’s great mysteries.

It starts from nowhere, emerging mysteriously from the bitumen and then ends nowhere, when somewhere down the road the line disappears back into the bitumen.

It endangers cyclists’ lives rather than protects them, and thrusts the cyclists back into proximity of, and conflict with, the motorist, who, more often than not, doesn’t even see them.

Even the dedicated bike tracks that we do have, such as those along the linear parks and Tapleys Hill Rd are flawed. Invariably, they are poorly maintained and have to be shared with pedestrians, which make them similarly dangerous – to both rider and walker.

It’s not rocket science and, as far as transport infrastructure goes, it’s not even expensive. We don’t even have to be innovative or inventive, because there are great models all over the world where big cities have made maximum use of transport by push-bike.

Amsterdam and Beijing spring readily to mind.

We have much in common with Amsterdam in terms of topography and demographics, but it is from Beijing that we can learn the biggest lessons.

It is a massive city, bursting with over-population, cars, buses and trucks.

It seems impossible to make any sense of the chaos that is their traffic system.

However, despite this obvious chaos, there is surprising order to the tangle of cars, trucks, pedestrians and bikes.

One of the key factors is the allocation of extremely wide, and safe, bike lanes that can also be used by mopeds and low-powered motorcycles.

It’s amazing what you can carry on a motorbike or a push-bike!

We need better bicycle transport systems, but there is one proviso – Adelaide’s cyclists have to learn to obey even the most basic of traffic rules.

Some of us are a disgrace in the way we deliberately ignore the laws. It’s a fair trade – give us some safe, dedicated, efficient bike lanes and we’ll stop putting our lives, and the lives of others, in jeopardy.

(from )
MATT WILLIAMS, CITY EDITOR

ADELAIDE’S bike lanes and cycling infrastructure need more money to improve safety and help remove cars from the road, the state’s peak riding group says.

Bicycle SA general manager Christian Haag said the city’s bike lanes often ended dangerously.

This was threatening the safety of riders.

He pointed to a national study which found Adelaide was the third most congested city in Australia behind Sydney and Melbourne.

“There are lots of bike lanes which end at certain roads and converge directly into motor vehicle lanes and this is compounding the risk of injury,” he said.

“It is these linkages which we are advocating for the governments to spend more money within their budgets.”

Mr Haag said “more and more” people were riding bicycles to save fuel and be active.

That was highlighted by a 30 per cent increase in participation at last week’s National Ride to Work Day.

“Research shows that when infrastructure improves, the safety of riders increases,” Mr Haag said.

Limiting parking on arterial roads could help improve the flow of bike lanes across the city, he said.

“We need to keep thinking of ways how we can provide more space on our roadways for cyclists,” Mr Haag said.

“Parking on roads removes the use of cycling infrastructure and it needs to be considered at what times of the day does this become prohibitive.”

Mr Haag said the State Government should look at the multi-million dollar investment made in cycling infrastructure in Brisbane and Perth.

“It’s working really well in those places,” he said.

“It creates a safer, cleaner and healthier community.”

Adelaide City Council in August approved a $3 million plan to make it easier for people to ride their bikes safely in the city and through the surrounding parklands.

Key features of the plan include a primary “on-road” bike lane network and the completion of the Parklands Trail - a cycling and walking circuit in the city centre.

The plan would see more secure bike parks and lockers installed in council U-Park car parks and provide more free bike racks in the city.

 

Editorial: Time for bike lane funding

CYCLING in Adelaide can be a risky business.
The haphazard network of bike lanes makes commuting by cycle difficult.

Rather than encouraging an environmentally friendly and healthy practice, Adelaide’s bike lane network frustrates and often imperils cyclists.

There has been plenty of talk, over the years, about turning Adelaide into a cycling city.

The Federal Government is about to pour money into infrastructure across the country to stimulate the economy.

A prime candidate for a slice of this funding is Adelaide’s bike lane network.

Call for more bike lanes: The scene at last year's Ride to Work Day in Melbourne (ABC: Timothy Marshall)

The cycling industry says the Federal Government will save money in the long term if it invests $800 million now in bicycle infrastructure.

The Cycling Promotion Fund has submitted a proposal to Infrastructure Australia, asking the Government to fund the construction of physically separated bike lanes and major cycleways in capital cities.

Spokesman Elliot Fishman says the Government should see the proposal as an investment for the future.

“It’s cheaper to invest in it than not invest in it because the benefits that you get in term of obesity and diabetes, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and traffic congestion and also costly petrol, it actually pays for itself by a factor of three to one,” he said.

“So it’s cheaper to do it than not to do it.”

The submission proposes projects including $30 million cycle-way between North Sydney and the CBD, and a bicycle bridge over the Brisbane River.

Mr Fishman says the plan would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging more people to leave their cars at home.

“We took a look at some of the international evidence about how cities had developed a strong bicycle culture and one of the key things they’ve done is develop on-road bicycle lanes that are physically separated from the rest of the traffic so that cyclists don’t have to contend with much larger and faster moving vehicles,” he said.

“And that’s something that helps more people make the decision to get out there on their bike.”

Today is National Ride to Work Day, designed to promote bicycle commuting.

ANTIMO IANNELLA
August 25, 2008

ADELAIDE will become a bike-friendly city as part of a $3 million, three-year plan approved by Adelaide City Council last night.

The Draft Bicycle Action Plan 2008-2011 includes a range of initiatives designed to make it easier for people to ride their bikes safely around the city and through the parklands.

Key features of the plan include a primary “on-road” bike lane network and the completion of the Park Lands Trail - a cycling and walking circuit around the CBD.

The plan, which will be implemented sometime this year, will also see more secure bike parks and lockers installed in council U-Park car parks, and provide more free bike racks around the city.

Lord Mayor Michael Harbison said the draft action plan would encourage more people to ride their bikes and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“Providing greater opportunities for cycling through the creation of more bike lanes and the provision of cycling infrastructure means more people will choose to ride their bike to work or study in the city,” he said.

The successful Free City Bikes scheme will also be expanded to more locations around the city under the plan.

The following is an official Government press release not yet available online. You heard it here first.

The State Government will design a bicycle overpass for the northern side of the Glenelg Tramway Overpass project following comprehensive community consultation.

Transport Minister Patrick Conlon and Road Safety Minister Carmel Zollo said the Department of Transport, Energy and Infrastructure had been working hard in recent months on complex infrastructure issues associated with the project.

“The Department has had many difficulties in finding a way to ensure continuity of tram services during construction while minimising the impact on the local area,” Mr Conlon said.

“We now believe we have come up with a scheme that - pending council approvals and further engineering work – will deliver an overpass for cyclists.”

Mr Conlon said the Government intended to build the bicycle facility immediately after trams begin using the main overpass.

Until then, trams will operate on two temporary tracks located along Norman and Glengyle Terraces, immediately adjacent to the north of the current tram corridor.

“Once the tram overpass construction is complete, it will enable a totally separate bicycle overpass to be built over this northern alignment,” he said.

Pedestrians will be able to safely cross South Road using the lifts and stairs provided on the tram overpass structure.

Pending Public Works approval next month, the State Government will engage a contractor to finalise the extra costs associated with the cycle overpass on top of the existing $28m South Road project.

Mrs Zollo said the pathway forms part of the State Government’s commitment to improving safety and convenience for cyclists.

“The City to Glenelg Tramway Cycling Route (Tramway Park) is a work in progress and I am delighted to be able to announce this latest addition to the project,” she said.

“As part of an extensive community consultation process with regard to the tram overpass we asked a range of interest groups if a cycling overpass was on their agenda.

The $8 million Tramway Park has the long-term vision of a formal ‘green’ park along the 10-kilometre tram corridor between South Terrace and Brighton Road.

The park will incorporate an off-road recreation path for walking and cycling along the length of the corridor, similar to the Coast Park that is being developed along Adelaide’s foreshore.

On June 18, Greens MLC Mark Parnell moved the following motion, which will go to a vote on July 23. Please write to your local member and your favourite MLC to urge them to support it. Otherwise we may lose one of Adelaide’s most popular and scenic cycling routes!

On the 18th of June, Mark moved and spoke to his motion calling on the State Government to ensure that the proposed tram overpass across South Road at Black Forest includes a shared use path for cyclists and pedestrians along the elevated platform tram corridor.

The Hon. M. PARNELL: I move:

That the Legislative Council notes —

1. The following actions under objective 2 of the State Cycling Strategy (entitled Safety in Numbers) —

(a) include in all new urban road projects or road upgrades safe, direct and attractive cycling facilities that are planned, designed, constructed and maintained in accordance with ‘Austroads, Guide to Traffic Engineering Part 14—Bicycles’; and

(b) extend and improve cycling routes along dedicated public transport corridors (e.g. Glenelg Tramway and the Willunga-Marino Rail Corridor);

2. State government investment of over $500,000 so far on creating an uninterrupted cycle pathway between Glenelg and the city as part of the City of Glenelg tramway cycling route project;

3. Strong support for a shared use pathway for pedestrians and cyclists across South Road as part of the public consultation on the South Road Upgrade Glenelg Tram Overpass project;

4. The need for major transport infrastructure in response to declining fuel supplies and the need to reduce greenhouse pollution, to include appropriate facilities for cyclists and pedestrians;

5. Poorer public health outcomes in the western suburbs of Adelaide, emphasising the importance of providing active transport opportunities; and

6. The negative impact on traffic flow along South Road if an on-demand street level crossing is provided to cyclists and pedestrians to enable safe passage across South Road;

and calls on the State Government to ensure that the proposed tram overpass across South Road at Black Forest includes a shared use path for cyclists and pedestrians along the elevated platform tram corridor.

This motion calls on the State Government to ensure that the proposed tram overpass across South Road includes a shared-use path for cyclists and pedestrians along the elevated platform tram corridor. This is a subject on which I asked a question in parliament recently and also a subject on which I attended a public meeting at the Unley Town Hall last evening. At that meeting, there were more than 100 people, mostly cyclists, who were very concerned about the possibility that the tram overpass across South Road will not provide adequately for cyclists and pedestrians.

Most members would be aware that the government is spending a lot of money on South Road. Members would be familiar with the Anzac Highway/South Road overpass/underpass arrangement. Another part of the South Road project is for the Glenelg tram to be put on an overpass to enable the removal of the level crossing. Apparently, some 150 trams cross South Road per day, and each of those trams disrupts the flow of traffic along South Road. That is the main purpose of the project.

In many ways, the motion I have before the council is similar to the one I moved (and this council passed) over a year ago in relation to the Bakewell Bridge (an underpass in that case). That motion, members might recall, called on the government to put in decent off-road cycle and pedestrian facilities on both sides of the underpass. As it has turned out, the government did not heed the wisdom of the Legislative Council and the underpass was constructed with a footpath on just one side. That infrastructure will be with us for a long time and, as petrol prices go up and more people want to walk and ride to combat climate change and to combat peak oil, that structure is very much a sub-optimal facility.

When it comes to the tram crossing over South Road, this is likely to be even worse than Bakewell. At least with the Bakewell underpass we have a facility on one side. The fear is that with the tram crossing we will have no facility at all.

On 24 October, in a press release announcing funding for cyclist and pedestrian crossings for the City to Glenelg Tramway Cycling Project, the Minister said:

This shared pathway, on land that was previously inaccessible, is proving to be extremely popular with commuting cyclists and walkers,’ says the minister. ‘It’s part of our commitment to improving the safety and convenience of alternate forms of commuting. The new shared use path is part of ongoing efforts to provide a safe and convenient route for cyclists from Glenelg to the City.

The 10-kilometre tramway cycling route is a combination of shared paths and nominated suburban streets, and it is shown on the state government’s BikeDirect website. If you go to that website, it clearly shows the tramway cycling route travels along the tramway. It intersects with South Road and travels into Black Forest and then into the city. Most days, I ride along that part of the tramway bike path which is in Goodwood and which is part of my route into town.

The issue here is how cyclists and pedestrians using that path will cross South Road. When the government was undertaking its community consultation (a process that I understand is ongoing), the issue of safe and easy access across South Road was one of the key design principles that was identified by the government team as well as by people who made submissions. In fact, the number one principle listed in the December 2007 community update newsletter promoting the project is to ‘provide all pedestrians, public transport users, cyclists and motorists with safe, enjoyable and easy access across South Road’.

Key actions, under another government document (the State Cycling Strategy, entitled ‘Safety in Numbers’), include the following:

1. include in all new urban road projects or road upgrades safe, direct and attractive cycling facilities that are planned, designed, constructed and maintained in accordance with Austroads, Guide to Traffic Engineering Part 14—Bicycles; and

2. extend and improve cycling routes along dedicated public transport corridors (e.g. Glenelg Tramway and the Willunga-Marino Rail Corridor);

That is why I have included those two principles in the motion and that we should note those principles.

We also need to look at this project in the context of the western suburbs. The western suburbs, largely through this South Road project, are bearing the brunt of increased traffic and, in particular, freight traffic. In many ways, it is a part of Adelaide which is more poorly serviced and which has less access to many services. Health statistics show that there are poorer health outcomes (in particular, heart and lung disease) in the western suburbs than in other parts of Adelaide.

We also need to note that there is a strong demand for cycling. The census data on cycling to work shows that a considerable number of people cycle; notwithstanding the fact that census day is always mid-winter, it is often raining and that it is only every five years. Nevertheless, cycling to work has increased by about 17 per cent between the last two census dates of 2001 and 2006. During the same time, the increase in cycling in Adelaide was 28 per cent, and the average of people cycling to work was 1.6 per cent. In Adelaide, above average increases in walking to work were also recorded at 22 per cent.

Cycling and walking are things people want to do, so we have to make sure that the facilities are adequate for people to do them. I could quote other figures, but I will not go into a lot of detail. Bicycles outsell cars every year and have done so for the past eight years yet, when the government is planning a major piece of infrastructure, it very often neglects to provide for cyclists. It seems to me quite bizarre that, in an era of climate change and our facing the challenges of peak oil, we are not doing everything we possibly can to provide for cyclists.

The alternative to providing for cyclists on the proposed new overpass across South Road alongside the tramline is a push-button crossing on South Road. You only have to think about it for a minute to realise that it would entirely defeat the purpose of sending the trams across South Road to enable South Road to flow freely. If you have a push-button light, you will stop the traffic on South Road every time a cyclist or a pedestrian wants to cross.

My theory is that, even though the Government is saying that that is a fallback position, it will not happen. My prediction is: there will not be a cyclist or a pedestrian crossing at grade on South Road. Bikes needs to go over the top, and the alternative is a Glenelg to city cycle corridor with an effective brick wall in the middle, because South Road is not an easy road to cross.

In fact, last night a representative from the Department of Transport pointed out that only 50 cyclists a day cross South Road in the vicinity of the tram crossing. Why only 50? Because it is so hard to do. There is no light, and it is not easy to do. It is like asking how many pedestrians try to cross North Terrace in a very busy spot where there is no median or where it is not easy to do: the numbers would be fairly low.

We are told that consultation is still occurring, but it seems to me that the Government is fairly locked into building this structure without the shared pathway. I am encouraged by the noises that say it is not finalised, and I have been doing whatever I can to urge the cycling and pedestrian community to agitate to ensure that we get a proper crossing here.

The Government points out that there are difficulties in providing the continuous running of trams during the construction of the overpass and, at the same time, build these facilities. However, at the end of the day, those difficulties can be overcome. We know that there is sufficient land within the corridor, which is 20 metres wide. Four metres are needed for each of the two tram tracks (eight metres); there will be a platform on the overpass in the middle of South Road (seven metres); and five metres are left. There is no doubt that there is sufficient room if the Government has the will to build this facility.

I have collected a number of brochures that illustrate the facility I am talking about, and I will provide them separately to members. They will see that the first artist’s impressions all include a cycle path; the later impressions do not. So, with those words, I urge all honourable members to support this motion. It makes absolute sense to insist that a piece of infrastructure that will last for half a century or more include adequate facilities for cyclists and pedestrians.

 

(from )

ALL across the globe, forward-thinking city planners and prescient civic leaders are seeing the light.

Prompted by a growing public clamour for radical reform and the irresistible conviction that existing commuting habits are unsustainable, they have embarked on the bold mission of creating modern cycling cities.

There are a number of key drivers behind this sea change in thinking. Apart from spiralling fuel prices and crippling traffic congestion, communities are becoming increasingly aware of environmental challenges, including global warming. Added to this mix are lifestyle and healthy living issues.

Once the need for change has been understood and embraced, cities can be transformed into bike-friendly environments fairly quickly.

Even a metropolis such as London has experienced a doubling of cyclists in recent years following the decision to spend more than $100 million annually to encourage cycling. This week, the British Department of Transport unveiled a blueprint to spend more than $200 million to help transform 12 English towns into modern cycling cities.

Plans include easy-to-access and affordable on-street bike rentals, free bikes for deprived communities, state-of-the art showers and lockers in the city centre, secure bike parking at schools and businesses, lower vehicle speed limits and congestion charges and dedicated commuter cycleways along all major arterial routes linking the suburbs and city centres.

A city such as Amsterdam, which pioneered efforts to make cycling popular and safe, now has up to half the residents on their bikes. And the city plans to invest another $100 million to improve its network further. In neighbouring Groningen, ruinous traffic congestion led city planners to dig up the city-centre motorways. Now three in every five residents travel by bicycle.

The headlong transformation to two wheels can be found in cities as varied as Paris (soon to be dubbed “the city of bicycles”), Havana (which now has much lower obesity and diabetes rates) and Bogota (where efforts to make cycleways safe for even eight-year-olds has seen a 50-fold increase in usage).

For good reason, Adelaide is recognised for its impressive array of recreational cycling routes and is an integral part of the professional Tour Down Under. We also boast impressive stretches of bike lanes approaching the city centre from most compass points.

But at some point many of these bike lanes simply disappear, forcing hapless cyclists into a free-for-all bottleneck with buses, cars, trams and trucks.

The lack of a comprehensive network of dedicated cycleways – especially for commuters – has led critics to label the city’s bike infrastructure as “a haphazard joke” and “generally quite dangerous”. In an area blessed with an ideal geography and climate for cycling, it is shocking that per capita spending on bicycle infrastructure in SA is half that of WA and a quarter that of NSW.

The time for bold decision-making is upon us. Cyclists should not be an ad hoc afterthought in city planning decisions.

Convert the CBD into one-way thoroughfares with generous provision for dedicated bicycle lanes at the heart of a revitalised city.

Responsibility for all editorial comment is taken by The Editor, Melvin Mansell, 31 Waymouth St, Adelaide, SA 5000.

Adelaide’s central business district should be made a petrol-free zone by 2012 to prepare for the end of affordable oil, the Australian Democrats say.

South Australian Democrat MP Sandra Kanck said the initiative would slash pollution and congestion and turn Adelaide into a clean walking and cycling city.

She said it would involve an increase in public transport, the provision of showers and other facilities for cyclists and incentives for people to buy alternative-fuel vehicles.

Over time, city car parks should be replaced by apartments.

“If we start preparing now for the end of cheap oil we will be able to cope. If we don’t, it will be a disaster,” Ms Kanck said.

“We are eventually going to be forced to make the CBD a petrol-free zone, but with a bit of imagination and planning we can turn this adversity into an opportunity for urban renewal.”

AAP