YarraBUG

On this weeks program Chris talks to Adam Pulford about Lime and Neuron e-scooter rental schemes in Melbourne including them no longer available in Melbourne or Yarra, a disconnect between decision makers and end users creating kneejerk reactions, how consultation processes don't necessarily work for busy people, how e-scooters provide a vital last mile/km travel option, why aren't designated on-road parking bays an option to keep footpath areas decluttered, why modern cities should be embracing new travel ideas in a environmental and cost of living crisis, state government support for e-scooters, how to plan and design streets for everyone, problems with e-scooters trials means they can be easily lobbied against as part of the so called road culture wars and what steps people can take next.Local news, Brunswick Bike Shed holding earlier sales during CERES Harvest Festival this Saturday 29 March then offering free bike checks to festival attendees from 12pm to 3pm andCritical Mass Boroondara, 5.30pm, Friday 2

Faith and Val are joined in the studio by Will Hartnett of Cycling Wild and Off Course bike shop. Will talks about the years he has spent exploring the Flinders Ranges and other remote areas of Australia by bike and the knowledge he has gathered showing others around on foot and wheels. While he has often shared his experience on his website Cycling Wild, he now plans to go one step further and provide supported tours to the Flinnders Ranges and other areas of Australia.  Riders who want to explore moore adventurous regions can do so without having to manage the sometimes challenging logistics by themselves. You can find out more about his first tour coming up in September and future plans at Cycling Wild. 

On this weeks program Chris talks to Mark Donnellon from Streets People Love Hobart about how they created the group, what actions they've taken since December 2024, how the campaign grew from passionate debate about improving Collins Street, showing community support for active transport in nipuluna Hobart, being guided by their fun-loving mascot, Perci the Platypus, supporting Hobart City Councils Argyle and Campbell Street bicycle connections and getting people involved with a public meeting about the Collins Street improvement trial on Tuesday 25 March at 5.30pm at City Hall, 57-63 Macquarie Street.Local news includes the Victoria Parliament finally tabling the final report of the inquiry into vulnerable road users that was tabled in the Legislative Assembly last year, you can read the report here, especially Recommendation 31: 'The Department of Transport and Planning continue to promote the installation of protected bike lanes in inner and middle Melbourne'. Most of the recommendations are supported 'in

Val and faith take to the 3CR studio for another episode of the Yarra BUG Radios Show. 

On this weeks program Chris talks to Tim Smith, local industrial designer about his journey to developing FoldSmith folding bike hire and sales. Tim discusses the joy of growing up with bikes, becoming a cycle courier, running a bike cab business, his business ideals, raising the profile of folding bikes, FoldSmith folding bike rental options and future collaboration plans with Loop Cycles in Brunswick.News includes Don’t risk our safety in 2025 - tell Yarra Council not to remove safe cycling lanes petition update with public pressure gets results with a decision possibly deferred to April, Critical Mass Footscray with Snuff Puppets and all your new friends, 5.30pm, State Library, Friday 28 February, Merri-bek BUG having a stall at the Sydney Road Street Party on Sunday 2 March and Kingsville women lucky to be alive after being struck by a truck driver on Somerville Road (narrowed bike lanes, anyone?)National news includes Active Transport boost for Victoria announcement with $100m allocated to four year peri

Val and Faith are joined in the studio by Dr Lauren Pearson, Research Fellow & Equity Lead, Sustainable Mobility and Safety Research at Monash University. Lauren joined us on an earlier program to discuss the Petal Project and her report Unlocking young women’s access to bike-riding, relesed late last year. Lauren gives us a a quick recap of the project and its findings about the complexity of travel for young women. You can check out this episode to hear more. Today we loook at the second part of the program which was workshops and interviews with participants and the solutions and interventions particpants themselves came up with for many of the issues raised during the course of research. During the program we also discussed a specific discussion on Late Night Live which you can find here.  

On this weeks program Chris talks to Sarah Aubrey abour her electrification advocacy work via Electrify This plus practicial steps people can take with micro mobility & decarbonisation.Topics include modal mixing transport, well thought out transport systems, Sydney Cycleways, dealing with running interference from fossil fuel industry, the freedom of riding, drivers conditioned to expect parking everywhere, cars vs. bikes being a non-argument, How extreme car dependency is driving Americans to unhappiness, how ebikes are changing peoples expectations, parents using ecargobikes, the facts about lithium-ion batteries, technology reviews, urban design and the sheer fun of riding a ebike.Local news includes Bike Rave: Bike to the future on Saturday 15 February starting 2-3pm at the Noodle Markets, Belgium Avenue and Collingwood Neighbourhood Houses: Free bike check ups, 3.30pm-5.30pm, Mon 17 February at next Arts Richmond Collective Soirée next to 106 Elizabeth Street, Richmond playground, City of Melbourne: Que

Nic Dow and Val look back on Council elections 2024.

On this weeks show Chris and Steve talks about keeping your bike safe from theft as unfortunately Melbourne has seen a increase in peoples pride and joy being nicked due to combination of things like opportunistic theft, use of cordless power tools and organised activity.We discuss basic tips such as situational awareness, eg, where your bike is locked, using two bike locks, bike lock security levels, removing quick releases & components, observing that sheffield loops & steel poles are secure on the street, bike lock types, bike lock brands, bike lock reviews (these are literally endless) keeping your bike locked while at home, apartment storage units, household insurance, recording and registering your bike with a service like Bike Vault. Apologies we didn't have time to mention gps trackers in any detail and a whole bunch of extra tips.Local news includes South Crescent safety under threat - four things you can do to make a submission or public question at Darebin Council 28 January meeting, Critical Mass

   Val is joined by Nic Dow from Melbourne BUG to try to decipher the results of the last council elections.  We mainly focus on Yarra and Melbourne in this show with some of the other results to be covered in part 2 on the 3rd of February. Link to YarraBUG petition to council.https://www.yarrabug.org/2024/12/29/petition-dont-risk-our-safety-tell-the-council-not-to-remove-safe-cycling-lanes-in-yarra/

On this weeks program Chris catches up with Karen Hovenga to talk about local Yarra issues, including what the new council maybe planning for narrowing protected bikes lanes in Elizabeth Street, whatever the future holds for intersection treatments at Coppin Street in Richmond and direct quote from petition linked below: "continue to implement Yarra’s Transport Action Plan 2024-2034 including the New Deal for Schools, New Deal for Cycling, New Deal for Walking and other specified programs to meet the ambitious targets in Yarra's Transport Strategy 2022-32" Local news includes call-outs for assistance from Bite Sized Rides and Bike Rave Melbourne.Karen talks about how several generations of her family easily use the Elizabeth Street protected lanes, their connection to City of Melbourne's Albert Street protected lanes that creates a vital east-west route, being able to ride plenty of short trips to local destinations but decision-makers being unable to vote on equitable transport solutions for anything other t

Val and Faith are joined in the studio by Dr Lauren Pearson, Research Fellow & Equity Lead, Sustainable Mobility and Safety Research at Monash University. We share our bike moments before taking a look at some local news. Over the New Year the Road Safety Action Plan Phase 2 was released. Developed by Victoria's Road Safety Partners, the plan includes some subtle changes in language and otherwise that may prove significant for active transport in Melbourne and Victoria.  The Age has included in a recent story on Victoria's road toll over the past 15 years a handy infographic that can be filtered by suburb and shows the impact of t he road toll on different road users, pedestrians, cyclsists and others, over the last. fifteen years. Take a look at Victoria's Road toll by the numbers. Discussion turns to the Petal Project and the report Unlocking young women’s access to bike-riding relesed late last year. Lauren explains how the project came about, the complexity of travel for young women, of their choices with

We're enjoying a little break over Christmas / New Year so kick back with some sparkling summery cycling tunes.Sia, Riding on my bikeCamp Cope, How to socialise & make friendsHey Ocean!, BicycleWeddings Parties Anything, Under the clocksLive Fashion, Bicycle songAnecdata, Bike songMonkey, BicycleHalf Man Half Biscuit, See That My Bike's Kept CleanTanger, BIKESave the date: coming up at the end of the month is Critical Mass Yarra: Friday 31 January 2025Meet 5.30pm, Friday 31 January 2025, State Library, Swanston Street, naarm, Melbourne. Ride, scoot and skate through our traditional home grounds of Fitzroy, Collingwood & Richmond. Many thanks to Sam Wallman for adapting his Freedom Machine design. Like it? Buy it!Critical Mass Yarra: download & print posterObligatory facebook eventAdd your name to our petition: Don’t risk our safety in 2025 – tell Yarra Council not to remove safe cycling lanes!Read more: Yarra for safe streets

Faith and Val are joined in the studio by Julie Clutterbuck of Port Phillip BUG.We all share our bicycle moments before looking back at 2024 and bicycle advocacy in Melbourne, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. 

On this weeks program Chris talks to Matt Osbourne from Wondercross Cycling and WXSHOP co-working space with Project Flock, located in Eastment Street Northcote, about the much loved ride hub, it's rich social history and so much more.Local news includes Yarra Council 17 December meeting, especially Item 7.2: E-scooter Update which discusses geofencing options and possible negative implications for public e-bike and e-escooter trials in Yarra. Read more our new campaign at Yarra for safe streets: for over two decades Yarra has been one of Melbourne’s best areas to walk and ride.And keep an eye out for a couple of exciting announcements later this week on our socials!Program musicKing Stingray, Camp DogTycho, RestraintShonen Knife, Cycling is fun

Val and Faith share their bike moments before taking a look at some of the news and happenings coming up in Melbourne lately. The Streets People Love website has been updated with those candidates who engaged with the SPL community and were successfully elected identified by an orange border. In particular it is handy to know who in your local council has taken the Streets People Love pledge, and a great excuse to email your local councillors, introduce yourself and find out what plans they have to implement the actions described in the pledge locally. For those who live, work and ride in Yarra who are concerned about moves to get rid of or compromise bike infrastructure, take a look at the Yarra for Safer Streets site to see how you can get involved in protecting infrastructure for people on bikes. Coming up on Wednesday December 11th is the launch of a photo exhibition  ‘The Everyday Lives of Delivery Workers’ at 6pm. We also take a look at the PETAL Project report "Unlocking young women's access to bike-ri

On this weeks program, Chris catches up with Cubby aka CB Mako about their families journey through the last few difficult years with long covid, related health issues, disabilities, changes to NDIS funding, calling for the bicycle industry to address mobility issues with three-wheel e-bikes and crowdfunding the families transport needs for a Nihola Rehab ecargobike for their daughter Christa.Photo description - Christa (seated inside the cargobike) and her Sr Occupational Therapist standing beside the cargobike and peeking inside to checking on Christa. The OT wanted to test and measure various cargobikes at Dutch Cargo Bike headquarters in Moorabbin, VIC. Christa liked the Nihola e-cargobike very much.Local news includes Building a safe and liveable Coppin Street and last weeks Yarra Council meeting that has broad implications for local active transport, peoples trust in local politics and council governance issues.Tuesday 3rd December is International Day for People with Disabilities and 3CR has 12 hours o

Faith and Val are joined in the studio by Yarra resident Liz Honey. After sharing our bike moments we take a look at some news including; New York city's plans to impose a congestion tax is approved and a call out from the Climate Action Chronicles for anyone who loves cycling, scooting. or wheeling around Yarra to take part in filming December 3rd & 4th and showcase sustainable living and transport in Yarra. (Contact Nick Jackson nick@c31.org.au if you're keen), and an update on the Streets People Love website where you can now see elected candidates. Discussion turns to the first Council meeting of the new term and the omnibus motion on the agenda Tuesday November 26th at 6:30pm This motion contains thirty-six items of disparate nature, many of which seem to fail to undertand previous reports or council decisions. Besides the issues raised by the nature of an omnibus motion itself (many of which are covered at the Victorian Local Governance Association podcast) there are several items included which will co

On this weeks program Chris talks to Matt Katzen about his Strategic Cycling Corridor project, his cycling interests, planning, design, what are strategic cycling corridors, riding SCCs, principal bicycle network (PBN), potential easy wins, political will, fixing connections such as Flemington Bridge, treatments, modial filters, upgrades, Victorian Auditor-General’s Office: Developing Cycling as a Safe and Appealing Mode of Transport (2011), opening up opportunities for people to use the network, creating routes that are convenient, safe, direct and contacting local councillors and politicians to inform them of your concerns.News includes Gipps Street Elevated Ramp update, changes to social media, Critical Mass South, Friday 29 November 2024 and a potential heatwave at the end of this weekProgram musicAncedata, Bike SongKhruangbin, People EverywhereKing Stingray, Camp Dog 

Faith and Val reminisce about the forty years of the Great Victorian Bike Ride, its beginnings, the changes it has seen, the communities it has built and it's future in a different format.  In passing we also mention the upcoming WeRide Cycling Luminaries Awards, the O'Hea Bike Town project and Council election results.