[bikeqld] CanDo and Altone Do It for Brisbane Cycling

Thu Mar 19 20:54:18 CDT 2009

Interesting discussion ...thanks Pete and Kim ...!

What was of some interest in the CPF "ACHIEVEMENT" Awards is the 
differences in types of projects/people nominated and/or awarded in 
the various categories.

One issue is whether a single project eg the KGS facility is really 
the measure to judge such an award ... This is also a reason why both 
the nominators and the judges/assessors should be made explicit ... 
so the inevitable "biases" are at least out in the open and can help 
make more sense of the decisions.

Another issue (of particular concern to me and perhaps others) is the 
apparent scarcity and/or importance/significance of "on the road" 
projects that do what so long ago the Geelong Bike Plan set out to do 
... to make "every street (and road) a cycling street".

Not just one street or one bridge or a pretty good if too small bike 
parking station ... so should an achievement award recipient have 
"achieved" the outcomes as planned and sustained them?

These are "achievement" awards ... and like planning, surely 
achieving is being able to show a demonstrable outcome over time?

Otherwise achievements can include projects which are temporary eg 
like the "bike racks on buses" or the $26 + millions spent on 
providing the priority bus lanes on Coro Drive" and no doubt for 
some, their subsequent removal also ranks as an "achievement" worthy 
of an award ... but from the CPF ???

It seems to me that it is worth noting that "cycling promotion" 
presumably refers to promoting all forms and types of cycling, not just some.

I also found the lack of nominations from Queensland as compared to 
those in categories from other states in certain categories 
informative ... perhaps nobody bothered, or perhaps ..............?

We have to be very careful of "symbolic gestures" ... and weasel word 
policies ... the modern equivalents of and as effective as, Trojan horses ...!

In that category, it appears out our way that the LNP has forgotten 
about cycling ... can anyone provide me with evidence to the contrary 
preferably by way of scanned copiers of flyers rather than web site references?

One candidate out our way is campaigning south of the river for an 
"upgrade of the Walter Taylor Bridge".

Now in terms of weasel words, I wonder how many meanings are being 
attributed to what "upgrade" really means for a rather historic 
suspension bridge that currently acts as an excellent incentive to 
use modes other than the car ... modes which incidentally already 
have three VERY under-utilised bridges immediately adjacent to to the WTB?

And do you think the same campaign has been promoted to the north of 
the WTB ...??

It is just seems that awarding an achievement award to the Lord Mayor 
of a city which has for so long had so many areas without any 
connectivity and no public plans to change the situation and what 
appears to be a reduction in rolling out the "yellow BIKEs" and 
slower speed LATM and traffic calmed areas seems well ... a bit optimistic?

An encouragement award perhaps? Or like the school report ... "well 
done but CAN DO better" ???

MY...........................

At 10:46 AM 20/03/2009, kim wrote:

>Hi Pete,
>
>Yeah, you are right, it was a bit unfair of me to have a dig at the 
>CPF because Newman got an award for furthering the cause of cycling. 
>I apologise for that. I think I am just grumpy because I am 
>suffering from politician overload at the moment. With the election 
>coming up, there is just so much BS being tossed around. I am also 
>very unhappy with BCC over their handling of dozens of bicycle 
>issues I have raised in the past. There is little joy.
>
>I guess its not as much a slap in the face as John Howard's Man of 
>Steel and Peace award from George Bush.
>
>The positive thing, tho, is that there were plenty of good nominees 
>all doing real work to promote the cause of cycling and I know that 
>there are people within the BCC who are doing good work too.
>
>cheers
>
>kim
>
>
>Peter Whittle wrote:
>>
>>Kim
>>
>>Chris has kindly posted the nominations and it would be worth 
>>looking at these to see just what it was that CAN'T did for his 
>>award, who nominated him etc. I for one am highly sceptical about 
>>his epiphany as a bike lover.
>>
>>I thought you were a bit unfair extrapolating from supposition 
>>about that point, to take aim at CPF in general. I have glanced at 
>>their work in the past and can't cite it, but I don't think they 
>>are merely sycophants and instruments of business and consumerism 
>>with no value to the rest of us as you imply.
>>
>>Pete
>>
>>
>>>
>>>Message: 2
>>>Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:33:21 +1000
>>>From: kim <mailto:kim at teegee.com.au><kim at teegee.com.au>
>>>Subject: Re: [bikeqld] CanDo and Altone Do It for Brisbane Cycling
>>>To: BikeQld <mailto:bikeqld at bikeqld.org.au><bikeqld at bikeqld.org.au>
>>>Message-ID: 
>>><mailto:49BF1A01.2020304 at teegee.com.au><49BF1A01.2020304 at teegee.com.au>
>>>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
>>>
>>>The pats on the back might sound nice, but in reality the Cycling
>>>Promotion Fund is just a body representing business and trying to sell
>>>more product, it is not an 'on the ground' research body weighing and
>>>measuring the merits of bicycle infrastructure and Government spending,
>>>it probably wouldn't matter to them who got the awards. I am a little
>>>surprised that Newman's signing up a foreign company to fit out and run
>>>his bike hire scheme went down so well with local businesses. I think I
>>>would be more impressed by a 'people's vote' type of award. Perhaps we
>>>could take a vote among ourselves of just what and who is responsible
>>>for, the best/best value bicycle infrastructure around Brisbane of
>>>recent times. Perhaps a category too for the biggest lemon or white
>>>elephant project might be worthwhile to put things in perspective.
>>>k
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>--
>>>----------------------------------------
>>>Don't get involved in partial problems,
>>>but always take flight to where there is
>>>a free view over the whole single great
>>>problem, even if this view is still not
>>>a clear one - Ludwig Wittgenstein
>>>
>>><http://cfsmtb.net>http://cfsmtb.net
>>>http://www.woj.com.au
>>><http://www.ycat.org.au>http://www.ycat.org.au
>>>http://www.yarrabug.org/radio
>>><http://www.melbournecyclist.com>http://www.melbournecyclist.com
>>>----------------------------------------
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>_______________________________________________
>bikeqld mailing list
>bikeqld at bikeqld.org.au
>http://www.bikeqld.org.au/
>http://www.bikeqld.org.au/mailman/listinfo/bikeqld
>This list has NO affiliation with Bicycle Queensland.
>
>No virus found in this incoming message.
>Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
>Version: 8.0.238 / Virus Database: 270.11.20/2013 - Release Date: 
>03/19/09 19:03:00
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.bikeqld.org.au/pipermail/bikeqld/attachments/20090320/79bbd4ed/attachment-0001.htm