Bike Bus in Adelaide...?

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Permalink Reply by Angus Kingston on November 7, 2009 at 2:43pm

I guess anything is possible... it's mostly about safety in numbers... an accepted critical mass or bike pool even.

Radio National broadcast a doco on the bike bus a couple of years ago and you can hear it here.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/streetstories/stories/2008/2271152.htm

...actually while I was searching the RN site for the link I saw this as well about bikes racks on buses in Adelaide - not quite the same but I wonder how it's going?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/01/08/2461420.htm

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Permalink Reply by Sam Powrie on November 23, 2009 at 10:21pm

Hi Grace,
BISA has not 'ignored' the possibility of bike-buses in Adelaide. We haven't tried to 'run' them (and couldn't anyway) but I don't think that's the real challenge. I think the hard bit is figuring out how to encourage bike buses to form and then to support them. I am told that there are several small-scale 'bike buses' operating around the city - mainly involving commuters into the city-centre (eg; the RAH). They are (I believe) very informal arrangements composed of people in the one workplace (or adjacent workplaces). Most of the 'bike buses' I have read about interstate either operate like this OR have been organised by BUGs (such as the amazing MASSBug in Sydney) where many members live in a particular area and use the same route to get to work (such as the Heathcote Canal ATR or related routes for those living in Marrickville and Sth Sydney). I do note that in Sydney, as well as BUGs, bicycle users seem to have organised themselves into even more specific coalitions focusing on specific routes (eg; 'friends of the Iron Cove ATR' etc). With this sort of route-based coalition of interest, banding together to create a daily bike bus makes lots of sense and is probably relatively straightforward. I don't believe we yet have this level of coalition or organisation in Adelaide - maybe something to consider. I think it's perfectly possible to organise bike buses in Adelaide but it's probably a matter of hitching up with riders with a common interest and need (ie; a common route and travel time perhaps). Personally I don't think liability comes into it - liability has never been an issue when BISA has discussed how BB might be encouraged. The main issue has been more about actually getting people together and creating and then supporting ongoing BB arrangements - as you would know, bicycle use is inherently anarchic and some sort of 'posting' of BB arrangements somewhere is probably going to be useful in maintaining interest and encouraging new riders to join. ! One thing I have considered is that such arrangements might be facilitated by social networking sites such as Adelaide Cyclists (perhaps also linked to those strange twittery things people do with mobile phones) to allow cyclists using the same route to meet up, agree on a route, set off, record problems, identify a contact person and riding arrangements etc, etc. I really think it's worth doing a bit of research on this as I agree with you - in many ways Adelaide is an ideal city for bike buses to operate in. Unfortunately wide arterial streets do not mean caring and considerate drivers and this is probably the main rationale in this city for a bike bus! One difficulty I would identify is this - in area, Adelaide is an enormous city - approximately half the size of Los Angeles, itself the fifth biggest city in the USA. Because it's so large work place destinations tend to be diverse. A minority of Adelaide's workers (for instance) work in the city centre, even though that's probably where a great many daily cycling trips are aimed. I think we need to look carefully at how BB might work specifically in Adelaide's transport environment and benefit Adelaide's bicycle users. What we end up with may not quite look like the BB arrangements elsewhere.
Sam Powrie.

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