{"id":4342,"date":"2014-05-29T15:39:37","date_gmt":"2014-05-29T15:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blogs\/who-should-lead-cycling-change-2\/"},"modified":"2017-07-25T10:20:59","modified_gmt":"2017-07-25T14:20:59","slug":"who-should-lead-cycling-change-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/who-should-lead-cycling-change-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Who should lead cycling change?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Image: Copyright 91影视 \/ Robb Williamson<\/em><\/p>\n

Last week Jamie Oliver launched his latest campaign: better, healthier and affordable fresh food for everyday Australians in a bid to tackle Australia\u2019s obesity epidemic. \u201cWe\u2019ve got more opportunities to affect change than any Government,\u201d said Jamie, and he\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

This guy reaches 300 million people on social media \u2013 that\u2019s about 1 in every 20 people on earth. We love Jamie. He\u2019s a bit like us. He went to a state school, grew up in a pub and his mum and dad are down-to\u2013earth, working-class folk.<\/p>\n

As I write this hundreds of people from across the globe have gathered in Adelaide \u2013 Australia\u2019s \u2018city of churches\u2019 \u2013 for the Velo City Global Conference<\/a>. Velo City, the world\u2019s premier cycling conference with high-profile speakers from every continent, celebrates what\u2019s great about bike riding and focuses on three key themes:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 how to design our cities to make it easy for people to choose cycling;<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 how to motivate people to ride a bicycle;<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 how to create cultural change.<\/p>\n

So to add to the debate, I\u2019m asking, \u201cshould private companies and celebrities like, for example, Jamie Oliver, create change in cycling?\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, I think they should.<\/p>\n

I say let\u2019s consider creating change in 3 very different ways.<\/p>\n

1. Let\u2019s focus on action<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Most cities in the world were bicycle friendly in the beginning” tweets @bicyclesa.<\/p>\n

The problem is, now they are not.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to stop taking baby steps to getting people on bikes\u201d tweets @wheelwomenride \u201cand get on with it!\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem is, in the western world, we fear failure.<\/p>\n

Imagine we understand one real problem affecting everyday people in one real city. Imagine we take the real problem \u2013 perhaps a lack of safe off-road bike paths to school \u2013 in one self-contained city in Australia that\u2019s somewhere like Rockhampton or Toowoomba. Then we put the best people with the best resources onto solving that problem. We could make one city really bicycle-friendly again.<\/p>\n

2. Let\u2019s identify new investment vehicles<\/strong><\/p>\n

The problem is “Less than 1\/2 of 1 percent of the South Australian transport budget goes to cycling…” tweets @MarkParnellMLC.<\/p>\n

The solution is that we need to put great-quality technical expertise into identifying new investment vehicles to leverage more money. Imagine we find partners who can provide capital or investors who provide seed capital. In London, Boris Johnson secured private investment to secure a cable car across the River Thames.<\/p>\n

3. Let\u2019s try a new design and delivery model<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cEverything we need to make cycle-friendly cities was invented 100 years ago\u201d tweets @FunOnTheUpfield.<\/p>\n

We have the solution; the problem is, we don\u2019t always have the best mechanism to deliver the solution.<\/p>\n

Imagine if a private-sector entity were to deliver a fully integrated solution. They would design, build, finance, operate and maintain the bikeways, the education, promotion and enforcement \u2013 yes they\u2019d operate the cycle proficiency training and they could even go out and book the car parked illegally on the bike path. If they succeeded and met their targets, they\u2019d get paid. If they didn\u2019t, they wouldn\u2019t. Many Councils in the UK privatised traffic enforcement many years ago.<\/p>\n

If we really want riding a bicycle to be a viable and normal way to travel then let\u2019s focus on action, identifying new money and using a new delivery model. Because like Jamie Oliver says, its people like him who really do have more opportunities to affect the change that we all want to see.<\/p>\n

Who are you looking to for guidance, hope and inspiration?<\/p>\n

What are people doing that\u2019s excellent?<\/p>\n

Where do these ideas fit in with what you are doing?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Rachel_Smith_89x100\"<\/a>Rachel Smith (rachel.smith@aecom.com) is an internationally-recognized\u00a0urban planner and commentator, and principal transport planner with 91影视\u2019s Brisbane office. Connect with her on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Twitter<\/a>, or follow her blog\u00a0here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image: Copyright 91影视 \/ Robb Williamson Last week Jamie Oliver launched his latest campaign: better, healthier and affordable fresh food for everyday Australians in a bid to tackle Australia\u2019s obesity epidemic. \u201cWe\u2019ve got more opportunities to affect change than any Government,\u201d said Jamie, and he\u2019s right. This guy reaches 300 million people on social media […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":4343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[255],"tags":[221,191,238],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-4342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-infrastructure","tag-adelaide","tag-connected-cities","tag-cycling"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4342"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}