BayBUG has seen a few changes this year, most notably four new Ride Leaders and a new president.
February 2017: four new Ride Leaders
In February this year, BayBUG riders Jason Boland, John Paul Bossi, Bronwyn McFadden and Neil McFadden became accredited Ride Leaders. Master Ride Leaders David and Rolf will support these new leaders and we look forward to new rides and themes being introduced.
Contact details for Committee & Ride Leaders: https://baybug.org.au/contact/committee-ride-leaders/
July 2017: Rolf passes over the Baton to Botton
Rolf Muller decided to step down from the role as BayBUG’s first president and Mike Botton agreed to take on the role. Mike Botton was elected president during July 2017.
Mike Botton wrote:
Dear BayBUG members,
Firstly I have to thank the BayBUG committee members for nominating and electing me as your new president. I am honoured to accept the role and to represent our members in advocating for safe cycling in our community and beyond, and in continuing my contribution to the promotion and organisation of weekly rides. In particular I wish to thank Rolf, our outgoing President, for his dedicated leadership and contribution since the inception of BayBUG. He has set the bar rather high and I hope I can be a worthy successor. Rolf continues to be active on the committee as our new treasurer and I look forward to working closely with him and other committee members in particular over the coming months, but also throughout my tenure.
July 2016 – July 2017: Make Cycling Better Seminars
David Martin wrote:
Is Sydney drowning in cars? The flood of traffic is making our beautiful city a dangerous and unpleasant place for pedestrians and bicycle users. A booming, but low density population has our state and local governments on an endless chase to get more and more motor vehicles on the roads – and to build more (very expensive) roads for motor vehicles.
Can we push back? How do we make our voices heard, to make sure that pedestrians and cyclists are not totally side-lined?
BayBUG representatives have attended a series of eleven sessions led by respected consultant Warren Salomon and sponsored by Bike North, called ‘Making Cycling Better’.
The seminar series was aimed at helping us learn how to engage with state and local government in an informed and constructive way to bring about improvements.
We learned about the many forms of shared pedestrian/bicycle paths and lanes and where to find the technical specifications that road authorities use to design them. We saw innovative approaches developed in cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam that provide smooth flowing traffic systems for cars as well as people on foot and on bikes.
We worked through problematic locations that have required creative solutions, such as intersections of shared paths with busy roads.
We learned of the multiple layers of urban planning, such as the Urban Growth Commission – with big plans for the Parramatta Road Corridor, the state government’s Transport Masterplan, the Active Transport strategy – which has minimal funding and the Sydney regional bike network plan – apparently not of interest to the current state government.
Most fundamentally, we learned how to observe, record and analyse specific locations and how to think about options and solutions that we can take to our state and local government officers. We know they’re overstretched trying to meet the aforesaid demand from our elected representatives (MPs and councillors) – and the public – to keep everybody moving. We can offer them carefully considered options and ideas to help them accommodate pedestrians and bike riders in their traffic and transport plans.
BayBUG has a team of people passionate about advocating on behalf of the community to keep our city livable, to make our streets safe and – yes, even! – attractive to walk and ride in.
BayBUG attendees: Geoff Ashton, David Martin, Rolf Muller, Paul Wijngaarden
Advocacy
We all love to keep fit riding and enjoy the cycling facilities that Sydney has to offer. But behind the scenes we have BayBUG members who actively try to improve cycling conditions by attending meetings and writing submissions.
Geoff Ashton with help from David Martin completed a number of submissions this year. You would have likely heard Geoff mention “Improving the east – west bicycle commuter route and access to Bay Run at Timbrell Drive”. Both Geoff and David put a lot of time into this submission, including the creation of a video. Paul Wijngaarden and Rolf Muller also provided feedback and input to some submissions.
You can view recent submissions on BayBUG’s Advocacy page.