Bicycle Network: Where to Ride
5 What you want
From time to time information on feedback from members, issues of timely interest, and other news about what people want from bikes on V/Line will be published here.
We asked, you told
12 May 2010. Bicycle Network Victoria members responded enthusiastically to the call for feedback about bikes on V/Line and regional public transport services, with over 1,091 responses to a recent survey that will help inform the Victorian Department of Transport about the issues at the top of bike riders minds.
Some interesting results:
- Less than one percent of respondents indicated that they use V/Line coach services with their bikes, possibly reflecting the low proportion of riders that have folding bikes (the only bikes currently allowed on coaches)
- 96 percent of respondents indicated that bringing their bike on the train is a necessity because it is needed at the other end of their trip.
- Of those respondents who have not used their bike in conjunction with regional public transport in the past two years, 96 percent would consider doing so in the future if it was made easier.
- 87 percent of respondents said they would travel to parts of Victoria by coach to places they don't currently visit if bikes were allowed on V/Line coach services
- Over 58 percent of respondents told us that they don't have a seasonal preference for when they are likely to travel, suggesting that improvements to the system would find regular usage throughout the year.
For a full summary of results, click here.
The Department of Transport is undertaking a review of bikes on regional public transport. Your answers to this survey will inform that process.
In the short-term, Bicycle Network Victoria would like to see practical, implementable solutions to the capacity and policy problems that currently make it difficult and frustrating for riders to bring their bikes on trains and coaches (though bikes are currently not allowed on any coach service).
In the long-term, planning to include and integrate bikes into the public transit system, though better design of future trains and coaches and making policies clearer and more user-friendly, will be major goals.
Click here to read Bicycle Network Victoria's campaign statement