Cycling rings for the city

BY MICK ROBERTS

Hundreds of bicycle rings will be placed around the city to encourage people to ride to work, to the shops or to their favourite cafe.
City of Sydney CEO Monica Barone said 500 rings will encourage greater bicycle use which was especially important to help in the fight against global warming.
‘In major cities around the world, cycling is gaining in popularity as a healthy and environmentally-friendly transport option,’ she said.
‘The city is working to ensure that Sydney has similar cycling infrastructure in place.’ The bike parking ‘O’ rings provide additional parking opportunities for cyclists while reducing street clutter, she said, and attach neatly and securely to an existing pole, rather than being new street furniture, which tends to block the footpath.’
The city has commissioned Street Furniture Australia to manufacture the bike parking rings which are galvanised steel and can be retrofitted to standard traffic regulation poles.
In April 2007 the City of Sydney adopted the 2007-2017 “action plan”. The strategy’s aim is to increase cycling by 500 per cent in the city, by providing the infrastructure to make cycling a more safe and attractive choice.
The cycle strategy aims to increase the bike network to almost 200 kilometres. This includes 55 kilometres of separated cycle lanes and approximately 145 kilometres of cycleways, dedicated cycle lanes and shared zones.
There are already over 400 bike parking facilities attached to smart poles across the CBD.