London Vs. Sydney: The Battle for Bike Safety

We at Felix aren’t afraid to admit that while our city is spectacular, there’s always room for improvement. In our London vs. series, we’re going to take a look at what we do better and worse at in the city stakes, and see just where London can improve. This week, bike safety is taking centre stage.

Cycling Schemes and Road Safety

London’s Boris Bikes were by no means the first city cycles. Ken Livingstone nabbed the idea from others that paved the way, beginning with Copenhagen back in 1995. Since then, London’s bike share scheme has become one of the best, giving rise to a new generation of cyclists and cycle lanes.

There’s no doubt the capital has become greener and better for it, but despite all this progress, our cycle safety seems as bad as ever. We’ve spent millions on providing Londoners with a way to cycle the city, but barely anything on educating them how to do it well. Take a trip to the sunny down-under with us to look at Australia, where cycle safety is an intrinsic part of life.

It’s hard to pinpoint a specific city when it comes to comparisons. Melbourne and Brisbane are the only two with share schemes, but neither really took off. Why? Because of Australia’s mandatory helmet laws. This idea is batted back and forth here as London’s cyclists are so often at risk. Mandatory helmets sound like a no-brainer, but they’d hamper the scheme immensely. No longer would you be able to pick up a Boris Bike on whim and tourists would have to pack a helmet in advance. It puts an incredibly ironic spoke in the wheel.

Why Sydney?

Melbourne started helmet buying and renting schemes, which upped its users but also its costs. Brisbane has yet to do so and its numbers are still lackluster. So why look to Sydney? Well even though it lacks a cycle scheme, it’s safety policies and campaigns are superb. Sydneyites are inundated with adverts and movements promoting safety from the get go. These are aimed at educating motorists and cyclists alike. Taglines from older campaigns such as ‘look left, look right, look bike’ are well known, while newer campaigns offer promotional materials to stick on your vehicle to spread the word.

‘Think of the impact’ is their current big cause, encouraging cyclists to ‘ride wide’ and motorists to think before opening doors. Wing mirror stickers reminding them is just one small change making a big difference. Last year New South Wales also launched the ‘Go Together’ campaign. This introduced new laws encouraging respect for the space between bikes, vehicles and pedestrians. If you can’t allow for more than a metre between when passing someone, you can’t do it – simple.

In Australia, bikes are treated like vehicles and the fines for rule-breaking is pretty hefty. While in London, cyclists jumping a red light could get a £30 fine, its rarely enforced. In Sydney the fine starts at $71, jumping to a whopping $425 for repeat offenders. However, the difference is made not in the repercussions but the awareness. Sydney simply makes more effort than London to bring safety to the fore for all road users.

Sydney’s two biggest cycle websites – clear, accessible and ergonomic – are always looking at ways to improve. Between them, there are links to courses, road rules, route planning, campaigns and even a section on what other cities are doing. They’re looking outward to improve their city, and it seems to be working. In 2016, the entirety of NSW had seven cyclist deaths compared to 10 in London alone.

With such stats in mind, maybe its time we took a long hard look at the way our mates do things down under.

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