It was always going to happen that Newcastle was going to get Compenhagen style bike lanes, as it had been promised in the Newcastle City Council Cycling Strategy, but nonetheless, I was surprised to learn that they are already here, with more soon on the way it seems. I don’t often visit this beach, Merewether Beach, but saw in the local paper that an unfortunate motorist had mistaken the bike lane for a car lane and ended up in an unfortunate situation, which then was captured for the paper to publish, so he was doubly embarassed. Anyway, we now have a beautiful one-way bike lane where there used to be a row of parked cars, and the adjacent road has been made one way, with bikes allowed to travel with the cars. This sign explains how it all works …So bikes can use the footpath, (which has been widened), as well as the bike lane and the car lane, and provision has been made for fast and slow bikes in this scenario. I think this is a wonderful thing for Newcastle, as  it truly legitimises the presence of bikes on the roads as well as on the footpath, so if anyone tells us riders to get into the bike lane, as they are sometimes wont to do, there is at least a bike lane for us to use, and chances are we will already be in the bike lane! Also in the paper recently was this small piece …so, a traffic lane will be lost in part of Hunter St to make way for a bike lane, woo hoo! I am especially glad to see this as I was once very closely passed by a bus in this very section of road. I have also written about this idea in another post, (see the last paragraph.)

One rider heading for the surf today …