Tuesday, 4 March 2025

Cyclist safety

Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (19:10): (1465) My adjournment this evening is to the Minister for Public and Active Transport, and the action I seek is for greater investment in safe bike infrastructure. On Sunday 2 March hundreds of Melburnians put on their helmets and took off everything else for the 20th annual World Naked Bike Ride day. As well as promoting positivity around body image, this event is a fun way to promote the bicycle as a sustainable and environmentally friendly mode of transport and to highlight just how vulnerable people on bikes are to people in cars. Too many cyclists are familiar with the phrase ‘Sorry, didn’t see you there’ from a driver after a collision or a near miss. Well, this crowd certainly is eye-catching. But what vulnerable road users need most of all is not just awareness, it is safe separated infrastructure that protects them from cars. The UN recommends that governments spend 20 per cent of their transport budgets on walking and cycling infrastructure, but on average Victoria only spends about 2 per cent. Minister, I am not suggesting you nude up like these cheeky riders, but I will ask you to front up more government funding for safe separated bike infrastructure.