1.  Invitation to a Special PortBUG Meeting:  PortBUG’s November meeting this Thursday evening will be given over entirely to a discussion with Chris Dunn, Manager Design, Construction & Transport at Port Adelaide/Enfield Council. We’d like to invite our Blog Readers to come along and hear what Chris has to say. The meeting will be held upstairs in The Argo restaurant in Commercial Road, Port ADelaide, starting promptly at 7pm. Please let me know at portadbug@gmail.com if you intend coming!

We’ve asked Chris to provide updates on a number of current issues relevant to bike use and Active Transport generally, including:

• an update on an ‘Access Improvement and Wayfinding Strategy’ for the Port CBD and Waterfront areas (including a Network Operation Study done by DPTI)
• thoughts on the post-2020 Integrated Transport Strategy that will replace the PA/E Bike Plan
• an update on the latest plans for the Port Dock Train Station
• the approved ‘bike budget’ for this year (2018-19)
• suggested projects for next year (2019-20)
• discussion of issues PortBUG has recently raised regarding the Outer Harbor Greenway
• ideas and options for the staging of a Stage Finish for the Tour Down Under in the Port in January 2019.

2. Tilburg Cycleway Retrospective:  The both the Dutch and the Danes – with all of their fantastic cycleways – had to start somewhere! For the Netherlands it was in 1977 with the construction in Tilburg of the first ‘Demonstration Cycling Route’ – a ‘showcase of what modern cycling infrastructure would have to be like’.

Mark Wagenbuur at Bicycle Dutch has posted a fascinating retrospective on this 5km route which I reckon might end up being very relevant to Adelaide as we consider how to best engineer bike routes connecting major urban centres within Adelaide. Probably of most interest are the two videos he has posted.

The first is a ‘then and now’ exercise, comparing a Danish film of the route from 1978 with new footage taken in 2018. The narrator and the footage clearly explain how cycleway philosophy and key design principles in the Netherlands have developed and evolved. We can learn a lot from this! The second is a cyclist’s view of the entire route with subtitles at key points explaining what we’re looking at! Again, worth sitting down with a cuppa and watching! This is important documentation of a pivotal moment in cycleway design and commitment in the Netherlands which ended up having a major impact in transport thinking and design across Europe and very relevant to Adelaide too!

3. PortBUG’s Facebook Forum: We have a great facebook group happening at the Port Adelaide Bicycle Forum. We now have nearly 80 followers there and we encourage you to join up as another way of staying in touch! The photo below, featured recently on the Forum, illustrates some interesting – if somewhat illegal – ‘cargo-bike action’ on the Outer Harbour Greenway! Yes – that’s a full-sized 6×4 trailer!

Cargo-biking on the Outer Harbor Greenway…