Hi Dhugall & everyone --

I think everyone would agree that it was a great meeting on
Monday night. It was a very diverse (in the true sense of the word)
collection of viewpoints about cycling and how we can make the
world better for riders... and also get more people riding. Also a
great start to the development of a committed group of bike
advocates working hard to develop riding in the inner city. Also, I
think the round-table format (both in seating and discussion)
worked very well. I would suggest that try and maintain this
participatory feeling for all future MBUG meetings.

We had many issues arise that can be followed up both on this
email list & also at our next meeting. From my notes, the "Big 4"
issues raised last night were:

* Bike Parking
* Swanston St
* Education - e.g. riding skills, bike maintenance
* The "image" of cycling & promoting legitimacy/acceptance

Obviously, these issues will develop as our BUG develops, and I
would encourage anyone who has an opinion on these (or other
matters of importance) to both raise your concerns in an MBUG
forum, and also to directly help MBUG's work by assisting directly
with our campaigning.

Currently Simon, Louisa & I are working on the Lygon Ct parking
campaign -- anyone else who wants to become involved in this
can contact us at info@.... Other bike parking
"hot spots" were nominated last night -- such as Vic Mkt, Ross
House & Russell St -- and we'll add those to the campaigns list.

The meeting resolved to have a Swanston St forum, with input
from BV, Council, traders, PT organisations, etc. I suggest that
we do this at the September meeting, to allow time to organise it
properly. This would be a great opportunity to re-focus on
Swanston St as a precinct, rather than simply looking at it as the
result of a series of half-hearted of planning efforts. We did,
however, have near-unanimous support for the continuance of
Swanston St as a major bicycling artery. Our position, as
adopted by acclamation, was that MBUG should work to prevent
any backward steps in regards to re-introduction of traffic, but
also begin to scope out a vision for the future potential of the
street. In the meantime, if anyone wants to make their voice
heard to Melbourne Council (the Swanston St decision makers),
you can email the Lord Mayor or Councillors:

Lord Mayor John So -- lordmayor@...
Deputy Lord Mayor Susan Riley -- susril@...
Cr Anthony Nicholson -- antnic@...
Cr Catherine Ng -- cathng@...
Cr David Risstrom -- davris@...
Cr Kate Redwood -- katred@...
Cr Kevin Chamberlin -- kevcha@...
Cr Kimberley Kitching -- kimkit@...
Cr Irene Goonan -- iregoo@...

Jesse from Bike Bar nominated himself & his shop as
tutor/venue for bike maintenance workshops, which I think will be
very well attended. I know that I'll be there to do some learning.
We'll work out some details with Jesse and hopefully have some
more news on that issue soon. There was broad support for a
riding skills program to teach less confident cyclists the
essentials of riding in the inner city. Dhugall, it's great to see you
are also willing to become involved with both of these areas.
Let's start a separate email thread and start talking about what
shape these sessions should taske, and how we can realise
our plans for these educational forums.

After a bit of digression, I guess this brings me to the main point
of Dhugall's original email: the "image" of cycling. I think that
MBUG will continue to refine how exactly we want to address this
issue, but personally I would like to see a lot of emphasis on
"bikes are fun" and "bikes can be a normal part of your life" (as
opposed to being a segment of your life that you do on sunny
weekends). Rather than address every facet of this topic of this
issue in one loooong email, I'll write more about my thoughts on
this over the next day or so. I'd hope that other MBUG members
also have a lot of ideas & opinions to contribute on this topic. But
Dhugall you did raise some good points to which I would like to
add my 2 cents' worth:


>Although I embrace the obvious connection of cycling
> with the sustainable development/green ideology, and have
passionate
> concerns about the state of our environment both urban and
"natural",
> I do have reservations about equating "pro cycling" with "anti
> car". On face value, the predominace of cars on our roads is
nothing
> short of obscene, but our visions of mass human powered
transport
> become less practical the further we move out of the inner
suburbs.

I don't think that pro-bike always has to mean anti-car. As we
saw last night, about half of the people present owned a car
(based on the quick straw poll which we did). But I don't doubt
that these people are not committed cyclists simply because
they sometimes drive. Sometimes, though, anything pro-bike will
automatically be seen by others (i.e motorists) as anti-car. It can
almost be a defensive reaction from motorists, who can be
loathe to hear criticsm of their preferred mode of travel. The BUG
should discuss this issue a lot more. I'm sure there are many
varying opinions.


> I have joined MBug because
> I feel that the significant individuals have a greater political
> awareness and direction that other cycling organisations.
Inner
> Melbourne also has the greatest need and the greatest
potential for
> embracing cycling on a European scale.

Cheers to that!


> I am a newbie to collective forums (tautolagy?) and one more
likely
> to adapt to my environment rather than pressuring for it to be
> changed. I have reservations about elements of Critical Mass
and
> confrontational forms of protest/demonstration of ideas.
>
> Is there support for some form of charter which might go some
way to
> defining the aims of the organisation. This may be useful to
reflect
> some of our ideas/initiatives before commiting them to action.

We're all newbies to this. There's probably only one or two folk
among us who have pratical experience in starting up and
running a BUG. We're sort of feeling this out as we go along. The
first meeting was a bit "hierarchical", but I guess that was always
going to be the case with an Inaugural Meeting of a group which
has such lofty goals as MBUG. I hope that the open & inclusive
second meeting will prove to be much more indicative of what
our group discussions will be like in the future. One thing I also
want to point out is that the position of "Co-Convenor" (i.e. Simon
& me) does not mean President, nor guru, nor dictator... we are
simply the people who decided that we would work towards
getting the BUG up & running, and that we would also be the
"facilitators" of the meetings and the campaigns. If people want
to get involved in the BUG & its work, then we welcome that with
open arms. To pinch someone else's saying: None of us is as
good as all of us.

Dhugall, I think that you've made a good point about developing
an MBUG charter... it's certainly something that I've thought about
too. During the formation stage of MBUG, Simon & I have not
wanted to impose any aims or objectives on the group. We've
kept it deliberately quite inchoate up until now, which I think was
important to allow the organic development of the BUG as a
meeting place of equals. But as we grow and move forward,
there will certainly be a need to put down on paper the things that
we -- as a group -- stand for. This will lead into matters like how
we organise ourselves as a group (i.e. our constitution).
Naturally, individuals will still be entitled to their own views, but
when we all come together as MBUG we should be trying to work
towards the same goals and objectives.. and over time we will
also develop MBUG policy on certain issues. I think that
developing this "philosophy" should be one of our priorities for
the next couple of group meetings.

We've only got one way to go from here, and that's forward. (If I
wanted to be really corny, I'd say that we are "pedalling in a high
gear" or some lame joke like that... but I'm not that kind of guy...).
We've made a brilliant start, and it's up to the passion & energy
of all MBUG members to keep the momentum going. Our
discussions -- both on-line and in-person -- will hopefully
continue to grow and evolve from this point forward. Here's to
MBUG.


cheers
Justin