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Hi all

This website has gone up at very short notice and will develop over the next few days.

Please feel free to comment or ask queries right here in the meantime.

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30 comments

  • Cam

    i think us cyclists need to come up with a clever solution. I’m not sure the police and council are positioned to do much more

  • Daniel

    I agree with Cam. I’m not sure what the police should be doing. And directing our annoyance at the police is unlikely to help cyclists.
    However, it is likely Boorondara/ VicRoads could sweep the road more frequently. They could also get the message out to car drivers that the reason we aren’t keeping to the left is because of the tacks.

  • Chris

    This is great, time to fight back and show this bully that we won’t stop riding the boulevard just because a selfish oaf thinks they own the road. Cam and Daniel, you are welcome to stay at home if you are too lazy or scared to participate, but right now we need supportive attitudes not excuses for people to remain passive and do nothing.
    I wonder if any bicycle stores would like to get involved somehow, would flyers be a good way to get word out?
    Is May 3 a bit too soon, could a later date allow more room to organize a bigger campaign?
    Just some thoughts, Hope some positive people get onto this, I’ll try to spread the word as much as possible.

  • admin

    @chris, I thought about May 10 but that’s Mothers Day…so if it wasn’t the 3rd it would have to have been the 17th…you might be right, I really don’t know but I felt something had to be done soon. And re, the bicycle stores, I do intend to approach them during the week. Many have clubs on Strava and I’ve put the word out there.

    @Daniel, @Cam…the solution has to come from the authorities…and there is more they can do, not least of which is to put up surveillance cameras. Its an expensive solution but if enough pressure is exerted, I am hoping they will react. I appreciate you dropping in and would love to have you come along on the 3rd.

  • Daniel

    @george Thanks for the response. Just to clarify my position I support an effort to organise a show of solidarity and to emphasis that we won’t be deterred. I’m conscious much of the public hates those of us riding bikes. I want to keep the police on side.
    I thought the recent Cycling Tips article indicated the police have actually attempted a few things (ultimately unsuccessful). A few comments talked about CCTV. The responses seemed pragmatic.

  • Noel

    Great, ill be there. T here should be over a thousand cyclists riding 6 wide and 200 long in peak hour and pedal slow in both directions. Police will be called to ask cyclist to move over. No way so then call media. This way the whole world will no whats going on. Doing a stunt on a Sunday is a waste of time because nobody cares, try it on monday morning. Cars that take the shortcut will be pissed off and late for work, they will talk and word will get around. Do this on a monday and tues on consecutive days say 6.30 to 8.30 am will get people talking. Emain neil Mitchell from 3aw what you plan on doing.

    • admin

      @Noel
      Agree a weekday would have greater impact on motorists but I’m not sure how many cyclists would attend. I chose a Sunday to maximize participation. Am contacting the media over the weekend, hopefully they will be in attendance and we will get coverage. Appreciate your support, George

  • Victor

    Agree with Noel, having this ride on a Sunday will really limit its impact. It needs to be during morning or afternoon peak on a weekday, otherwise not enough people will notice.

    • admin

      @Victor
      As I said to Noel, I chose a Sunday to try and maximize participation but acknowledge your remark. I wont rule out further protest rides in the future depending on the outcome of May 3 and maybe then I will choose a weekday.

      The other thing I would say is that the intention of the protest is not to annoy motorists but to increase the pressure on authorities to act. There is enough hate directed at cyclists by motorists as it is and it would be a very unfortunate outcome to have motorists cheering on the perpetrator.

  • Viv

    Could it be classified as some kind of litering, vandalism, damage to property, intent to cause grevious bodily harm?

    I’m not familiar with that track. Could the culprit live beside the track or wish to use the track for a purpose which competes with cycling. Maybe those responsible benefit from damage caused to bikes? Perhaps a bicycle shop in the area? It could ofcourse be an attack on an individual that uses that track or just some kids that get a kick out of the prank.

    Manned patrol time. Let’s organise a roster and nail the f@#$ er.

    • admin

      Viv, love your attitude!
      The perp is probably a local that uses the road and objects to sharing it with cyclists. Most of the homes around the boulevard are multi-million dollar mansions and its hard to imagine someone who has the $s to afford one of those actually being the slightest bit bothered by cyclists.
      However, there is a large apartment estate right on the Boulevard (Willsmere) that is mainly comprised of rental accommodation and has walking track access to the boulevard itself. My money is on it being someone from there. But, catching the perp is not my job, its the police’s. The purpose of this protest is to up the pressure on them and the council to do more; and I think this means putting up surveillance cameras.

  • Peter

    I would love to attend but I will be in ballarat for the annual ‘Bad ride’. Not sure if this will have an impact on attendance on 3rd May.

  • Brendan

    Good on you for starting this. I hope it sends the right message to the police and council that there are a lot of people who are made miserable by the tacks, and who want it to stop.

    When I’m fixing my second flat caused by a tack, late at night on the way home, I want to see this idiot come to some harm, but by light of day, I know that’s not right. I hope the police do find them, and do manage to charge them so they get a meaningful fine – or is jail too much to hope for?

    But most of all, I want to be able to ride the boulie with my mates again.

    This must stop.

  • DrCarl

    Onya George & Marco.
    I’ve put the links up onto the Cycling Karma fb page & my email notification are filling up with riders signing up with the petition.
    Lets see what happens..

  • Rob

    Kudos to the Vic Police yesterday (23.4.15). I noticed a marked police car patrolling the Kew Boulevard yesterday between 3:30 – 4:30pm. They (the police) stopped at least 2 cars as well as a motorcyclist. Clearly they were very observant and conspicuous and this is a positive response from Vic Police. well done and keep it up.

  • Jarrod

    Hi George,
    Have you thought about moving the start location. I’m not sure 100’s of cyclists meeting at a reasonably busy intersection on a Sunday morning is a great idea. Especially if there is 30 mins between the briefing and the ride commencing. Potentially the HCC Crit Circuit might work?
    Cheers,
    Jarrod.

    • Yoda

      Thanks Jarrod, there is a park right on the corner of Walmer and the Boulevard which is where I intend to hold the briefing but I will go do a scout again tomorrow…number are starting to grow…

  • Archie Brown

    Word on the street (quite literally – from the Vicroads guys collecting the tacks on the Boulie this morning) is that there may be a story on Channel 9 tonight, May 28 re: Tacks/Boulie/Bike riders.

    If its true, media is getting more involved is a good thing.

  • noel

    Wow. I was very surprised with the number of cyclist and locals at warmer street this morning. Did anyone do a head count with numbers. Lets do it again in the city up swantson street.

  • Michael

    Sad to see this continuing, but great to see the fight continues.

    My attitude is that this need to be treated like graffiti – it needs to be neutralised immediately after the act, to make it ineffective. The appropriate device is one of these: http://www.aerosweep.com/fodboss/. It can be towed behind a car at 30-40kmh (they use one to clear the Grand Prix track between races), so it could easily be run around the length of the boulevard 2 or 3 times a day, or even more. Assuming Booroondara Council is responsible for the Boulevard (no-one seems to accept responsibility :-/ ) lets pressure them to hire or buy one and sweep 3 times a day until the perpetrator is caught. I’m sure there are many of us who would volunteer to drive if labour is an issue.

    Second is to step up catching the perp. These appear to be upholstery tacks, surely few outside the trade have any reason to be buying them repeatedly. Have the police surveyed hardware stores ? Can we campaign Bunnings, Masters etc to collect ID on every sale of these tacks ? Yes, a slight inconvenience on anyone buying them, but it creates a relatively small pool of suspects.

    Another thing to help catch the perp is collecting hard data on when & where the tacks are dropped. Where can people report where they picked/seen up tacks ? Can that be added to this site ? If we collect enough data, cameras can be focussed on the most likely stretches of road. It may also help determine if they are being thrown from a car window, or on foot.

    • Yoda

      That device looks pretty sweet Michael…I’ll pass the details onto the council..

      In relation to the reporting, we are looking into a mobile app to report the exact location of the tacks and to capture some other data

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