Cycle to the beach

Rows of SUVs are parked along Manly beach, but there is no parking for bikes at the main beach. The Pacific is acid and hot. The beach is serviced nearly 24/7 with fossil fuel.

Bicycle, car and fig tree interface at Manly Beach

Somewhere in the beach suburb of Manly, old fig trees are hosts to bats and birds. It is the flora and fauna that gives the place a special  ambiance. The trees struggle to survive in the hot bitumen road poured around them. Large branches are brutally chopped to make way for commerce and fossil fuel traffic. Cars scramble to squeeze their mostly inner city SUVs on Darley Rd. They 'just' get something from the shops or have a cup - often idling. All fig tree trunks are mutilated by vehicles ramming constantly into the unprotected old trees. At a time when there was an organic cafe, more bikes came. Council provides no bike parking in this area. This was and often is the type of access made available for people who do not wish to use fossil fuel. The unique plants and animals are the ones most affected.

Fig Tree adjusted to suit motorised vehicles and commerce

This fig could be one more space for a car. They are working on it

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Shared bike-pedestrian paths

The RTA was promoting shared foot-bikepaths as part of bicycle week. Shared ways can get bikes off the roads, thus facilitating traffic for cars, but it should not be mistaken as being of benefit for bicycles, or pedestrians.
When busy cycle paths are shared with pedestrians, it is a disaster for bicycle mobility. We have seen this in Manly where the nicest cycle path in Sydney, along the beach promenade, has been made into a share way. It doesn't work as a bike path anymore. This used to be the only dedicated cycle path in the area.
Similarly, when a busy footpath is made into a share way, the bikes appear to hassle people walking as they can't get anywhere. It ruins the walking space for pedestrians.
Shared facilities only make sense when a path is little used by bikes or walkers. Then it works well.
Promoting shared paths in Manly, Sydney's most visited tourist destination, especially in the most crowded areas, arouses the suspicion of a hidden agenda - to get bikes off the roads. Bad luck for the pedestrians but keep the gas guzzlers rolling.
To achieve positive outcomes for cyclists, they need their own organisation. Just as cars have a roads and motorist association, bikes need a bike-paths and cyclists association. Then the transport planning organisations may become inclined to promote Bike Week as an event for bikes, for dedicated cycle paths, not just to promote pushing bikes onto the footpaths in an attempt to make the dysfunctional motorised traffic flow.