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The press release below sets out that some 40 written complaints were taken about bunch cyclists in the last 12 months apparently largely relating to alleged abusive language and aggressive behaviour of the cyclists.  Since Cycle Centennial has been recording incidents there have been 8 incidents since August relating to cyclists being endangered by other park users.  What Centennial Parklands don't seem to appreciate is the fact that when one is fearful for their life having just missed a collision with a motor vehicle or an off leash dog, their heightened adrenaline output together with the extreme stress of the incident, often sees them uttering the odd expletive.   We are elite athletes who travel around Centennial Park to better our physical fitness and riding skills in relative safety.   We do not travel around looking for other Park users to berate them and intimidate them.  Many of Centennial Parklands written complaints of aggressive and abusive behaviour leave off out one important aspect and that is that the cyclist has been the victim not the aggressor.  I myself have been guilty of speaking tersely to a dog owner once or twice.  I guess emotion got the better of me on one occasion whilst I comforted a fellow cyclist,  his collarbone protruding through the flesh of his shoulder, and the unsympathetic dog owner abusing him for hitting his dog.  No doubt this individual sent a written complaint into the Parklands about the aggressive, abusive cyclist.

I would urge all cyclists to keep the incident reports coming in.  This is in fact what Centennial Parklands has requested in their Draft Code of Conduct, specifically that we; "Avoid confrontation and report incidents to a Trust representative."  We need to demonstrate that we are the victims not the aggressors.   That we are not "Thugs in Lycra" as depicted in Andrew London's article (Wentworth Courier 13 August, 2003)

Centennial Parklands in their press release below state that they support bunch training providing that the cyclists comply with "15 person and 30km/hr limits" rules.  They state that they don't want us out, yet in a recent reply to an incident that occurred during early morning, the Coordinator Access & Safety Centennial Parklands advised the victim,

"It should be noted that sunrise on the 7 August 2003 was at 6.43am.  With the alleged incident occurring at approximately 6.15am the cyclists  involved were in breach of Clause 5 (4) of the Centennial Park & Moore Park Trust Regulations 1999 which prohibits vehicles from being used within Centennial Parklands between sunset & sunrise except with the permission of the Trust or the Director".

Now we are told that it is illegal for us to train in the mornings until the sun is up.  How many more rules will be leveled against the bunch cyclist?  Read about the full incident here.

CENTENNIAL PARKLANDS RELEASE PRESS STATEMENT ABOUT BUNCH CYCLING ON THEIR WEBSITE.

Centennial Parklands is working with a number of cycling groups to develop a Code of Conduct on ‘bunch cycling’ in Centennial Park. We are consulting with cycling groups in order to better manage the diverse use and public safety of the Parklands for the enjoyment of everyone.

The Parklands has more than five million visits a year and is among the world’s most highly used urban spaces. It is there for everyone to share and no single group has priority.

A major issue with cycling groups is the large numbers when they are ‘bunch training’, sometimes in groups of up to 60 cyclists. Often the groups do not adhere to the 30km speed limit.

Centennial Parklands has regulations in place to contain large groups. There is a limit of 15 cyclists in a bunch, a speed limit of 30km and under the Australian Road Rules cyclists must ride at no more than two abreast.

The Code of Conduct is a draft and Centennial Parklands’ officers met with representatives of Cycling Centennial, Waratah Veterans and the Randwick/Botany cycling clubs to discuss the matter. The draft Code of Conduct had input from these groups and is based on other Codes in place in Victoria, the Australian Road Rules, and the Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust Act 1983 – Regulation.

In summary,
• Centennial Park is not a velodrome
• it is a park for everyone to share and no single group has priority
• Parklands Administration is trying to get bunch cyclists to co-operate to manage the issue
• 40 written complaints were taken in the past 12 months relating to abusive and aggressive behaviour, large bunch numbers and excessive speeding
• the 15 person and 30km/hr limits are part of the Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust Regulations
• Parklands Administration is not against cyclists. We fully support and encourage cycling and know that cycling will be even more popular with increasing urbanisation surrounding the Parklands.
• it is asserted by cycling groups that Parklands Administration wants to eject bunch cycling altogether. This is untrue. We support limited numbers in groups of 15 adhering to the 30km/hr speed limit.
• we look forward to further discussions and consultation with cycling groups

For further information please call Centennial Parklands on 9339 6653

CENTENNIAL PARKLANDS TELL US THAT THEY ARE CONCERNED ABOUT OUR SAFETY

That is the reason bunches can't have more than 15 riders.  If you have more than 15 riders, Centennial Parklands assures us that there will be multiple pile ups.  I have been cycling in the park almost every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon for the past 5 years and I have yet to see one of these multiple pile ups.  One of our members has been bunch training in Centennial Park for over 50 years.  He tells me that after the war in the late 1940's that the bunches were huge, much bigger than today. In over 50 years, he also is yet to see one of these mass collisions.  In actual fact many of the cyclists who come down are single riders or riders in small groups and of them, many are the result of off leash dogs.  If you are really concerned for our safety Centennial Parklands, than do something about the off leash dogs on Grand Drive.  Click here for a story posted to me recently which was published in the Wentworth Courier, detailing one of the many riders injured by off leash dogs.

On 29th August 2003, Delegates of Cycle Centennial, Robert Barnes and Fergus Neilson met with Marlene Krasovitsky (Acting Director of Centennial Park). It was clear from the meeting that both Cycle Centennial and Centennial Parklands wish to see the continuation of cycling and bunch training in Centennial Park. However, Centennial Parklands is focused on issues of safety and strict adherence to Park Regulations. While Cycle Centennial is more focused on the reality of training for athletic endeavour.

The issue is to find a 'middle ground' that accommodates the interests of both parties.

Cycle Centennial would like to see cyclists and Centennial Parklands working together towards a solution that enhances the Park experience for all users.

Cycle Centennial remains committed to on-going discussion with Park Administration.

A letter was composed out of the meeting and  was sent to Marlene Krasovitsky outlining the key components of such a solution.

You can help by forwarding the contents of the above letter out into your own personal networks of cyclists, politicians, journalists and the like.

Cycle Centennial has conducted a new survey which demonstrates our statements that:

	Cyclists do not dominate the park - between 7am and 4pm cycling constitutes only 10% of Grand Drive activity (see support material on pages 5, 6 and 7).
	•Bunch training is strictly time limited – it occurs for less than 10% of available access time, from 5:50am to 7:00am and from around 4:00pm to 6:00pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
	•Bunch training does not automatically result in oversized bunches - the afternoon bunch (Tues and Thurs) exceeded bunch size limit for only 40 minutes, the morning bunches (Tues and Thurs) exceeded bunch size limit for no more than 15 minutes which, when two laps by the St George Sunday Bunch are added, represents less than 2% of available access time.
	•Bunches rotate through the Park at training speeds - the Tuesday afternoon bunch averaged 32.5kph (seven minute laps) for the first hour, 36.0kph for a couple of ‘hot’ laps and then dropped back to 32.5kph or less, while the Tuesday morning bunches were not tracked at over of 32.5kph average speed and, after 6:50am, were down to 28.5kph or less.
	•Bunch training is much safer in the Park

(Click here to see survey results)

3 CYCLISTS INJURED BY COLLISION WITH CAR

On Sunday 10 August about 9am on Southern Cross Drive Eastlakes, 3 cyclists from the Randwick Botany Cycling Club were hit from behind by a motor vehicle.   This coming so close on the heels of the recent Loftus incident in which several Sutherland "Bushies" were injured in what appears to be similar circumstances.  A motor vehicle collided straight into the back of three cyclists apparently not even seeing them till it was too late.  All three cyclists were conveyed to hospital by ambulance.  As a result of the accident, Randwick Botany's club captain, Janelle Lindsay, is the worst of the three with fractures of her shoulder, hip, pelvis and vertebrate in her back.  Janelle, a regular in the Tuesday and Thursday afternoon training bunches, was to have flown out on the 20th of this month to represent Australia at the European track championships in Prague in September.  This obviously will not happen now and all because of the actions of one careless driver. 

It is the single cyclist and small groups of cyclists who are at most risk of being hit by motor vehicles.  Larger bunches are certainly more visible and tend to afford themselves that to which they are entitled and that is, an entire traffic lane. Single cyclists and small groups are at far greater risk as they are forced by horn sounding irate motorists to ride single file at the extreme left of the carriageway where they are extremely vulnerable, especially so from car door and pedestrians suddenly appearing from between parked cars.

Centennial Parklands however would prefer training cyclists not use their safe haven of Centennial Park at all and would very much prefer that we went elsewhere.  Elsewhere however is the public road system where we are being injured maimed and killed.   Centennial Parklands wants the Tuesday and Thursday training bunches out of Centennial park.  Can you imagine if these cyclists were forced out into the public road system on these afternoons?  We are talking about peak traffic conditions when traffic density is at its maximum, ie, between 3pm and 7pm of a weekday.  If we are getting injured maimed and killed on Sunday mornings when traffic is at it's lightest, how are we going to fare when traffic is at its busiest?

Centennial Parklands say that bunches with over 15 riders are intimidating and threatening to other park users.  We are regularly referred to as, "the pack."  However we are not the intimidating, we are the intimidated.  I think that Fergus Neilson aptly described this point in his letter to the Sydney Morning Herald which was published on Thursday Aug 9, 2001.  The following is an extract from that article,

"Firstly, drop the prejudicial language. The planning proposals refer to groups of cyclists as "packs", a word that implies predatory behaviour. A "pack of wolves" threatening defenseless sheep. In reality, cyclists cycle together for protection in what they prefer to call a "bunch". Almost every cyclist, at one time or another, has been hit by a beer can flung from a passing car or has suffered verbal abuse from chemically stimulated taxi passengers early on a Sunday morning. They know that it's safer to ride in a bunch for visibility and protection. They do it because they are the sheep. Not because they are the wolves. "