Bicycle Queensland – Road Safety Quiz. parking in Japan. Bicycles Create Change.com 16th October 2020.
Each state (and country) have their own road safety rules and laws. Regardless of what mode of travel you use, it is always good to check your knowledge and keep updated – for your own safety and for others.
Heaven forbid someone challenges you doing something which you think is okay – only to find out later that you were in the wrong and the whole thing could have been avoided.
Recently Bicycle Queensland (BQ) launched a 24 questions quiz so people could test their bicycle road rules knowledge. It is a simple and clear quiz and there will be a few questions that might surprise you.
I did this quiz and did not get full marks. I learnt the term ‘bicycle storage’ in reference to a painted box at traffic lights for bicycles to congregate to wait for lights to change (I only knew that term in relation to ACTUAL bike storage -not as a road user/traffic light reference …so there you go!).
If you live in Queensland give it a go! Even if you don’t give it a go anyway to see how it gels with what you know and check to see what is similar/different to where you live.
Can’t hurt to brush up on your road rules!
You get immediate feedback on correct answers as you proceed as well as a final result.
At the end of this post are some examples of questions to expect.
Think you know all the bicycle-related road rules in Queensland? Put your knowledge to the test in the latest educational quiz on road safety skills. There are 24 Questions in this Quiz and they are on a range of bicycle and road safety topics.
To recognise and understand the Queensland Road Rules relevant to bicycle riders.
Consider methods to improve road safety for bicycle riders and identify the safety benefits.
The information in this quiz is developed from the Queensland Government’s bicycle road rules and safety page. This information is easily accessible online, and Bicycle Queensland encourages you to review the road rules regularly to keep up with the changes occurring in a dynamic transport network.
Remember that knowing the road rules does not necessarily make it safer for you to be on the road and this content has been created to help raise awareness of the road rules that are important for bicycle riders.
For 2019, we are heading to Lismore in QLD, where for the past few years the local City Council has provided a public recycled art Christmas Tree. This very successful initiative all started with recycled bikes.
The Lismore Council public art Christmas tree initiative stemmed after the local ‘leaning tree’ that had previously been decorated for Christmases was (unduly and harshly) dubbed ‘the world’s most pathetic’ Christmas tree. (Note: Personally, I think the leaning tree was awesome. Such a pity that we don’t celebrate diversity and difference and the wonderful uniqueness in nature. As Gaudi stated ‘there are no straight lines in nature’ – I think it is the very twists, turns, messiness and curves that makes life so engaging and grand. The very thing that made that tree unique and special to some, others considered to be a flawed and an eyesore. I don’t agree that ‘perfection’ i.e. a straight tree (or a or a ‘pretty blonde female’ as an extrapolation) is necessarily beautiful. Perhaps we need to check in with our cultural value criteria – anyhow..back to Lismore).
So, in 2015, Lismore Council looked to change their tree and started a recycled public art initative.
Image: Cathy Bowen Northern Star
Lismore’s Bicycle Christmas Trees
The recycled bicycle tree was the first of these instalments. In 2015, the Lismore Bike Christmas Tree was erected as a centrepiece for the main roundabout on the corner of Keen and Magellan Streets.
This intuitive is to celebrate the festive holiday season as
well as Lismore’s commitment to recycling and sustainability.
A local bike shop, Revolve, supplied the 90 old bicycles (which otherwise would have gone to scrap), 50 litres of paint, almost half a tonne of steel for the frame and $30 of donated rainbow mis-tints from the local paint shop. GOLD!
Lismore’s council metal workshop welded the bicycle frames
were welded onto the steel frame they had created as the base structure.
The final ‘tree’ was then painted in rainbow mis-tint colours by the council staff and their families in their own time.
The tree was then gifted by the council to Lismore residents.
Lismore’s tree for Christmas 2019 was a 7-metre ‘living’, growing structure. It has more than 300 potted plants, 100 metres of tinsel, 250 metres of solar-powered LEDs, 16 pairs of work trousers and matching boots. At the top instead of a star, council staff made a Planta (plant ‘Santa’).
The 2018 Lismore Christmas tree was made out discarded umbrellas.
In 2017 it was recycled road signs.
In 2016 it was recycled car tyres.
The 2015 Bicycle Christmas Tree has been the most popular instalment by far to date. In acknowledgement of this, the council is in discussion for a possible future tree that has sculptural bikes that produce power so that when visitors ride them, the generated power will light up the tree. Sounds similar to Brisbane’s Bicycle-powered Christmas Tree.
A big round of applause for Lismore Council for installing the recycled bike Christmas tree. An inspiring public project that brings community and council together to celebrate sustainability, recycling, community and creativity.
Included among the delegates attending are Australian and international
keynote speakers, advocacy groups, researchers, practitioners, businesses and
policymakers.
This conference includes research presentations, workshops, technical tours, poster presentations, networking opportunities and other social events.
The conference goes for 3 days and is jam-packed full of sessions.
The program also boasts a host of international guests, with delegates coming in from the Netherlands, New Zealand, Denmark, Japan, Norway, USA, Sweden, Canada and as the host country – Australia has a very strong representation from pretty much every University nationwide.
Presentation sessions are discussing ideas such as: obstacle avoidance manoeuvres, e-scooters/e-bikes, infrastructure challenges, rider/pedestrian conflicts, traffic control, crash data, bikeshare data and social media interfaces, and lane marking/intersection analysis, bicycle delivery modalities, and studies using agent-based modelling – and more!
I ‘m not attending this conference because I prefer to focus on the positive aspects of bicycle riding – which of course safety is part of…I just don’t want to be constantly working with ‘negatives’ such as crash figures, injuries and traffic hot zones and contestations – also crunching quantitative data is not my strongest research skill. But I appreciate that this is super interesting to many cycling researchers and policymakers. Such conversations and information sharing is critical to progressing more innovative solutions to cycling dilemmas and to increase the take up of biking universally.
Meet the posters authors event. Tuesday 19th Nov. ICSC 2019.
Daily synopsis
Monday is the first conference day. The day is split into four sessions under two main streams: Workshops and Technical Tours. The two workshops offered are: Low-cost infrastructure for low cycling countries and Using bikes for all kinds of deliveries. Concurrently there are 5 technical tours: Inner City (x 2), Riverside, Bicentennial Bikeway and Connecting the infrastructure. The evening is the Welcome Reception and Stakeholder Dinner.
Tuesday before morning tea is official registrations, Introduction and Opening Keynote Trends and innovation research in cycling safety by Prof Christopher Cheery (Uni of Tennessee, USA).
Then there
are 2 rooms running concurrent 20 min presentation sessions all the way up to afternoon
tea except for a Conference Plenary and another Keynote Cycling Infrastructure:
if you build it, will come? (and will they be safe?) by Dr Glen Koorey (ViaStrada,
NZ) after lunch.
Tuesday
afternoon session has two 1-hour Rapid Oral Presentation sessions followed by
Meet the Poster Author’s Function and then the official Conference Dinner.
Wednesday morning opens with a Conference Panel session entitled Arising trends & challenges: what, why & how. Then a full day of 1-hour and 20 min concurrent presentation sessions all the way up to 4.30pm… Phew – what a long day!
At 4.30 it is ICSC Awards and official conference close. The final official event is the Peoples’ Night from 5pm.
Then it’s party time!
Image: ICSC 2019
People’s Night
For the first time, the ICSC community is inviting the general public to attend the Cycling Conference free People’s Night.
I love the idea of a conference having a ‘People’s Night.’ Every conference should have one!
This is a unique opportunity to meet, discuss and network with conference delegates, check out the digital research poster, hear about some of the latest innovations, technology, infrastructure, developments, trends and findings in cycling safety research.
This event is offered in the spirit of the conference guiding principle to share cycling safety research with ALL stakeholders – which I think is a great move. Not everyone is interested or can afford the money or time to attend the whole conference, but to open up your doors and invite the local public an opportunity to interact with delegates is a very smart move – good for the conference, good for the locals!
I’ll be heading in
for this event, so if you are in Brisbane on Wednesday night, I might see you
there! If you would like to attend you can RSVP via the
ICSC FB page HERE. Details below.
Date: Wednesday 20
November Time: 5pm-6.30pm Venue: The Cube, P Block, QUT Gardens Point Campus, Brisbane Cost: Free Inclusions: Complimentary food and non-alcoholic beverages
If you are riding your bike in and around Brisbane this
week, check out the ICSC. Always good to get the latest intel of what is
happening in the cycling world!
Hopefully, the safer it is to ride a bike, the more people will
ride.
If that is the case, get ya conference on ICSC 2019!!
Brisbane, Fri 20th Sept. 2019. Nina and Leki joining 350,000 Australians protesting for Climate Action.
Last month, Leki and I joined 350,000 Australians nation-wide – and millions of people in over 150 countries worldwide – who hit the streets to rally for #ClimateAction. In Australia, there were mass rallies in 8 capital cities as well as 104 other centres. This day of action is known as ‘the student strikes for climate action’ and is led by Swedish Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg.
8-year old Luca, who I had the pleasure of working with recently on a project, also went to the Climate Rally. I asked her if she could a guest blog post about what the event was like – and luckily she said yes. So here it is!
Thanks so much to Luca for putting this together!
Here is a few photos I took from the rally. See Luca’s review below.
Image: @courtwhip
Luca’s review of the Climate Action Rally (Brisbane).
On the weekend I went to the Climate Strike with my family.
We all made posters and marched in the city to fight climate change.
While we were marching we did lots of chants about global warming and saw some great posters that others had made.
My favourite said “It’s getting hot in here so take off all your coals”.
At the march I saw lots of people of all different ages. There were many kids there as well as adults.
At the beginning of the march we listened to talking and started a chant.
Then we started walking through the city. There were about 30,000 people at the protest.
I found the protest fun and exciting but my favourite part was marching around Brisbane.
First of all, it was Father’s Day in Australia and the weather in Brisbane this time of year is absolutely stunning.
This meant everyone was out and about.
There were two annual kick-ass Brisbane bike events to get this month off to a brilliant start: The Big Push and The Kurilpa Derby.
So much fun to be had on two wheels!
Image: Brisbane Bicycle Explorers
The Big Push
The Big Push is an annual slow roll around Brisbane CBD. It is hosted by Space4Cycling Brisbane and is held during QLD’s Road Safety Week. The aim was to bring the cycling community together and to call on the Brisbane City Council and the Queensland Government to improve riding conditions. At the top of community riding needs are three things: build more protected bike lanes, connect networks, and slower speeds in suburban streets. This is so riding in Brisbane will be safer, more comfortable and more convenient for people of all ages and abilities.
On the day, Leki and I headed down to Kurilpa Park to join a whole lot of other riders. It was an excellent turnout. I’d love to know how many people actually attended – it felt like a lot.
We did a slow roll around Brisbane on a designated route. Leki was in fine form and everyone was in a good mood. After a safety talk and a few speeches, we were off. As we rode, we chatted amongst ourselves, made new friends and waved to passer-bys.
I was very impressed with how many under 10-year olds rode the whole way with their parents. I also loved the dogs in trailers and baskets – nothing says bike safety like two pugs in a tandem bike trailer!
There were quite a few people around the city and the mass of red shirts on bikes drew a lot of attention. We also had a police escort and were waved through some traffic lights, but had to stop at others.
At specific points along the route, we all stopped so the whole group could re-form. I really liked these stops. It was great fun getting to a point and riding into the ever expanding swirling circle. It was cool watching the vortex grow in mass as more riders filtered into the loop.
Bells were ringing, speakers played happy tunes, people were laughing – a joyous mass of people on bikes!
At Parliament House we all stopped for a group photo.
Another great Big Push!
Then it was time to head over to Kurilpa Derby for the afternoon.
Image: Space4Cycling (BNE)
Image: @Spaces4Cycling BNE
The Kurilpa Derby
The Kurilpa Derby is an annual community celebration of life on wheels and happens once a year in West End (Brisbane, Australia).
The Kurilpa Derby began as an expression of community celebration and inclusivity.
Each year there is a parade (bicycles are central to this) and novelty races run at the heart of Boundary St, West End (Brisbane, Queensland). The whole street is closed off and the locals take over. This event was first run in 2007. So this year is the Derby’s 12th anniversary.
The Derby is a community event owned and organised by the @WestEndCommunityAssociation. WECA is the residents not-for-profit community based, member-led association.
The Kurilpa Derby officially started at 2pm, but locals and visitors were already out in force well before that.
There is so much to do at the Derby. The locals block off the main street and take it over. One of the main events is a massive street parade.
The Kurilpa Derby parade goes down Boundary Street (from the Dornoch Terrace Bridge to the intersection of Boundary Street and Jane Street. The street is lined with hundreds of appreciative visitors cheering the parade on.
It is an incredible showcase of the range of skills, creativity, spirit and dreams of those who enter – it truly is a spectacle to behold!
Image: @West End Community
There were parade bicycles representing lots of different perspectives such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, community and music groups, environmental issues like the ocean, plastic, global warming, representations of animals, birds, reptiles and insects, school groups, and heaps of others!
And the bikes! Tall bikes, penny-farthings, home-made bikes, tandems, trailers, trikes and more!
Bikes are a central feature of the street parade – and the colour, thought and effort put into the floats is phenomenal.
After the main street parade, there are heaps of sports and skill demonstrations, fun games and races – some novelty (like the go-cart and kids running races), some more serious (like the scooter races).
Local shops, bars and cafes are packed to capacity and there is music, dancing, eating and laughing emanating from everywhere.
I love the energy and community of The Kuripla Derby – so many kids, families, friends, locals and visitors coming together to celebrate the diversity and vibrancy of this beautiful local community. What an event!
It was a busy, fun-filled, community-centred, bicycle-related day – Phew!
I am delighted to share this story. As well as being an incredibly inspirational story and testament to Dinesh Palipana’s unique fortitude and character, this story showcases some of the pioneering work that my university is doing. …And it is totally bike related! I’ve been working at Griffith for over 5 years now. I am continually impressed with the reach, impact and significant contributions Griffith makes to improve society. Last year, I posted about Griffith design graduate and PhD candidateJames Novak’s global award-winning world’s first 3D printed bicycle – also unreal!! This story is about how Dinesh and his team turned an accident he had during his PhD into a scientific-bike research breakthrough. This article was originally published by Griffith News earlier this year. Here it is in full. Enjoy! NG.
Griffith medical graduate and Gold
Coast University Hospital junior doctor Dinesh Palipana thinks about
walking a lot, since a car accident left him a quadriplegic part-way through
his medicine degree.
Now he’s thinking about pushing the pedals of a
specially-adapted recline bike, and thanks to electronic muscle stimulation,
he’s actually moving, in what is the first step towards a world-first
integrated neuro-musculoskeletal rehabilitation program, being developed at the
Gold
Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct (GCHKP).
Griffith biomechanical scientists and engineers Professor
David Lloyd, Dr Claudio Pizzolato and his team, together with Dinesh as
both researcher and patient, are aiming to use their ground-breaking 3D
computer-simulated biomechanical model, connected to an electroencephalogram
(EEG) to capture Dinesh’s brainwaves, to stimulate movement, and eventually
recovery.
Thinking about riding a bike
“The idea is that a spinal injury or neurological patient
can think about riding the bike. This generates neural patterns, and the
biomechanical model sits in the middle to generate control of the patient’s
personalised muscle activation patterns. These are then personalised to the
patient, so that they can then electrically stimulate the muscles to make the
patient and bike move,” says Professor Lloyd who is also from Griffith’s Menzies
Health Institute Queensland.
“It’s all in real-time, with the model adjusting the amount
of stimulation required as the patient starts to recover.
“We’re in the early stages of research and we’re having to
improvise with our equipment, however we know we have shown our real-time
personalised model works, basically like a digital twin of the patient.”
Dr
Palipana is excited to be part of such novel research in his own backyard.
“I
have a selfish and vested interest in spinal cord injury research and I’m
completely happy to be the guinea pig,” Dr Palipana says.
“We’ve
had equipment for many years where people passively exercise using stationary
bikes, and stationary methods where people get on and the equipment moves their
legs for them. The problem is you really need some stimulation from the brain.
“As
the years go by we’re starting to realise that the whole nervous system is very
plastic and it has to be trained, so actually thinking about moving the bike or
doing an activity stimulates the spinal cord from the top down and that creates
change.”
This
top down, bottom up approach is novel, with the model effectively providing a
substitute connection between the limbs and the brain where it was previously
broken when the spinal cord was injured.
The
neuro-rehabilitation research will dovetail with exciting research by Griffith
biomedical scientist, Associate Professor James St John, who has had promising
results for his biological treatment using olfactory (nasal) cells, to create
nerve bridges to regenerate damaged spinal cords.
Establishing new neural pathways
“You use the modelling to recreate the connection, and over
time, with the science of Associate Professor James St John, you establish new
neural pathways. So over time patients will be less dependent on the model to
control the bike movement and it will move back to their own control, with
their regenerating spinal cord and their reprogrammed neural pathways,” says
Professor Lloyd.
Associate Professor James St John hopes to move into human
clinical trials in the GCHKP within the next 2-3 years, and in parallel
Professor Lloyd and his team hope to refine their rehab testing with Dinesh,
and develop the technology with leading global companies in exoskeleton design.
These companies, could in turn, be attracted into the 200-hectare GCHKP.
“In ten years we want to be a one-stop shop for spinal cord
injury and complex neurological patients,” Professor Lloyd says.
“I’m just really lucky to be well-positioned here where
it’s all happening and I want to be involved as much as possible as a doctor
and a potential scientist,” says Dr Palipana.
“It’s my university, my hospital, my city – it’s just
really nice to be a part of that.”
I hope you had a great time today celebrating life on two wheels!
It’s incredible to think this is only the second year this commemorative day has been recognised internationally.
For last year’s first official World Bicycle Day, BCC looked at what this day means to the UN. We also checked out some of the awesome WBD events happening glocally (globally/locally) in Adelaide (AU), India and Denmark.
This year, in my hometown of Brisbane, World Bicycle Day coincided with another important event, the biennial Mabo Oration*.
It was a very interesting talk. Luke raised many important issues as well as sharing his thoughts on activism, racism, leaving a legacy, truth-telling, being a father, next steps and self-determinacy – and this discussion has continued in the media.
This public speech comes at a perfect time given the traction that A/P Chelsea Bond’s recent contribution to the La Trobe racism discussion created.
(If you are not sure what I am talking about – prepare to have your mind blown).
The traction I’m referring to started with a speech given by Associate Professor Chelsea Bond, who was one of four speakers for a LaTrobe University panel discussion on the topic of:
Has racism in contemporary Australia entered the political mainstream?
Image: IndigenousX
If you have not seen it, you
need to.
Why?
Because A/P Bond delivered the most powerful, intelligent, inspiring, uncompromising, kick-ass speech on racism in Australia heard in a very long time!
Make up your own mind.
Below is the full video. A/P Chelsea Bond is the last speaker, so go direct to: 1:01:05 and watch until 1:14:11.
Her speech hit so many high
points on so many levels.
I’ve been walking around for days inspired by Nat Cromb and Luke Pearson’s overview of her speech saying things like Bam! Kapow! Boom! Pow!
Most impactful for me was how
she powerfully called out those who fail to have truthful and confronting
conversations.
This is what has stayed
with me the most – and something that requires ongoing consideration – and action.
In her speech, A/P Bond said ‘In my being, I refuse to bear false witness to these lies.’ Such statements reminds us there is much work to do – and it is everyone’s responsibility to take action and call out racism.
Husband, Nina and Assoc. Prof. Chelsea Bond at the 2019 Mabo Oration, Brisbane.
So, imagine our delight when, on World Bicycle Day at the Mabo Oration, husband and I ran into A/P Chelsea Bond!
OMG!
Shameless academic fanning ensued.
The oration had just concluded and we were all leaving the auditorium when we passed her. Husband spotted her and I took the initative to introduce ourselves and have a chat.
A/P Bond was very accommodating. She was happy to have a good chat and take a photo. We told her how significant her speech had been for us and we talked about how different people have responded to it.
We can home – elated, thrilled, humbled and exhausted.
It had been a day full of culture, challenges, activism and insights.
Without a doubt, World Bicycle Day 2019 has been the most rewarding and motivating.
I hope you had an equally thought-provoking and stimulating day!
Luke Pearson taking questions after his 2019 Mabo Oration.Image: IndigenousX
*The Mabo Oration is a biennial event organised by the Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland and QPAC. It is the Commission’s public commitment to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Queensland. It celebrates and pays tribute to Eddie Mabo and the landmark High Court decision which legally recognised that Indigenous people had a special relationship to the land that existed prior to colonisation. The first Mabo Oration was on 3 June 2005 and this year, the guest speaker was Noel Pearson.
I’m still recovering from BikeHack19! It was intensive, fun and interesting for many reasons. I’m constantly being asked ..What happened?! So, here’s a summary snapshot of each day at BikeHack19. Congrats to all involved. Well done all! NG.
There were 90+ people, 79 hackers, 26 pitches, 13 final teams, 3 business development masterclasses, 3 mentor round-robin sessions and 1 customer focus group (30 pax) and a final pitch to an expert panel of 4 judges who decided on the prize winners. PHEW!
There was $25,000 in prize money for the 4 main categories as well as other additional prizes.
The event was facilitated by Aaron Kirby who did a great job of keeping all the teams motivated and on task all weekend. At this stage, Aaron ran participants through a warm-up game Is that your personality in your pocket? – a fun activity to get the hackers interacting and set the scene well for the ideas pitch and team formation yet to come.
A quick aside note..during the weekend, Aaron also set an additional challenge for hackers to: connect with 10 people, teach someone a skill, stay involved and build something awesome – another great way to mingle and share skills with other teams.
After the warm-up game, was the initial ideas pitch.
This is an important element of hackathons because its where hackers get to share their ideas – and its the first time other participants hear and chose what projects they might want to work on for the rest of the weekend.
Overall, there were 28 1-minute ideas pitched to the audience. Below are my quick notes on each idea and the pitches with a star next to them ended up forming teams that night (with others teams being added on Saturday).
Image: TMR Qld
If you’ve not been to hackathon, the 1-min pitches briefly detail who you are, what your idea is, the name of the project (if you have one) and who is needed for the team to make it happen.
We then got to vote for our favourite 3 ideas and started forming teams.
Some of the teams and people changed, joined, splintered and morphed over the next 12 hours until the teams were fully set by 10 am Saturday.
Then it was game on.
Image: @TMRQld
Saturday – Day 2: Development
After an 8 am breakfast, teams got started working on their projects.
It was an intense day.
Many teams were still getting to know each other, as well as running around the city (and online), doing customer validations, continuing research, and developing and consolidating what their actual project/idea was.
From 8.30am until 6 pm, teams had a series of startup workshops (like how to use a Lean Startup model, Facebook Ads, and the event Slack platform) and a constant round-robin of consultation with mentors, industry experts, sponsors and subject matter experts.
Each mentor session added an extra layer of complexity, understanding and reality to the projects. Mentor whiplash!
At different stage throughout the day, people were running in and out of the building – hackers were busy interviewing would-be customers, making phone calls, pivoting on their ideas, tweaking concepts, mocking up product trials, sending out online surveys, designing pilots, making AV documentation, calling in favours – oh yeah…and voting in the election!
At 6 pm, all the teams had 10 mins each to
explain their ideas to a focus group of 30 people who gave immediate feedback
and asked questions – everyone was exhausted by this stage.
BikeBuddy Sunday morning ride into BikeHack19. Nina, Eric and Victor.
Sunday – Day 3: Final Day
After another early start, the morning sessions included a workshop on the final pitch and another series of last-minute mentor meetings to finalise ideas.
By lunch, all teams were working on final pitch rehearsal and preparation.
At 3 pm, all worked stopped. All team PPTs were submitted.
Guests started arriving for the final 4pm panel presentation.
For final pitches, each team had a 5-min to present with a PPT (and other realia or prototypes) to a panel of 4 judges.
It was a real honour to receive the Spirit of the Hack Award. It was a little embarrassing when the Aaron asked the whole room to stand up and point to the person they think embodied the spirit of the event – and everyone pointed to me! I was awarded it for helping other teams, being enthusiastic and having a passion for getting more people on bikes – of course!
Beyond BikeHack19
This BikeHack event must have been a massive effort to get organised.
As a participant, I was impressed by how available and supportive the organisers and sponsors were over the whole weekend.
Congrats and thanks to all!
A massive big thank you to
the amazing sponsors, organisers, mentors and volunteers who made this weekend
possible.
This includes event organisers Fishburners Sarah and Issac who were particularly outstanding. Sarah I will not forget your stairwell help! Fishburners supplies a brilliant range of inspiration, collection and connection to support tech startups including a collaborative office space in Brisbane.
Aurecon supplied their amazing office
for the event. It was an absolute delight being able to work in their office
space – thank you!
The TMR Queensland staff were always on hand to answer questions and help out where and whenever they were needed.
I think all the teams did really well and as a participant I can appreciate all the extra hard work behind the scenes that no-one else sees. I also commend all the teams on their final pitches – it is such a difficult thing to do.
Overall it was an epic event. The weekend was full of the necessary ups and downs that come with hackathons, startups and working with new people.
A big congrats to all the hackers who participated and gave their time, skills, ideas and energy to help explore ideas get more people on bikes more often in Queensland.
My last post was an invitation to Brisbane’s upcoming BikeHack19 event. I have had a lot of interesting responses and conversations with friends and colleagues about this event and suggestions for pitches.
I asked Alison Turner, a dear friend, if she would like to come to BikeHack19 with me.
Alison and I have worked on a number of creative projects before. She not only has a head for business and project managing, but she is a skilled artist in her own right and I have called on her (many times!) when working on this-or-that thing either to cast her discerning eye over an idea, to practically help solve a design issue or just to join in making whatever it is I’m working on.
She is great company, a skilled artist, a flexible thinker and killer at scrabble – everything you want in a project buddy!
Unfortunately though, Alison can’t come to
BikeHack19.
But the offer got her thinking.
Alison worked for Australia Sailing for many years and was in charge of training and increasing participation in sailing in Queensland. So unbeknownst to me, she set her business prowess and program insights to good work. After doing some research of her own, she used her experience promoting sailing participation to the BikeHack19 cycling challenge and brainstormed some ideas.
The next time I saw Alison, she presented
me with her brainstorm (see below) and explained it in detail – it was spot on.
Alison and her BikeHack19 brainstorm.
We chatted about the similarities in crossover
of participation issues between sailing and cycling – and how much transferability
there was between the two sports.
I love having people like Alison in our community.
She is an example of those who not only freely give their time and ideas to friends,
but who are equally excited to apply the same effort and passion to building a
more cohesive and active community – what a gift!
I am very appreciative to Alison.
Thanks so much for your ideas and time!
I will definitely be taking these ideas to
BikeHack19.
Brisbane is hosting Australia’s first-ever hackathon about bike
riding BikeHack19 later this month.
In a similar vein to a 3 Day Start Up or tech Hackathons, this event is focused on solving a problem. In this case, the cycling challenge is…..
How can bike riding be more accessible and appealing in
Queensland so people ride bikes more often?
This event is not focused on changing policy, but it is an exploration
of any other possibilities that could include bike tech, gamification, design,
data, support services or new business ideas.
Anyone over the age of 18 can participate as long as they
are not a government employee.
When I went earlier this week to
BikeHack19’s info night, I was sitting next to a tech start-up entrepreneur
on one side and an engineer on the other. Other people I spoke to came from widely
diverse backgrounds including sociologists, researchers, students, town
planners, public health academics and programmers. I was surprised at how few
cyclists there were.
Here’s the event schedule.
BikeHack19 is promoted as being an opportunity to meet new
people and expand networks. As well as working with fellow hackers in teams over
the weekend to process their ideas, there are also industry experts, advisors
and funders on hand to suggest and mentor teams throughout the process.
Previously, I participated in a 3 Day Start-Up (3DS) intensive which ran 40 Griffith PhD
candidates through an entrepreneurial practical intensive on how to develop aspects
of their PhD research into a start-up business. It was fun, but very intense. Five
key reflections emerged for me from my 3DS experience – insights that I will need
to revisit as I consider if I will participate in BikeHack19.
To help focus and refine ideas, the organisers commissioned Enhance Research
to look into the issue using a 3-phase research design. They collated findings
into 3 ‘profiles’ on the common type of bike riders in Queensland and their
motivation.
These profiles (see them below) inform the three challenge categories and can be used as a stimulus ‘target market’ for the teams.
Cash Prizes
Overall,
there is $25,000 in prize money – much more than other similar events.
The $25,000 is divided into four cash prizes.
Overall team with best idea: – $10,000
One (1) overall winner prize of $10,000 for ‘best overall idea’ and three category winner prizes ($5,000 each) will go to the teams that come up the best ideas that address each of the three categories:
Active
Transport – $5,000 prize
Happy,
Healthy Families – $5,000 prize
Tourism
and Recreation – $5,000 prize
Winners will be determined by a judging panel on the Sunday
night. Prize money will be distributed to each member of the winning team,
equally with no
strings attached.
What is expected by the end of the weekend?
There are no hard and fast rules on what is expected as a finished ‘product’
to be pitched in the final presentation on Sunday evening. The focus is more
on teams working through stages of ideation, process and development of solutions
to the challenge.
So if you have an idea about how to get more Queenslanders on bicycles – check out BikeHack19 and pitch your idea.
Who knows maybe your idea will win!
To be part of BikeHack19 will cost you $30. Register here
