I had a really good talk with Rosemary from the Cycling Promotion Fund the other day. It kind of shocked me at first how on-the-ball she (and the CPF) is. You know how you get used to talking to people who give lots of excuses and listen vaguely to your ideas. None of that with Rosemary. And she told me some especially interesting news re cycling in Sydney. It seems that NSW and Sydney in particular have been identified as being especially in need of some help to improve conditions for cyclists. And the CPF will be funding someone Sydney based and independant of BikeNSW to try to get things happening. Very exciting!!
For those who don’t know who the CPF are, check out their website. It is FANTASTIC. Lots of very useful info to help you get more out of whatever type of cycling you are into.
The Cycling Promotion Fund is pretty much funded by a handful of our bike industry Wholesalers, who pay a percentage of their turnover each quarter. As of today, the full members are Avanti Bikes, Birdy Bikes, Tioga, Bicycling Australia magazine, Trek, Cycle Cover Insurance, Giant bicycles, Mongoose Bicycles, Greenspeed, Felt bikes, Shimano, Moruya Bicycles, Body Torque Clothing, Dirt Works and Cheeky Transport.
I can not believe how small a list this is. Every other bloody wholesaler is freeloading on these companies efforts. How can they not understand how valuable the CPF is in the future of their own businesses?
Anyway, check out the CPF site and all the above suppliers sites and forget the rest.
Cheeky Transport Bikes - Please visit our new site at www.cheekytransport.com.au 
“independent of Bicycle NSW”?
Does this mean the CPF thinks Bicycle NSW is an ineffective organisation?
Comment by pedaller — July 2, 2006 @ 2:20 pm
what does everyone else think?
Comment by schmadzie — July 2, 2006 @ 2:24 pm
from what i can see, BNSW doesn’t have the resources, profile or support to be a really effective organisation..
Comment by nboyakovsky — July 2, 2006 @ 4:49 pm
Or the ‘want’ to say what a bad job that the current government is doing. BNSW at present are trying to get the other Gov departments involved eg Health – Education etc. The issue being is that these departments don’t put cycling infrastructure down.
Comment by blinddog — July 3, 2006 @ 2:37 am
The other thing is that we should be demanding at least 1% ($25-$30 mill/year)of the RTA budget. That is approx the percentage of people who commute to work each day. If we want to seriously increase cycling the gov should be putting in 2-3% of the RTA budget to cycling.
Comment by blinddog — July 3, 2006 @ 2:40 am
The answer is clearly yes, they are innefective. And I think we need to say it a little louder.
A nice little turf war might do wonders in keeping everyone on their toes, we can’t have too many players in the game…..and maybe a few extra balls. And no way do I want to see industry funds going toward BNSW.
It’s also clear that many wholesalers (and retailers) fail to make the connection between advocacy support and sales potential. More needs to be done here.
I’ve always liked this industry model because in our current climate of money talking and b..l s..t walking, no one (Govt that is) listens to activists anymore, they always listen to business because our newly minted modern day technorat is taught to obey the almighty god of market based solutions led by business, this is the way to get through this mess.
Wholesalers should be looking at Sydney as our most significant market for growth and get on board with financing any solutions that leads us toward the goal of making Sydney Australia’s number one cycling precinct.
In this case what’s good for business may be good for cycling.
Comment by Phil — July 3, 2006 @ 2:44 am
Pedaller asks some good questions about BNSW..
Comment by nicholasb — July 5, 2006 @ 4:09 pm