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DPI Home | Cycling Home | Bikeweek | 2008 | Members of Parliament Bike Ride

Members of Parliament and Local Government Mayors’ Bike Ride

Members of Parliament and Local Government Mayors’ Bike Ride

Participants at the Blue Water Cafe enjoy a healthy breakfast

Members of Parliament and Local Government Mayors’ Bike Ride

MPs and Local Government participants ride along a Canning River shared path

Held traditionally on Tuesday during the annual Cycle Instead Bikeweek, the 2008 ride drew the biggest participation in the 14 years the event has been held.

Organised by the Department for Planning and Infrastructure's Bikewest unit, the 14th annual ride was co-hosted by the City of Melville, with the support from the Public Transport Authority and the Western Australia Police.

The VIP group included parliamentarians, local government mayors and councillors, and representatives of cycling groups, police and public sector departments.
Some were regular participants, while others attended for the first time - including a number of newly-elected mayors.

Early that morning, 55 dignitaries and six ride marshals donned the familiar Cycle Instead and Bikeweek 2008 t-shirts, and set off on their bikes to explore the cycling infrastructure and facilities within the City of Melville. 

The event aimed to give participants the opportunity to gain first-hand experience of cycling conditions around the Perth metropolitan area, by using different types of cycling infrastructure, such as bicycle lanes, Principal Shared Paths, old and recently-built shared paths and segregated paths.

Bikewest Manager Ken Suttie said "These rides offer the participants a possibility to learn from other councils, in this instance from the City of Melville, on how to resolve some of the issues affecting them.

"It is helpful to learn what other councils are doing or planning to do to extend and improve on their portions of the Perth Bicycle Network."

By participating in this annual event, the VIPs reinforced their ongoing commitment to cycling, both as a mode of travel and recreation.

The MPs and Mayors' Bike Ride was one of many feature events of Bikeweek 2008.  This page gives you information about other events.

Ride Route 2008

Minister MacTiernan and City of Melville's Mayor, Russell Aubrey, lead
the MPs and Mayors' ride from Bull Creek Station

The 2008 event began with a train ride on the newly opened Mandurah Rail Line, with 25 people making the trip from Esplanade Station to Bull Creek Train Station, where they were met by a further 30 participants.

State parliamentarians who took part in this year's ride included the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure Hon Alannah MacTiernan MLA and the regular supporters: Ben Wyatt MLA Member for Victoria Park, Tony Simpson MLA Member for Serpentine-Jarrahdale, Dr Janet Woollard MLA Member for Alfred Cove, Mick Murray MLA Member for Collie-Wellington and Giz Watson MLC Member for North Metropolitan Region. The new member for Peel, Paul Papalia MLA joined in this year.

This year's group also included the City of Perth's Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi, the first Lord Mayor to attend this ride, and she was joined by mayors and councillors from Claremont, Cambridge, Victoria Park, Vincent, Armadale, Bayswater, Fremantle, Serpentine-Jarrahdale and Nedlands.

Mayor Russell Aubrey, of the City of Melville, which co-hosted the ride with Bikewest, welcomed the group at Bull Creek Park'n'Ride.

The group began its ride at the recently opened section of Principal Shared Path through the new Bull Creek Train Station.

The ride also featured the recently upgraded (with partially funding from Bikewest) sections of Canning River foreshore Recreational Shared Path between Deep Water Point to just south of the Canning Bridge.

Another feature was the recently separated paths constructed around the Raffles Hotel development, which offered spectacular views of the river and the Perth City Skyline.

For the past 10 years, the City of Melville has placed a strong priority on providing cycling infrastructure along road and path networks in the municipality.

The ride finished at the Blue Water Cafe, Point Heathcote, Applecross, where riders were able to network and refresh for a while.

The Minister reinforced the government commitment to cycling and invited local governments to take advantage of the Perth Bicycle Network Local Government Grants program.

In his address to the group, Mayor Aubrey said that the City of Melville had put a lot of effort into developing a well connected cycling network, in close cooperation with the DPI.

"It isn't only infrastructure that we are focusing on"  he said. 

"The City of Melville has developed a comprehensive community education program and, again with the help of DPI funding, we were the first local government to hire a TravelSmart officer in the year 2000."

"In 2005, we began to fully fund this position and have instituted many initiatives to educate and encourage our residents to use alternative modes of travel that are healthy and environmentally friendly."

Page last updated Monday, 28 April 2008 12:44
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