{"id":14,"date":"2008-01-08T05:38:25","date_gmt":"2008-01-08T13:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/modernthings.org\/binthebikeban\/2008\/01\/08\/controversial-bike-ban-to-stay\/"},"modified":"2008-01-08T05:38:25","modified_gmt":"2008-01-08T13:38:25","slug":"controversial-bike-ban-to-stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/modernthings.org\/binthebikeban\/2008\/01\/08\/controversial-bike-ban-to-stay\/","title":{"rendered":"Controversial bike ban to stay?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Not if we have anything to say about it!<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nACTING Premier Rob Hulls has defended the controversial move to ban bikes on V-Line trains during peak periods.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The decision that was made in relation to bikes on peak services is all about passenger comfort and ensuring that people can travel on trains in comfort during peak hours,&#8221; Mr Hulls said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There has been no decision made about rescinding that decision.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;The fact is that passengers on trains want to be able to travel in comfort.[&#8220;]<\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.news.com.au\/heraldsun\/story\/0,21985,23022828-2862,00.html\">Herald Sun, 08-01-2008<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m pretty sure more than wanting to be able to travel in comfort, passengers &#8212; all passengers, including cyclists &#8212; <em>want to be able to travel, period<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>There are two major problems with Hulls&#8217; statements. The first is that he was making them in relation to the V\/Line bans. This is despite the fact that <strong>V\/Line trains have dedicated storage areas for bikes and therefore no person ever loses a seat on a V\/Line train due to a bike<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>This is a quote from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/news\/national\/bike-racks-or-not-cycles-banned-on-peakhour-trains\/2007\/12\/31\/1198949746732.html\">an Age article <\/a>a couple of days ago:<\/p>\n<p><strong>A spokesman for V\/Line said the ban for country users during peak times was regrettable, but the high number of passengers taking their bike on packed trains during rush hours was becoming a problem.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Well guess what? There is a really easy way of solving that. Introduce a bike booking system. There is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vline.com.au\/travellingwithvline\/whatyoucantake\/large_items.html?\">still no booking system<\/a> for those who want to take their bikes on V\/Line trains.<\/p>\n<p>Is that rocket science or what?<\/p>\n<p>Have a look:<\/p>\n<p><a href='http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/32614668@N00\/2119908990\/in\/set-72157602338569578' title='vline-8bikes'><img src='http:\/\/modernthings.org\/binthebikeban\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/vline.jpg' alt='vline-8bikes' \/><\/a><br \/>\n&copy; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/32614668@N00\/\">Geoffmo<\/a> (thankyou!)<\/p>\n<p>Here is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/32614668@N00\/2082636453\/in\/set-72157602338569578\/\">another one<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Wow, do you notice how the bikes are not anywhere near where people actually sit?<\/p>\n<p>Rob Hulls&#8217; claim that the V\/Line ban is about passenger comfort is a blatant lie. Removing these bikes would clearly create <strong>no new passenger space whatsoever<\/strong>. Hulls should retract his claim and explain the real reason that he thinks it&#8217;s acceptable for a <strong>public transport decision<\/strong> to force people to either get a new job or buy a car. This ban is shameful and unacceptable for a Government that preaches sustainaibility yet cannot even properly maintain a public transport system that people want to use!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not if we have anything to say about it! ACTING Premier Rob Hulls has defended the controversial move to ban bikes on V-Line trains during peak periods. &#8220;The decision that was made in relation to bikes on peak services is all about passenger comfort and ensuring that people can travel on trains in comfort during [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/modernthings.org\/binthebikeban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/modernthings.org\/binthebikeban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/modernthings.org\/binthebikeban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/modernthings.org\/binthebikeban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/modernthings.org\/binthebikeban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/modernthings.org\/binthebikeban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/modernthings.org\/binthebikeban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/modernthings.org\/binthebikeban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/modernthings.org\/binthebikeban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}