00:00 When Lela and Ulrike Ross set off for their daily 20km ride to work in Canberra, the weather
00:07 and angry drivers are just two of their challenges.
00:12 Very few bike paths are lit up so it can feel very threatening and very menacing to ride
00:16 at night.
00:17 In a city built for cars, cyclists have sometimes felt second rate citizens.
00:23 Saying that we can share a road when there is a significant power disparity is a bit
00:28 of a funny one.
00:29 A simple mistake can kill you.
00:31 While nearly a quarter of Canberrans cycle every week, it's mostly for recreation and
00:36 just 5% cycle to work.
00:39 Because the city's outdated bike path network often just doesn't cut it.
00:44 Originally when it was built many decades ago, the routes were often circuitous.
00:48 They weren't direct and didn't take people down the major transport corridors.
00:55 The ACT government's now wanting to get more bums onto bike seats and it's set about retrofitting
01:00 city streets for the job.
01:03 Redesigning bike paths, roundabouts and intersections and giving cyclists a safe separation from
01:09 vehicles.
01:10 So complex junctions like this will be the new norm.
01:14 Every piece of new infrastructure that we build, every new road project will incorporate
01:19 these new standards which are best practice around the world.
01:23 Back in Canberra the issue of active travel has sparked a cycling alliance between the
01:28 government and opposition.
01:30 On a day where I've ridden an hour into work, I've got a heightened level of consciousness
01:35 for the rest of the day.
01:38 Even if his ride is seasonal.
01:40 I'm not going to lie, the magpies do give me a bit of grief because once they do start,
01:45 I put the bike away until the end of spring.
01:47 That's just a choice that I make.
01:49 I'm not interested in having those arguments with magpies anymore.
01:52 The government's active travel plan will be finalised by the end of this year but getting
01:57 Canberrans out of cars is likely to need generational change.
02:02 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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