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Women on the Road: Skills and Knowledge Workshop

Women are doing the heavy lifting when it comes to cycling advocacy in this town. That's a fact that is impossible to deny!


The Woolloongabba Substation is located 100 metres from the end of the recently completed Woolloongabba Bikeway


The inspiration for this event came after Useful's Mike had been in regular conversation with the tireless Belinda Ward from Space for Cycling Brisbane and the notoriously forthright Anne Savage who only recently departed Bicycle Queensland. Though opinions sometimes differ about the 'optics' of how to go about supporting women to engage more with cycling, all the advocates we speak to say that overall improvement in cycling infrastructure in positive consultation with the community will not only benefit women, but all members of the community who would like to safely travel by bicycle. 


At Useful we believe that positive growth in cycling is a cultural challenge. We value the dialogues facilitated by advocates and active citizens holding government to account by engaging in policy development and implementation of infrastructure, but we also value skills and knowledge for understanding bicycles and what it is to be an active cyclist. It is in skills and knowledge that we can meet cyclists wherever they are on their journey.


We were delighted when Belinda Ward recommended active cyclist extraordinaire Kath Angus to represent Space for Cycling Brisbane and herself  at Women on the Road. Among other things Kath competes in cyclo-cross and is positively effusive about the benefits of cycling. She takes on the undulating terrain of public engagements with the skill of a seasoned competitor. She's also running on the Greens ticket for Lord Mayor.  


Councilor Nicole Johnston (Tennyson Ward) was one of the original inspirations for our event. Mike first encountered Nicole in the Brisbane City Council - Public and Active Transport Committee where he witnessed her formidable interrogations of sitting councilors, her unswerving advocacy for the residents of Tennyson Ward and her dedication to commonsense accountability. Nicole engages Useful at primary schools in Tennyson Ward in support of the BCC Active School Travel Program. 


The event would not have been possible without the support of Bicycle Queensland who took care of venue booking and ticketing. Event organiser Andrew and BQ in-house mechanic Josh facilitated the skills session along with Jessie from Useful. BQ also provided the door prize of a free entry to Chicks in the Sticks 2019 which was won by Steph who hired a full suspension 29er the day before the competition. 


While Mike, Josh and Andrew made themselves scarce the special guests got down to business. 




The discussion ranged between issues for new cyclists to some of the finer points of developing legible and functional infrastructure. We were delighted to discover that there were attendees that were working and studying in town planning. 


Jesse represented Useful in the discussions and the bike skills session that followed. This was her take on the evening:  


I felt like the evening went really well. There was a lot of positive energy in the room, and I sensed that the women who attended were genuinely happy to have this avenue to connect. The discussion session generated some fruitful conversation; I gained a lot of perspective on the specific needs of women cyclists, and it would be great to see this conversation evolve.

How will the conversation evolve? We can be sure that women will continue to do the heavy lifting. 


For our part Useful will continue to pitch similar events. The upcoming council elections represent a good opportunity to talk about cycling in the context of active transport options. 


We would like to thank our special guests Kath and Nicole for bringing so much energy to the evening. We would especially like to thank Anne Savage for getting us started with Bicycle Queensland. We would also like to thank Andrew and Josh from BQ for their skills and facilitation. And we would like to thank our attendees for taking an interest in our event. We hope you went away as inspired as we were!








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