Poll Results: With on-road cycling, how far are you willing to go?

Alright, my third poll has now closed. Thanks to the eight people who had their say. Due to the nature of this poll, there is not too much I can comment on unlike my previous polls. The results are shown to the right:

It shows that visitors to my blog are cycling enthusiasts so to speak, which means people who are serious about cycling as well as the casual rider is also interested. It sometimes amazes me how many people are willing to participate in the "man vs. machine" fight for road space in a regular traffic lane. Personally, I would stick to nothing more than a marked bicycle lane but I have been on roads with a wide left lane before.

A new poll is now up. As always, feel free to have your say by choosing the option most applicable to you.

Poll Results: Which trail(s) do you ride on most frequently?

Alright folks, my second poll has now closed. I give a big thanks to the 12 people that took their time to submit their votes. Here are the results:

As you can clearly gather from the results, 58% of voters use the Main Yarra Trail most frequently, which is no surprise at all, considering it is a direct route until you get to Yarra Bend Park, then from there on, people tend to go their own ways to their destinations, either taking the popular Yarra Boulevard, Capital City Trail or using inner-city streets. This is followed by 33% of voters using the Koonung Creek Trail, which directly follows the Eastern Freeway. It is well known that the Koonung Creek/Main Yarra combination is popular from the Doncaster/Nunawading area to Yarra Bend Park due to the few road crossings, fairly flat terrain (the major exception is along the Eastern Freeway between Yarra Bend Park and Bulleen Road where there are a couple of short, sharp inclines, depending on your direction of travel) and direct route. Coming in third is the Dandenong Creek Trail/EastLink Trail combination (I combined both since they basically run the same route and overlap a couple of times) and any other trail in Melbourne. The EastLink Trail has proved to be a fairly decent success, with it's superior wide concrete surface, good sight lines and gradient (Mullum Mullum section excluded) and decent, but not perfect directional and warning signage. The fact that 2 footbridges are also currently being built helps things, as well as when you compare it to the sub-standard Dandenong Creek Trail it has somewhat superseeded (that is, the sections around Jells Park / Bushy Park Wetlands and around Dandenong).

The conclusion is simply that off-road paths which are fairly direct, usually running beside a creek or freeway, which run for a fair distance come out on top for popularity with riders.

A new poll will be up shortly, so please participate. It would be nice to see 13 or more people voting this time around.

Poll Results: What annoys you most about the new EastLink Trail?

Okay, my first poll has now closed. Let's check the results: 

• Steep route through the Mullum Mullum Valley
• The missing footbridges
• Inconsistent signage
• Lack of upgrades to connecting trails
• Use of the existing railway station footbridge at Yarraman
• Lack of drinking fountains
• Not enough user/visitor information about the trail
• Not upgrading the section between Carrum and Dandenong South

It is clearly evident that the issue bugging most riders are the missing footbridges. At the present moment, cyclists have to crossing using traffic lights at busy major roads including Maroondah Highway, Canterbury Road, Burwood Highway, High Street Road, Railway Parade and Cheltenham Road. Maroondah and Burwood are the worst as pedestrian lights are installed on the slip lanes, instead of zebra crossings.

The good news is that the Burwood Highway footbridge is currently being constructed and should be completed by early 2009. The Maroondah Highway footbridge project began about a month ago and should be completed by mid 2009. There is also talks of a High Street Road footbridge but no official announcements have been made.

The steep route through Mullum Mullum and the use of the existing footbridge at Yarraman Station are the next biggest grudges. I believe some of the trail could have been better graded to make riding abit easier, as it does put off some amateur riders. The situation at Yarraman Station is a shocking effort. A footbridge could have easily been attatched to the EastLink Bridge with an extra section connecting the bridge to the railway station footbridge for train access. In the end it is all about cost-cutting and lack of proper thought.

A new poll has now been posted. Go and vote for the good of the cycling community!