CULTURE CHANGE

QWhen I was a kid I remember I used to ride around the street and the neighbourhood with freedom. Do you feel we’ve lost that culture? Why?

AI think there’s probably a little bit of everything there. I think the whole community’s understanding and the safety and as a kid, five years old, riding around on a BMX, doing jumps at the park, some parents won’t even let their kids ride to school because of traffic and other horrors in the community to do with child safety. I think with the infrastructure being built around town, like the Freshwater City Express bikeway, all of those things, you see people come out on all sorts of vehicles. Growing up in Adelaide, you would go to the park and do your jumps. Here you don’t want kids riding on the footpath because everyone’s now putting up high fences and securing their homes but that’s also impeding vision for people walking along the footpath. My daughter only 12 months ago got hit by a car coming out of a driveway while she was riding on the footpath. She was only metres away and there was nothing she could do. That infrastructure of bike paths, being able to get away from that particular impediment I would say, it’s a design impediment, because of shrinking backyards and less community spirit whereas low fences, this is going back to more of a design impact, having low fences and open front yards, exposing and presenting a better community spirit as well, in doing that provides a safer environment.