Bicycle owners won’t cycle because roads too dangerous

Many Melburnians believe that cycling in traffic is dangerous and there are suggestions Melbourne needs ''greenways'', bike-friendly roads with speed limits of 20 km/h where helmets are optional.

Research findings out today have found most bicycle owners who do not to ride to work have nominated dangerous traffic conditions as the big deterrent.

About 90 per cent of the 800 Victorians who responded to a telephone and online Sweeney Research survey said Victorian roads were not safe for cyclists.

Garry Glazebrook, senior lecturer at the school of the built environment, University of Technology Sydney, told a Planning Institute of Australia luncheon in Melbourne yesterday that some city roads should be transformed to make them bicycle friendly

''I am of the view that the mere fact that we put helmets on people is the wrong way around, it is admitting that it's not safe to ride a bike and the reality is it isn't safe.''