JASON DOWLING, 4 February 2010, The Age - National

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.

The survey was commissioned by insurer AAMI and was made in the middle of last year.

It found two-thirds of drivers surveyed said cyclists were a hazard, 29 per cent said they had had an accident or a near miss with a cyclist and 83 per cent claimed to have seen cyclists break road rules and ride dangerously.

But an overwhelming number - 78 per cent of those surveyed - said they would like to see better facilities 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.

''Let's think about creating some cycle paths where you don't have to wear a helmet, I call them greenways, places [streets] where there is a maximum of 20 kilometres an hour speed limit … all cars have to give way to pedestrians and cyclists, and on those roads you don't need to have a helmet,'' Dr Glazebrook said.

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