State Bike Count reports:

Today's bike count by Bicycle Network NT has revealed, yet again, that more women ride in the top end by percentage.

So what is it that gets so many women riding in a stinking hot, sticky and sweaty environment like Darwin and Alice Springs? Why is it that this Australian territory is setting the trend for the rest of Australia?

Well it is a number of reasons. so let's take a look at what is different about Darwin and Alice Springs compared to the rest of Australia.

PICTURE: Helen Orr

• Darwin has lots of paths. These are dedicated to cycling, not shared with pedestrians

To hate something, I mean really hate a thing takes a lot of energy. It takes more energy to hate than it does to accept, ignore or love something. Hatred is simply a lack of understanding. We have seen this time and time again.

hate
heɪt/
intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, or sense of injury

The saddest part of hate is it blinds you from ever wanting to accept or understand a thing.

You cannot hate these things in polite society:

• Different religions
• Different nationalities
• hell, this list is too long, so let's list something we can hate...

We seem to be legally allowed to hate people on bikes. In fact it is encouraged by many parts of our society. We are told that we crash more (we don't), we kill more (we don't), we cause congestion on bikes (we don't) and that we are risking our lives being on the roads (we aren't).

But what is really hard to understand is that social media helps to encourage and spread all these lies through pages dedicated to 'hatred'.

It has to be said that I have always been a big advocate in cycling.   Even as a child I loved to ride my bike.

Over the past few years I've changed my opinion on a number of items when it comes to cycling, this has lead to a lot of internal conflicts in my own thinking. I haven't changed my love of cycling at any time, but I have changed the way that I cycle based on my current information.

To this day I still believe I have an open mind about anything and everything. But many people we deal with end cycling and in other road issues don't think the same way as we do.

This is not the end of the dialogue, it creates the dialogue. Much in the same way as you argue with your parents over what vegetables you would eat when you were a child, we have to convince other adults of different ideas and ideals they don't hold close.

Not everyone thinks the same as you!

Convincing someone to think like you is not easy. It comes at a cost and that cost comes in many forms:

• your energy
• your sanity
• your friends
• Even your family.

So why do we do it? What makes an advocate? Why put ourselves through this? These questions I cannot answer for others, I can only answer them for myself.

So why do I do it? It was a mistake that turned into a good idea that turned into a great idea that turns into Cycle.  Cycle is much bigger than I could have ever imagined and I am so proud of it, I guess I do it now because it's something I've always doing.

Today on 3AW, I was asked if we supported Hi-Vis for cyclists. I said 'No'. And here is why:

 

What are we doing to our kids?

We want them to grow up happy and well adjusted. But all they know is what they see 30 centimetres from their eyes on a 10-inch screen.

Today's announcement of the reduction in the number of kids riding to school has me truly concerned for the longevity of our species.

We are getting closer and closer to the Wall-E way of life with people floating on chairs watching hollo-screens centimetres from their noses.

It is not escaping any of the sports clubs that numbers are dropping as parents are more and more concerned about injuries and awards. We seem to be less and less allowing kids to be kids. We want them in their rooms or on the couch. Happy for them to do hours of homework as long as we know where they are.

When we were kids, we were out after school with one rule - be home by dark.

We did it all, climbing trees, jumping off building and running around - we were fit, we were healthy and we had fun. We can't wind back the clock on our time, but we don't have to take what we had away from our kids.