‘LOCAL GOVERNMENT CHALLENGE’

now

‘MY RADIUS OF INFLUENCE’

I commenced this project during Melbourne’s long 112-day Covid-19 lockdown in 2020 as a
‘Local Government Challenge’.

The aim was to find each day during my two hours of permitted bicycle exercise, within a 5-kilometre radius of my home, one small, positive and inexpensive change that the responsible local government council could make to the road infrastructure that would immediately improve safety for cyclists. I would simply photograph the spot and upload it to my twitter account (@heathryan16) along with an explanation of how this location could be improved and safety enhanced.

Regrettably, not one of the 35 changes I suggested were acted upon by the relevant local government councils (i.e. Yarra City Council, Darebin City Council, and Melbourne City Council). And, I was beginning to gain a reputation on Twitter for being negative!

Then, unfortunately, Melbourne’s lockdown got extended on 6 September 2020. I realised that I still faced a further 7 weeks ‘imprisoned’ within a 5-kilometre radius of my home. Frustrated in an almost irrational way, I decided to go for an afternoon bicycle ride the next day to de-stress.
Instead, I suffered a cardiac arrest and fell off my bike.

Now fully recovered, and learning how better to deal with stress, my original ‘Local Government Challenge’ project has evolved into a ‘book’ project.

And so, soon to be released:

My Radius of Influence: It Took a Pandemic

ISBN: 978-0-7346-4152-6 (print)
ISBN: 978-0-7346-2219-8 (ebook)

A free PDF ebook of this work will be available in late 2021.