The Tao of City Cyclling

Convenor:	Associate Professor Frank Fisher, Department of Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Adjunct Professor, National Centre for Sustainability, Swinburne University of Technology.
Dates:	26 – 28 November 2007
Time:	1:30pm - 3:30pm
Venue:	Department of Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine, 3rd floor seminar room, Burnet Building, Alfred Hospital.
Suitable for:	All with the physical wherewithal to ride a bicycle and an interest in approaches and strategies that promote health, well being and environmental sustainability. The course will benefit those considering altering their commuting behaviour to favour healthy and environmentally sustainable alternatives.
Aims:	This course introduces participants to a way of seeing the world that recognises "ways of seeing" as culturally accepted sets of social constructs. [See e.g. the new first year MBBS course Health Knowledge & Society devised by a team on which the author was the extra-faculty rep.] Participants are given the opportunity to grapple intellectually and physically with two of these social constructs namely the social dynamic of the road and its subset safety/vulnerability in traffic.
Overview:	Students will learn to appreciate the social frameworks within which they travel and their health, safety and sustainability implications. In addition to the intellectual appreciation of the social dynamic of the road, participants will spend the last third of their time actually on the road translating the theory they have gained into practice. In addition to Frank Fisher (engineer/environmental scientist) various practising commuter cyclists will be involved. Principal among these are Dr. John Merory (neurologist, Austin).
Fee:	$220