Victoria – The Pedal Happy State

An interesting article (‘Victoria Proves Australia’s Riding State) was published in The Age recently. It stated that Victoria had the highest bike use in Australia. The National Cycling Participation Survey, a poll of 10,000 Australians taken between February and April, showed that more than 4 million people across the country ride a bike each week. From this, it found over 1 million Victorians cycle each week.
This is quite an impressive result for Victoria, however upon further inspection of results, it is still evident that not many cycle regularly. The survey found that, in a typical week, 3.6 million Australians ride a bike for recreation, leisure or sport, and 1.2 million make at least one transport journey by bike. In Victoria, the most pedal happy state; only 1.3 per cent of trips to work or school are by bike.
The benefits of riding are clear. Health, reduction in congestion and environmental issues are a few that immediately spring to mind. The article reiterated this with Stephen Hodge (spokesmen of the National cycling Organization) confirming ‘physical inactivity [is] costing our health budget an estimated $1.5 billion a year and the economy $13 billion a year, cycling appears to be one of the easiest ways to increase our physical activity and create a healthier Australia’.
Overall, these stats do not stack up as well as they could. With a substantial part of the population claiming they ride bikes, yet so few ride at least once a week to work/school; the disparity is rather disappointing. With so many benefits of riding known, what is it that keeps people from riding more often?
Marilyn Johnson, a research fellow at Monash University’s Accident Research Centre, has looked at accidents on Victorian roads involving cyclists for four years. She said governments could not keep promoting cycling as a healthy pursuit without improving road safety. A study published in the Journal of the Australasian College of Road Safety last year found injuries to cyclists more than doubling between 2000 and 2008, and cyclists were 34 times more likely than car occupants to be seriously injured.
If safety is the main hurdle to increase bike uptake, what solutions can the planning and place making profession offer? Is the solution to provide more bike lanes? Or widen bike lanes? How can we ensure that we design and plan urban environments to prioritise and encourage cycling? In other words, how do we make bike riding normal for people to do in their everyday activites, whether it is going to school, the shops, visiting family and friends or getting to and from work?
As a bike rider, I believe a key tension lies between bike riders and car drivers and ultimately the sharing of road space between cars and bikes. Clearly designing designated spaces for bikes is a key solution and of course building a culture of care between drivers and bike riders is also important. Cars dominate the roads. But this can change. Car drivers can be made more aware of bike riders through better signage and road design. We can design places that prioritise cycling and walking. Making it safer for cyclists will increase the number of cyclists on the road which raises the profile of cyclists which can continue to shift road culture away from that dominated by cars. Health and wellbeing would rise, road/cycling safety would increase, congestion and related CO2 would decrease and cycling becomes a more accepted and normal way to get around!
Perhaps the State Government might consider changing Victoria’s number plate logo from “A Place to Be” to “The Pedal Happy State” that would certainly give drivers something to ponder as they sit bumper to bumper on Melbourne’s congested roads!