In honour of World Bicycle Day, Nigel Tebb, health promotion officer at Central Coast Health, celebrates the trusty bicycle and looks at how we can help more people on the Coast get out on their bike.
World Bicycle Day, held on 3 June each year, marks a time to recognise and celebrate the trusty bicycle – a timeless form of human transportation offering many benefits to people, places, and planet.
The bicycle provides people with an opportunity to engage in physical activity, connect with their community and maintain and improve their physical and mental health. As a form of transport, the bike offers people an affordable, convenient, and environmentally sustainable way to get to school, study, work, and other places. For all this and much more, the bicycle deserves to be celebrated – and not just once a year!
But despite all the benefits offered by the bicycle, as a mode of transport, usage on the Central Coast and indeed within NSW and Australia, remains low by world standards.
The National Walking and Cycling Participation Survey 2023 revealed 15.1% of NSW residents ride a bicycle in a typical week. More than one third (38.1%) had done so in the past year. These participation rates translate to an estimated 1,227,900 residents riding in a typical week and more than 3 million residents riding at least once in a typical year. Whilst these numbers sound positive, it’s worth keeping in mind that they include riding only once a year.
Of the people who cycled in NSW in the last month, 86.5% cycled for recreation and 27.9% used a bicycle for transport. The main transport purposes were commuting, education and visiting friends. Very few had ridden to access public transport.
Digging deeper into the findings of the National Walking and Cycling Participation Survey 2023, those who had not ridden a bicycle in the past year, and who were aged 15 or older, were asked why they had not done so. Half (50.4%) said they did not own a bicycle, while other common reasons cited were that they prefer other methods of getting around, aren’t interested in riding, or that it’s too dangerous.
Unfortunately, this perception (and, in some cases, reality) of riding being too dangerous is a real barrier to achieving greater participation and improved health. Fortunately, though, this is a problem with a solution.
Getting more people riding bikes is achievable with good infrastructure such as provision of off-road cycleways and shared paths, on-road bike lanes and safe road crossings, and better design of roads and streets. This can also be supported through safety measures like slower speed limits (e.g., 30km/h streets). Just look at what is arguably the most bike-friendly city in the world, Copenhagen, Denmark, where in 2019, nearly two thirds (62%) of resident trips to work or school were by bike.
Programs and initiatives that build cycling skills and confidence (e.g. AusBike), encourage participation (e.g. National Ride2Work Day and the Ride2Work program), and promote road safety (e.g. Sharing the Road) can also play a major part in encouraging people to get on their bike
There’s also local groups you can join too, like the Central Coast Bicycle User Group, offering a chance to explore some of our cycle routes with a friendly bunch of people.
Across NSW, it is estimated that 44% of those aged 15 or older do not currently cycle on the road but would like to. Furthermore, around one in six ride at least occasionally but will take a longer route to avoid highly trafficked streets.
The challenge for us all is to mobilise this great majority of the NSW population who want to ride, but feel they can’t, or at least can’t to the extent they want to. By enabling more people to ride more often, we move closer to a time we won’t need World Bicycle Day, because every day will be bicycle day. Bring it on, we say!
For more information about bicycle riding and active transport, visit our Active Transport page.