Bicycle Network: Measure & Understand

Major new survey on why we ride

21 March 2011. The most comprehensive survey ever into the reasons people ride bikes is underway across Australia this month in a major effort to fill gaps in our knowledge of who is riding and why.

The National Cycling Participation Survey will survey about 4000 households Australia wide by telephone.

The Australian Bicycle Council project is part of the evaluation of the Federal Government's 2011-16 National Cycling Strategy.

The project is being supplemented by on-line surveys of selected localities being conducted by Bicycle Network Victoria and its national outreach arm, Bicycle Network. This will focus on households in the inner 10k radius of Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.

This online survey will ask the same questions as the National Participation Survey and will allow a more detailed meaurement of cycling in the inner urban areas where riding to work is more prevalent.

Both surveys are being coordinated by Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM) and will allow comparisons between cycling rates in capital city and regional areas and also allow comparisons against the national average.

The main national survey will give a measure of cycling participation in metropolitan and rural areas for each State and Territory.

It will ask about all types of riding that people in the household did in the last week and also when the person last rode. It will therefore give a broad measure of cycling participation in the general community, not just riding to work or riding for recreation.

For those councils keen to participate, the design of the National Cycling Participation Survey also allows them an opportunity to measure and benchmark the rate of cycling in their local area.

Sampling each separate individual population (such as a municipality's population) using the survey methodology costs $8000.Councils wanting to measure cycling in their municipality using the survey should contact Bicycle Network Victoria.

In addition to the above two surveys Bicycle Network Victoria is also surveying its members and supporters about their cycling habits using the same survey design and questions. This will allow a comparison of cycling participation between the more committed and the general community.

We plan to ask the same questions of similar populations (from nation wide, inner city and amongst our members and friends )in future years. This will give us a - Bicycle Riding Index that will measure the increase (or decrease) in cycling over time.

Combined with other data gathering efforts, the surveys will allow us to measure our progress in getting more people cycling more often.

These survey projects will complement the new data that will emerge from the national census, to be taken on Tuesday 9 August this year.