Newsroom

How are you getting around?

It’s been more than a month of coronavirus restrictions across Australia and we have definitely noticed some changes in the way people are moving around our communities.

Physical distancing and isolation measures are reshaping our daily lives and public spaces while presenting new, positive opportunities for people to embrace bike riding.

Instead of driving to the gym or taking the kids to basketball, netball or footy, suddenly thousands of people have pulled their bikes out of the shed for a daily spin around their local neighbourhood.

This is backed up by recent recreational counts and bicycle retail sales which shows that more people than ever turning to bikes as a way to get the exercise they need to maintain their health and happiness.

It’s also presented challenges for local councils and governments to cater to the boom in people using popular outdoor recreational spaces and lead to calls to turn roads into cycleways to ease the load on busy bike paths.

At the start of the month, our Moving around in the time of COVID-19 survey of more than 1,000 people found that 73 per cent of people will ride their bike more or as much than they typically would. 

Nearly a month later, we want to know if that has changed and whether the wider perception of bike riding in the community shifted – not just from bike riders but from people who also didn’t or don’t ride.

When this is all over, will more people turn to the bike to get to school, the shops or work? Will families go back to shuttling between organised sports or keep active travel and recreation as part of their normal lives? 

Take our quick survey and most importantly, please take the time to share it with your non-riding or new-to-riding friends.

Your responses will help us influence important changes that will make it easier for more people to ride now and keep the habit up into the future so that we don’t end up with roads more congested than before.

Take our survey

Read more: Australians keen to ride out coronavirus

Read more: Swap our streets for cycleways to keep people riding