Bicycle Use Survey in Canberra 1993 - 1996

Department of Urban Services, Canberra 1996

The results of recent surveys of cycling in the ACT have shown that the biggest increase in cycling in the last year has been riding to work in the town centres, with increases of between 16% and 40%. Tuggeranong showed the lowest increase (16%), followed by City (27%), Belconnen (33%) and Woden (40%).

ACT Bicycle Volumes: Trends, Variations, Survey Results, Helmet Wearing and Cyclists' Characteristics (1993 - 1995/96)
Findings and Conclusions

Cycling Trends

• For the busiest ten cycling locations, cycling figures show a consistent slight decline since 1993/94.
• Mean weekday cycling is generally greater than that of weekend. Similar trend has been observed in previous years.
• Autumn and summer cycling are significantly higher than winter cycling.
• On average, Wednesdays seem to attract the highest cycling activity, although almost the same during weekdays.
• Between 1994/95 and 1995/96 a significant decrease (about 19% on weekdays) and an increase (about 7% on weekends) in cycling activity is observed between Lady Denman Drive and Scrivener Dam (B24). More than 50% drop is observed in the popular cycle path of Parkes between Flynn Drive and Kaye Street (B55) between 1994/95 and 1995/96. This decreasing trend seems consistent for most popular cycle paths in Canberra.

Commuter Bicycle Trips

• There was a recorded increase (of 27%) between 1994/95 and 1995/96 in the number of riders with destinations within each town centre.
• Riding to and from City showed an increase of 24%. Tuggeranong and Belconnen indicated an increase of 15.7 % and 33.0% respectively. Commuting to Woden had the highest increase of 40.2%.
• City seems to attract the highest number of commuter cycling followed by Belconnen, Woden and Tuggeranong Town Centres. The same order applies for generating commuter cycling trips. This trend has been consistent since 1992.

Cyclist User Characteristics

• In the gender observations, females are consistently under represented at all ages and for all surveyed trip types.
• When disaggregated into trip purpose, the female participation in secondary school is the lowest at 28% in 1995/96. This compares with about 40% of primary school riders being females.
• Helmet wearing rates for all riders in 1994/95 were observed to be 96% when compared to 83% in 1993/94 and 89% in 1995/96. In 1995/96, 90% of female and 87% of male cyclists wore helmet in 1995/96.
• Secondary school students’ helmet wearing rate is consistently low when compared to primary school students. In 1995/96, 83% of secondary school students wear helmet when compared to 97% of primary school students.

Bicycle Accidents

• The total number of bicycle accidents is steadily declining since 1990. Injury accidents represent 40% of all bicycle accidents in 1995.
• Serious injury has resulted in 23% of casualty accidents. This proportion is lower (18%) when ‘helmet worn’ and much higher (66%) otherwise.
• In 1995 about 20% of casualty accident occurred to secondary school age group (13 - 18). Males seem to be more vulnerable. It is worth while noting that this group has the lowest helmet wearing proportion.

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The Traffic Monitoring Unit at the Department of Urban Services welcomes your comments or criticisms. Write to:

Rifaat Shoukrallah
Traffic Monitoring Unit
ACT Infrastructure (Roads)
Locked Bag 2000
Civic Square ACT 2608

Phone 6207 6157
Fax 6207 5212

Attention Rifaat Shoukrallah

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