Adelaide Mayor’s ‘smart move’ to cycling wins national award
The Lord Mayor of Adelaide’s commitment to ensuring his city is providing safe and convenient cycling into and around the city was recognised with the 2013 Bicycling Achievement Award for contribution by a politician at the Australian Bicycling Achievement Awards in Canberra today.
Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood noted that more than 9,000 people now cycle into the city each day.
“This illustrates that the car is not always the quickest, cheapest or healthiest option for short trips,” he said.
“Making it easier and safer for South Australians to get to work by bike is a smart move.”
“Our vision is to make Adelaide the best cycling city in Australia and among the best in the world. We’re committed to making cycling safer and easier for riders of all skill and confidence levels.”
“Part of our recently launched Smart Move strategy sets out plans to achieve safe links to our neighbourhoods and throughout the city and our Bicycle Action Plan is a program of bicycle works to improve the safety and visibility of cyclists.”
The Lord Mayor’s commitment to making cycling for short trips easier includes the development of a priority Bikeways Network that will provide a higher level of safety, particularly through the installation of separated bikeways.
In accepting the Award, the Lord Mayor noted the growing consensus that people enjoyed having safe options to use their bikes.
“This award is great recognition for the work that everyone at Council has been doing to make cycling easier for everyone in this lovely city of ours.”
The Lord Mayor joined with winners in another nine categories who received awards at the 2013 Australian Bicycling Achievement Awards.
The Australian Bicycling Achievement Awards are conducted annually by the Cycling Promotion Fund, an initiative of the bicycle industry, as an important forum to promote the benefits of cycling and the difference bikes can make to health, community and travel in Australia.
The Awards are strongly supported by principal partner the Heart Foundation, national peak organisations, federal Parliamentarians and the Parliamentary cycling group.
UTAS and Hobart's Bike Ride win national Awards
Two very different initiatives with the same aim of getting more Tasmanians active in cycling have received national recognition today in the 2013 Australian Bicycling Achievement Awards. The University of Tasmania received the Achievement Award for an Educational Institution for its highly successful planning, design and delivery of cycling facilities that sets new standards at its campus.
Corey Peterson, UTAS Sustainability Manager, explained why their approach has been so successful.
“We set up a project to completely revitalise and showcase our sustainable transport options for everyone in the large university community. We have had over 100 students and academic staff involved over the two year project to research, analyse transport needs, plan the solutions and even participate in the design and construction of the facilities to transform the way we travel to the Uni. The students have come up with cutting edge design elements and innovative solutions for charging stations for electric-assisted bicycles. As Hobart is fairly hilly, we know that more people would take up cycling if they had a little bit of help” he explained.
“The broad participation in the project has encouraged ownership of solutions and engendered better understanding of the benefits.”
Hobart bicycle retailer Bike Ride won the national Bicycle Retailer Achievement Award for supporting more than 150 events locally over the last 7 years and allowing people new to cycling to experience the joys of riding.
Owner Mark Bowden talked about the exceptional satisfaction he has derived from seeing his customers discovering how cycling can change their lives. “One of my customers comes in most days, shakes my hand and thanks me for providing him with the elixir of life – his cycling. Another came in three years ago with the desire to do something for his health and family. He was carrying too much weight and found it hard to ride 10km.”
“Three years later his whole demeanour and confidence are through the roof, he has successfully completed 200+km rides and upgraded his first bike. For me, our Bike Ride shop has been a way to improve people’s lives and give them something they absolutely love – that is the biggest reward anyone could hope for in this game".
Local Member for Denison, Andrew Wilkie MP, was on hand to present the Award for contribution towards cycling by a bicycle retailer to Mark and Sandy Bowden, owners of the Bike Ride bike shop.
National award for Department of Transport’s Bikewest and ten years of Cycle Instead
The Western Australia Department of Transport’s Bikewest unit has been awarded the Special Achievement Award by a Bicycle Organisation for its cycling promotion and infrastructure development in Western Australia.
Bikewest is most recognised for its Cycle Instead social marketing program developed between 2001 and 2003.
Thought to be the first used anywhere in the world of a social marketing campaign purely to increase cycling, Cycle Instead has told West Australians for the last ten years how good riding is for their health, weight control and enjoyment.
Manager of Bikewest for most of that period is Russell Greig who explained the monumental effort that went into the campaign.
“We used extensive qualitative and quantitative research to uncover the motivations that would convince non-cyclists to take up cycling.”
“We found that above all it was mainly those personal motivators of personal health, enjoyment and fitness, followed by saving money, social interaction and the environment that could be used to get people to try riding a bike.”
“The attractive TV ads we did at the time really made cycling sexy and our campaign was seen as fairly ground-breaking. It has been used both here and across Australia,” Greig explained.
Mount Gambier’s support for cycling wins national award
The City of Mount Gambier’s success in promoting cycling and planning to make the city an easier and more attractive place to get around on two wheels was today recognised with the 2013 Local Government Achievement Award at the Australian Bicycling Achievement Awards.
The city found it had great support from local residents who wanted to make it safer for everyone to get around by bike when they conducted extensive public consultations.
Deputy Mayor Cr Byron Harfield noted the strong community support for the roll out of all aspects of the Strategic Bicycle Plan.
“There is no single thing we have done to get so many more people on bikes in Mount Gambier,” he said.
“We’ve planned and listened to the broader community as well as groups like Better Hearts and the bike user groups as we considered giving more room and dedicated bike lanes to people who want to ride around the city.”
“The results speak for themselves, we have had great roll ups for the many fun, community bike events and national competitions that have been run,’ he said.
Aaron Izzard, Environmental Sustainability Officer, has been driving the work to implement the changes.
Remote island school wins national cycling award
The remote Warruwi School on Goulburn Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria has won a national award for its cycling program.
Along with encouraging physical activity, the program has also contributed to an increase in enrolments and increase in attendance over the past five years.
Warruwi School took out the Australian Bicycling Achievement Award for an Educational Institution for their cycling program which is now an integral part of their curriculum.
Senior teacher, Trish Whitaker, said the cycling program had really taken off since it began as a fun way to get the kids active before school.
“We started with a small number of bikes thanks to the help of the NT Police, while the Lions Club provided us with helmets,” Ms Whitaker said.