The Pedal Power website still claims that “Our objective is ‘More Canberrans cycling, more often, for a better community,’ a year after Pedal Power members voted to reject that objective.
This is doubly embarrassing for Pedal Power, because the evidence indicates that less Canberrans are cycling, less often.
Figures from the ABS and the Australian Sports Commission show that only 18% of Canberrans cycled in 2009. This is the lowest figure since the turn of the millennium, and 1.2% below the 2006 figure.
At the turn of the millennium most of Canberra’s cyclists were children. Canberra’s on-road cycling facilities have increased adult cycling, but done nothing for children.
Our children are giving up cycling faster than our adults are returning to it.
And the average time Australian children spend cycling has fallen from over six hours per fortnight in 2000, to less than five in 2009.