Benefits of biking - an Australian View
INTRODUCTION
Sustainable transport system
A national network of bicycle routes is a key element of a sustainable transport system for tourism, utility travel and recreation.
Local employment
Bicycle tourism can generate considerable wealth for regional economies. The income generated has high local multiplier effects in both money and employment.
Health
A healthy and active population has major long-term benefits for our society and the economy.
Raising self-reliant adults
Independent travel by bicycle in childhood and adolescence is an important aspect of raising self-reliant adults.
Complementary
Bicycle travel is strongly complementary to other sustainable modes of transport, such as railways.
BICYCLE TOURISM GOOD FOR LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Tourism is a major contributor to our economy and is growing rapidly. In many of its present forms, however, it is a heavy user of petroleum-based transport. We need to work hard on building attractive alternatives. One important alternative is bicycle tourism.
Big spenders
Bicycle tourism has particularly high economic and employment multiplier effects in local communities. A benefit of encouraging bicycle tourism is that the networks we build can also serve some of the transport needs of local people, and can serve to encourage them to keep their own business in town.
Bicycling infrastructure can help bring large numbers of bicycle tourists to an area for a relatively small investment. The spending power of cycle tourists is, however, comparable to that of other tourists. Research by Tourism Victoria has shown (Hopkins 1999), backpacker tourists (of which cycle tourists are a subset) spend less per day - about $59 - than the average overseas tourist, but stay longer and thus tend to spend about double the average per capita.
According to data from Bicycle Victoria's Great Rides and the Bicycle Institute of NSW's Big Ride, local cycle tourists spend about this amount per day, too. The spending of cycle tourists tends to be of kinds that have high multiplier effects, estimated at around 2.6 by the Bureau of Resource Economics, in local economy and employment.
Trails and networks
An important aspect of bicycle touring infrastructure is the creation of named trails such as the Mawson Trail in South Australia, the Trans-Tasmania Trail and the Murray River Trail. But even more important is the linking of trails into a coherent network. Trails and networks may link existing infrastructure and purpose-built paths. The important factor is consistency over the whole system in the signage and the accessibility.
Local usage of networks
If a cycle touring path network serves local people's needs as well as those of visitors, the trail system will be better maintained, because local riders are much more likely to report problems to the authorities. The network will also have a greater social mass, making it a more welcoming environment for travelers.
Local Employment
The making of bicycle trails, their signage, mapping and the building of associated facilities is work that has quite a high labour-to-capital ratio. It comprises a variety of skill levels and is thus very well suited to the skill levels of many long-term unemployed rural people. Once the trails are in place, the extra income from bicycle tourism should sustain employment levels
Infrastructure for walking and cycling
Bicycling is widely regarded as urban, rather than rural, transport because it is primarily useful for short trips. In fact, though, bicycling has a great deal to contribute to transport in rural areas, and has potential to generate considerable economic activity and employment. The habitual traveling of large distances by car is tearing rural communities apart, especially through shopping trips to regional centres. Good infrastructure for walking and cycling can help refocus country towns by making local trips significantly more convenient and pleasurable than trips to larger regional centres. A key element of cost-effective planning of bicycle infrastructure for bicycle tourism is to provide a network for all people to ride on. If the network is not attractive to locals for their own transport needs, we need to improve the network. Local usage helps give the network a social vitality and it makes maintenance easier because there are so many people regularly inspecting, and reporting on, its condition as they ride about on their business.
Cycling can actually be an even better transport option in the country than in the city because the roads may be quieter and the trips more pleasant. Even if trip distances were greater in the country than in the city, the lack of obstructions means that such trips might take no more time or effort than a shorter urban trip.
IMPEDIMENTS TO BICYCLE USAGE
Cycletouring is a marginal activity in Australia. Some reasons are:
· The major roads in Australia are intimidating for most cyclists. Until we can have ordinary men, women and children able to ride in the countryside, cycle touring will remain a sectional activity.
· Minor roads tend to be poorly mapped, insufficiently signed and not always well networked for touring. It takes considerable expertise to plan a good bicycle tour in absence of specific infrastructure.
· With the closure of so many bridges on minor roads, cyclists can be faced with a long and time-consuming detour, often with no advance warning. It is vital that disused road (and rail) bridges be maintained as thoroughfares for cyclists and walkers.
· There are fewer trains on fewer lines running fewer services to fewer stations, and they often cannot take bicycles, or are limited to two single bikes (no tandems or tricycles).
· Buses are even more restrictive, with bicycles only carried at the driver's discretion.
· Interstate carriage of bicycles by rail is exorbitant. It costs $50 per bike, per state, whereas other luggage travels free. By contrast, bicycles cost just $20 per trip by air within Australia.
· Water stops and other facilities are more widely spaced than they used to be. Many parts of Outback Australia had higher populations last century than now, and people could walk, ride or cycle from place to place. Water supplies used to be available, even in the driest country, at intervals of 15 km or so, but most of these have dried up through neglect.
CONCLUSIONS
Bicycle touring is a highly sustainable form of tourism. Bicycle tourists are good spenders and encouraging them is cost-effective.
Bicycles are also efficient transport for short trips. Networks of bicycle paths can contribute to improving community fitness and the well being of the community itself.
Providing for bicycle travel should not attempt to distinguish too strongly between tourist travel and utility travel, but should comprise networks that serve all types of riding, just as roads provide for all kinds of travel.
Rail systems and cycling networks complement each other and should be planned with this in mind.
Easy travel by car has robbed country areas of much of their economic and civic life. Encouraging local travel by bicycle can help bring back some of this vitality.