Welcome to WritingBikes, a Better Streets blog series centring the voices of urban Australians have recently made the switch to riding a bike for daily transport, based on in-depth, qualitative interviews.
My name is Alex and I am a student in the Master of Social Justice at the University of Sydney.
I’m also an intern undertaking a work placement with Better Streets, Australia’s national charity advocating for safe, sustainable and people-centred transport. While not being a bike-rider myself, I’ve drawn on my academic background in anthropology and set out to learn by hearing from authentic experiences, perspectives and emotions. Over the course of my interviews, my respondents painted a picture of the experience of riding a bike as enlightening, freeing, peaceful and, of course, fun, but also, frustrating, particularly when it comes to nationwide inadequacies in cycling infrastructure.
Despite most of the people I interviewed coming from areas of Sydney and Melbourne known for having relatively robust transport infrastructure (i.e. city centres and inner suburbs), it became abundantly clear that we still very far to go, with cycleway networks being described time and time again as “disjointed” and “discontinuous”. State coordination of cohesive network development is essential in ensuring that our streets are safe and comfortable to ride along.
As Steven, from the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, tells me, “the quality of infrastructure varies massively from one local government to another… so for example, the Gardiners Creek Trail between [home] and Deakin Uni goes through three different local governments. I’m in Boroondara and the path is mostly bitumen. And then when I cross Warrigal Road, I’m going into Monash and then suddenly the path is concrete. And then when I cross the boundary into Whitehorse (which is where Deakin Uni is), the path is either bitumen or crusher dust… You can tell where the boundaries are because of the way the infrastructure is."
With the Victorian state election coming up on 28th November and the New South Wales state election following in March 2027, the landscape of cycling infrastructure within Australia’s two largest population centres is facing a critical point of intervention. Bicycle Network, Australia’s biggest bike-riding organisation in terms of membership, are advocating for just 5% of the Victorian transport budget to be allocated to the development of the Strategic Cycling Corridor network under their Gimme 5! Campaign. Notably, the United Nations recommends a 20% budget allocation to active transport infrastructure, while the current Victorian average sits at only 1-2%.
Don’t be afraid to make your voice heard in advance of the upcoming elections in Australia’s most populous states. You can strengthen this voice by connecting with others through Better Streets-affiliated groups like Bicycle Network (for those in Victoria and Tasmania), Bicycle NSW or a local Bicycle User Group (BUG). No one knows the experience of riding a bike better than people who ride bikes.
Note: Some names used throughout this series are pseudonyms.
