Less than a quarter of Australia's bike riders are women

Bicycle Network: Latest News

Less than a quarter of Australia’s bike riding population are women according to the results of Bicycle Network’s annual count of bike commuters, Super Tuesday 2015.

Despite a 3% increase in the total number of bike commuters across Australia, of the 149,145 bike trips counted on Tuesday 3 March, women made up just 23%.

Women had a higher than average representation in Victoria (25%), the Australian Capital Territory (30%) and South Australia (25%). However, New South Wales fared poorly, with female riders making up only 17% of the state’s bike riding population.

(Click the image above for results)

With health problems and congestion costing the economy more than $30 billion each year, Bicycle Network’s General Manager of Government and External Relations, Chris Carpenter, said low numbers of female riders was concerning.

“In the top international cycling cities, where bike riding is established as an easy and popular mode of transport, women make up half of all bike riders,” Mr. Carpenter said.

“We know that better bike infrastructure will contribute to a healthier riding environment which will see more women commute by bike.”

As Federal, State and Local Governments start to draft their budgets for 2015-2016, Bicycle Network believes it’s critical that serious investment is made into long-term bike infrastructure.

“Investment in increasing active travel rates is the most efficient way for governments to improve the health of the population and reduce the gridlock across our cities,” Mr. Carpenter said.

“Governments must draw a line in the sand when drafting budgets and ask themselves, do we take the health of our population seriously or are we stuck in the past?”

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