Pedalling for change: cultural geography for traffic congestion innovation

This project aims to offer new knowledge about why commuter cycling has failed to increase at a time when leisure cycling grows exponentially. The project seeks to provide evidence about what cycling enables people to achieve through analysis of a database of media discourses, policies and most importantly the experiences of cyclists. Expected outcomes include an enhanced understanding of cycling as response to congestion and improved policy strategies for increasing purposeful cycling in cities including moving the focus from cycling participation rates to cultures of cycling. Australia will benefit from cycling growing as a mode of transport to attenuate traffic congestion in metropolitan centres.

This project generated opportunities to engage with and learn from people who ride (or once rode) a bike in Greater Sydney (inclusive of Wollongong). It uncovered important insights to bike-and-ride transit, commuter cycling, cycling obstacles, gender and racial inequalities, and riding a bike during the pandemic. Our findings - from qualitative and quantitative research - offer important insights to the diversity of cycling practices, transport hierarchies, mobility injustice and the gendered, abled, aged and classed dynamics of pedalling. The research shows the importance of incorporating cycling experiences in the design of cycling infrastructure to address sustainability, health and congestion challenges.