New BikePlan for NSW

Look for ways you can build active living into your everyday life

In Australia, bicycles have been outselling cars for the last eight years in a row, with sales topping 1.47 million last year alone. In Sydney, cycling rose by 58 per cent on weekends and 23 per cent on weekdays between 2001 and 2005. It is now the fourth most popular form of physical activity for people 15 years and older.

Cycling is a great form of door-to-door transport. It's ideal for those times when walking would take just a bit too long. And it's cheap, clean and great for your health. With this in mind a NSW BikePlan, overseen by the NSW Premier’s Council for Active Living (PCAL), has been developed as a whole-of-government exercise, led by an RTA and the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water NSW project team and assisted by a multi-agency steering group.

The draft NSW BikePlan has been informed by:

• consultation with stakeholders, including a series of regional workshops conducted by Bicycle NSW
• an analysis of NSW bicycle usage data, Cycling in New South Wales: What the data tells us, released in December 2008, when the Minister adopted a doubled rate of NSW commuter cycling by 2016 as a target for planning and policy purposes
• development of the new whole-of-government cycling resource website, including an online bike route-finding tool consistent with the new 131 500 Transport Infoline website.

The Premier's Council for Active Living NSW BikePlan is expected to be ready for release in late 2009.

Project updates will be released via www.pcal.nsw.gov.au