National Cycling Report Shows Decline in Government Spending on Cycling
In 2013/14 the States and Territories spent a combined total of $112.8 million dollars on cycling infrastructure.
At first glance this figure may look quite impressive but the more detailed picture is less than inspiring.
Each year the Australian Bicycle Council publishes an Implementation Report on how the National Cycling Strategy is progressing.
They’ve just released their report for 2014, which you can download here: http://bicyclecouncil.com.au/files/publication/NCS_ImplementationReport2014.pdf
It shows that although the total cycling infrastructure funding was $112.8 million dollars, this works out to a paltry $4.88 per person.
Looking at it another way, if you took every cent of cycling funding and spent it on a single road project, the ‘Westconnex’ motorway in western Sydney, it would take approximately 132.9 years to pay for it.
In dollar terms the total funding was exactly the same as in 2012/13 which means a decline in real terms of approximately 3% when taking inflation into account.
Worse still, the level of funding actually declined slightly in NSW, Victoria and WA.
There is a large differential between funding per capita between the various States and Territories. For example the ACT, which already has the best cycling infrastructure in Australia, spent $7.30 per person on further upgrades in 2013/14 compared to $6.17 for Queensland, $5.21 for Victoria, $4.56 for WA, $4.39 for SA, $4.11 for NSW, $3.30 for NT and only $2.52 for Tasmania.
All of this is despite bicycle sales exceeding car sales for the 15th consecutive year and survey after survey showing that safety is the number one issue preventing more Australians from riding more often.
