History of the ACT Conservation Council

ACT Conservation Council is an environment and sustainability advocate. At its heart, the ACT Conservation Council is about conservation and, in that sense, has an environmentally friendly agenda but not necessarily a progressive one. Transport is a major contributor to greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. For this reason, the ACT Conservation Council has made strong and valuable statements supporting the transition of transport to more environment friendly modes such walking and cycling that are worth looking at more closely here.

ACT Cycling: no change in a decade

The ACT Report, National Walking and Cycling Participation Survey 2021, now the responsibility of the Cycling and Walking Australia and New Zealand (CWANZ), confirms what we have long suspected. Cycling as a mode of transport has not increased in the ACT. In the last 10 years, there has been no statistical significant change in the cycling participation. What should we do differently.

Section 1: Breaking the car habit

This section outlines a two-pillar strategy to get the flywheel moving. Strategies are long term and this one is no exception. The first pillar involves changes to the planning system to permit cycling corridors to be reserved and preserved for the future construction of cycle highways. The second pillar is the culture change required for cycling to succeed in a deeply engrained car culture.

Section 3.4 Australian mode share by state from ABS data

The ABS Census includes data on how we get to work and where we live. ChartingTransport.com compares the trends in Australian cities over a long period from 1976 to 2016. The graphs for walking and cycling are shown in this post.

Cycling mode share: 3% rode to work in 2016

Riding to work is a great way to commute. The ABS Census includes one question regarding this: 3% of Canberrans cycled to work in 2016 on the census day.