Statistics
Podcasts
- ABC Radio National - Breakfast (4 June 2008) - "Health Benefits of Cycling", Professor Chris Rissell, Co-author, Cycling: Getting Australia Moving, Mark Bannerman presentor and Madeline Genner Producer
Visit SiteWhen the Labor government came to power last November, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd promised to make the fight against obesity a national health priority. Current figures suggest that around three million Australians are obese, and more than 7 million Australians are overweight. Now a new report suggests that cycling could be part of the solution. The report, which is released today, has found the federal government already saves more than $220 million dollars in health costs per year from cycling, and it's a figure which could rise dramatically if more Australians got on their bikes.
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ABC Radio National - Life Matters (9 June 2008) - "Bicycles and Health", guest Associate Professor Chris Rissel; Director, Health Promotion Unit, Sydney South West Area Health Service, presenter; Richard Aedy, producer; Jackie May and researcher/producer; Lindy Raine & Jackie May
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Traffic congestion is extending the time it takes to commute to work, but would you consider riding a bike?Cycling is good for your health and for the health system. A recent report says it saves the health budget over $200 million a year. But safety fears are a turn-off, especially following reported instances of road rage involving cycling groups.
Still, those risks may be exaggerated and the benefits under-rated, according to Associate Professor Chris Rissel, from the Central Sydney Area Health Service.
Sydney South West Area Health Service has conducted numerous studies and analyses looking at cycling behaviour. Some of these can be found below:
- Bowles, H.R., Rissel, C., Bauman, A., 2006, Mass community cycling events: who participates and is their behaviour influenced by participation?, The International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity, Vol. 2, Issue 39.
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This research paper investigates the type of people participating in mass cycling events and the subsequent effect on cycling behaviour. - ABC, Radio National: Street Stories podcast (15 June 2008) - "Bike Heaven", researcher/producer Nicole Steinke
Visit SiteThere are many cities that could aspire to the title of 'bike heaven', cities where cycle paths abound and where governments and car users alike regard bicycles as a solution to traffic problems rather than a cause of them. Sydney isn't one of them.
Visit Amsterdam or Copenhagen... even Adelaide and Canberra have kilometres of cycle paths in their city centres, while Brisbane is planning many more. But it's still a distant dream in huge, sprawling, car-mad Sydney, where it's said one-third of all land lies under roads and car parks. It takes a lot of nerve to cycle in Sydney but, for those who do, it becomes a passion they want to share.
HEALTH
- The health benefits of cycling have been shown to be a primary reason why many people choose to cycle. A significant proportion of the population do not participate in the necessary levels of physical activity to protect against sedentary lifestyle diseases such as obesity and diabetes. Cycling has been shown to significantly reduce the chance of developing these and other types of disease. Integrating cycling into everyday life, by using the bike as a form of transport has been shown to be a very sustainable method of regular physical activity.
Australia:- Bauman, A. Rissel, C. Garrard, J. Ker, I. Speidel, R. and Fishman, E. (2008) Cycling: Getting Australia Moving: Barriers, facilitators and interventions to get more Australians physically active through cycling, Cycling Promotion Fund, Melbourne
View PDF Full Report (3.1 Mb) and View PDF Executive Summary (1.7 Mb)
In August 2007, the Cycling Promotion Fund was commissioned by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing to develop a report on bicycle participation by Australian adults.
The Cycling Promotion Fund was specifically asked to investigate the contribution cycling can make to the health of adult Australians, what barriers exist to increasing participation and what can be done to overcome these hurdles.
The Cycling Promotion Fund engaged four notable academics/practitioners from the fields of health, transport and economics to address these questions.
- Bauman, A. Rissel, C. Garrard, J. Ker, I. Speidel, R. and Fishman, E. (2008) Cycling: Getting Australia Moving: Barriers, facilitators and interventions to get more Australians physically active through cycling, Cycling Promotion Fund, Melbourne
