{"id":357038,"date":"2025-12-18T23:07:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T23:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/357038\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T23:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T23:07:09","slug":"changing-behaviour-in-the-illawarra-bicycle-nsw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/357038\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing behaviour in the Illawarra \u2013 Bicycle NSW"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kaitlyn (right) was Marie\u2019s first Bicycle Buddy (Image: IBUG<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Marie has been riding to work for years. She really enjoyed showing Kaitlyn how to ride to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels really good to be paying it forward,\u201d said Marie. \u201cThis is a great way for women to get some support getting on a bike. It\u2019s lovely getting active transport going too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bicycle Buddy program is a worthwhile reminder that whilst big transport projects often gain the most attention, it can be the smaller everyday changes to people’s routines and habits that are the most effective way to make a difference.<\/p>\n

And if behaviour research enforces the idea that individual human motivation fluctuates, then the support of someone else can be particularly valuable. With the right person, the challenge of changing a behavioural pattern can be made much easier.<\/p>\n

From leisure cycling to every day transport<\/p>\n

In other parts of the world, research has shown that leisure cycling can be a key driver in inducing travel behaviour changes.<\/p>\n

A study in Colombia<\/a> showed that riders often shift from recreational rides to using their bike for everyday trips. An important side benefit of leisure cycling is that riders tend to become more bike-aware when back behind the wheel, driving more cautiously and respectfully around cyclists and pedestrians.<\/p>\n

Another data-set of 1,100 adults in Sardinia, Italy<\/a>, showed that people who cycle frequently for leisure are also more likely to cycle more frequently for utilitarian purposes (commuting\/errands), suggesting a behavioural \u2018spillover effect\u2019 from recreational to transport cycling.<\/p>\n

These types of studies help designers, planners, and policymakers move from asking \u201cHow do we build more cycling infrastructure?\u201d to asking \u201cHow do we create behavioural conditions that make people want to ride?\u201d<\/p>\n

Increased cycling infrastructure may very well cause more people to ride, but a longer term challenge is to examine how people actually form new cycling habits, and crucially, what keeps them cycling long-term.<\/p>\n

More about iBUG<\/p>\n

IBUG is a very active bicycle user group that is affiliated to Bicycle NSW. IBUG works to make the Illawarra a great place to ride for everyone. IBUG\u2019s goals are: to represent and advocate for bike riders increase cycling, and improve infrastructure.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

IBUG engages regularly with elected representatives at all levels of government, as well as advocacy colleagues at Better Streets, 30 Please and Healthy Cities Illawarra.<\/p>\n

Members write detailed submissions<\/a> on local projects and strategies, run regular rides across the Illawarra, and meet every two months to plan advocacy activities.<\/p>\n

IBUG had a significant advocacy win in 2025 as part of a successful campaign to reinstate the walking and cycling bridge at Mount Ousley Interchange<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kaitlyn (right) was Marie\u2019s first Bicycle Buddy (Image: IBUG) Marie has been riding to work for years. She…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[195459,195460,64,63,3170,149324,149325,149326,5214,784,4631,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-357038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-bicycleusergroup-bugs","9":"tag-bugshowcase","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-bicycle","13":"tag-bicycle-advocacy","14":"tag-bicycle-infrastructure","15":"tag-bicycle-nsw","16":"tag-community","17":"tag-cycling","18":"tag-insurance","19":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}