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Developing Cycling as a Safe and Appealing Mode of Transport (Australia)

In August 2011 the Victorian Auditor General's Office released a report that looked at the effectiveness of the 2009 Victorian Cycling Strategy. The audit found that the strategy was a first, important step for Victoria to significantly raise the profile and role of cycling as part of a more sustainable transport system. However, serious limitations in its development and implementation compromised its potential to achieve its goal of transforming cycling into a major form of personal transport.

The audit found that strategy was developed in haste without sufficient understanding of either current cycling journeys or what was required to ‘mainstream’ cycling as a form of transport. There was an overemphasis on physical infrastructure solutions, to the relative neglect of other measures essential to achieving the strategy’s goal, such as promoting cycling, educating potential cyclists and reducing the incentives to use cars.

In addition, agencies were not well prepared to implement the strategy or evaluate its success, which contributed to the unsatisfactory progress in addressing its limitations. This lack of preparation repeats past audit findings about the department’s freight management strategy and metropolitan bus contracts.