Congratulations to the Department of Transport’s Bikewest unit for recently wining the Cycling Promotion Fund’s Special Achievement Award by a Bicycle Organisation for its cycling promotion and infrastructure development in Western Australia in 2013. It is great to see the efforts of Bikewest staff being recognised this way.

The full announcement of the award follows …

Bikewest is most recognised for its Cycle Instead social marketing program developed between 2001 and 2003.

Thought to be the first used anywhere in the world of a social marketing campaign purely to increase cycling, Cycle Instead has told West Australians for the last ten years how good riding is for their health, weight control and enjoyment.

Manager of Bikewest for most of that period is Russell Greig who explained the monumental effort that went into the campaign.

“We used extensive qualitative and quantitative research to uncover the motivations that would convince non-cyclists to take up cycling.”

“We found that above all it was mainly those personal motivators of personal health, enjoyment and fitness, followed by saving money, social interaction and the environment that could be used to get people to try riding a bike.”

“The attractive TV ads we did at the time really made cycling sexy and our campaign was seen as fairly ground-breaking. It has been used both here and across Australia,” Greig explained.

The success of Bikewest’s work is evident as WA is experiencing strong growth in cycling participation, which is higher than population growth alone and significantly above the national average.

In addition to Cycle Instead, a successful infrastructure program and increasingly effective integration with the public transport system have been critical to getting growing numbers of people choosing the bike for transport trips.

Bikewest works closely with other state government departments including Main Roads WA and the Public Transport Authority. It has regular liaison with the Royal Automobile Club, the Office of Road Safety and various cycling user groups.

“We have had tremendous support both internally in WA and from national organisations like the Cycling Promotion Fund, which has made Bikewest and our Cycle Instead program the success they are today,” noted Greig.

The Australian Bicycling Achievement Awards are conducted annually by the Cycling Promotion Fund, an initiative of the bicycle industry, as an important forum to promote the benefits of cycling and the difference bikes can make to health, community and mobility in Australia.

The Awards are strongly supported by national peak organisations, federal Parliamentarians and the Parliamentary cycling group.