Cycling: getting Australia moving: barriers, facilitators and interventions to get more Australians physically active through cycling

The Commonwealth government commissioned a report in order to gain greater insight into the current state of cycling, what prevented more Australian adults from participating and what could be done to overcome these barriers. There was an understanding that cycling has the potential to address some key challenges and therefore the Department of Health and Ageing were keen to explore strategies to increase cycling participation. The objective of that report was to provide public policy makers with a clear assessment of the nature of current cycling participation, the reasons for non-participation and how these could be overcome. In summary, the objectives were to: 1. investigate the contribution of cycling to key public policy challenges; 2. identify barriers to increasing participation in cycling; 3. identify strategies to overcome barriers to cycling. The report then set out to deliver evidence-based recommendations to increase the level of adult cycling participation. This paper is a summary that captures the major findings of the larger paper delivered to the Commonwealth government in June 2008. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E217541.