AustCycle Spins into history pages
News > AustCycle Spins into history pages
Transport history was today made with the announcement of a $1.04-million Department of Health and Ageing grant to expand AustCycle, an ambitious joint venture between Cycling Australia and the Amy Gillett Foundation.
AustCycle partners Amy Gillett Foundation and Cycling Australia hope the announcement heralds a new dawn for Australian transport safety and improved community health.
Funded largely by the Department of Health and Ageing ‘Healthy Community Initiatives’, AustCycle will realise the country’s first nationally standardised bike training programme.
Designed to impart practical and theoretical knowledge to cycling members of the public in an effort to make bike riding as safe as possible, AustCycle training includes bike handling skills, maintenance, road laws and rules. The programme is open to all ages, all amateur levels of experience, male and female.
As AustCycle Chairman Graham Fredericks explains, the initiative will deliver myriad outcomes.
“AustCycle will work to improve rider ability and awareness. It will nurture the next wave of skilled, alert cyclists, which we hope in turn will have a positive flow-on effect to motorists, so that everyone can feel more safe on our roads.
“Riding can also be terrifically inclusive; it is an effective social leveller and provides health and economical benefits to disadvantaged communities in particular, so equally paramount is the positive affect this will have on our country’s collective wellbeing and welfare,” said Fredericks.
In keeping with the Healthy Communities Initiative, AustCycle will promote a healthier lifestyle, with more commuters feeling secure to opt for the bike instead of the car when getting about their daily business, and therefore becoming more active.
“Bike riding contributes to the improved health for us all, and our environment. Given bikes have outsold cars for the ninth consecutive year in Australia, it is obvious to all that this is not an overnight fad. It is therefore imperative we all do what we can to make individuals feel more confident and comfortable bike riding, so that they in turn become competent and safe commuters,” said Fredericks.
The announcement comes days before the fifth anniversary of the death of Amy Gillett.
AustCycle begins its nationwide rollout effective immediately. For further information visit www.austcycle.com.au .
