The latest national walking and cycling survey has again found that Tasmanians would ride more often if there were safer routes.
The 2025 national survey finds that 2 in 5 Tasmanians would ride more often if it was safer to do so.
This backs up previous research that finds a major barrier to riding is the lack of safe routes.
The survey found more than 70% of people interested in riding wanted more off-road paths and more than 60% wanted more dedicated bike lanes.
While more than 1 in 5 respondents were comfortable riding in most conditions, male riders were much more confident than female riders, just over 30% compared to just under 13%.
Interestingly, the number of people who rode to work, school, shops or general visits in the past week rose to 26.8% of trips, which is an increase on the 2023 result of 22.2%.
E-bike ownership in Tasmania at 7% is slightly ahead of the national average, and may be a reason behind the increase in transport-related bike trips.
Children between the ages of 2 and 9 rode the most in the previous week, followed by riders aged 40-49 years.
Other findings of interest include:
- The age group with the lowest numbers riding in in the previous week was 20–29 year olds at 6.3%.
- There wasn’t much difference between metro and rural areas, 14.8% vs 13%.
- Riding for recreation was the lowest percentage since the survey started in 2013 at 84.2%.
- There was a jump in the number of people riding as part of a journey that included public transport, from less than 1% to 4.1%.
- 48% of people do not own a bicycle.
- The average number of days people cycled in the previous week was 3 and the average time was 3 hours.
- 39% of respondents were not interested in riding.
- There was a big difference in confidence between male and female riders, with 20.5% of female riders saying they would never ride on the road compared to 8.1% of male riders.
- Asked to rank 11 priority actions, the most support went to more off-road paths and the least support for lower local road speed limits.
The full national survey and media release can be found at https://www.cwanz.com.au/national-walking-and-cycling-participation-survey-2025/
Or become our friend and subscribe to receive our fortnightly newsletter.