Victorian Auditor-General’s report
17 August 2011
 
Developing Cycling as a Safe and Appealing Mode of Transport

Audit summary
Background
Population and economic growth have increased motorised traffic and congestion and focused attention on less damaging forms of transport. Cycling offers benefits over other forms of transport because it reduces congestion, is environmentally friendly and improves riders’ health and wellbeing.
Cycling has become more popular, especially for travel around inner Melbourne, but it remains a minor rather than ‘mainstream’ mode of travel for Victorians. In 2006 Victorians cycled for 1.6 per cent of the journeys they made on a typical weekday.
This compares unfavourably with shares of between 10 and 27 per cent for European countries where cycling has become a ‘mainstream’ form of personal travel. These countries transformed cycling’s role through substantial investment in infrastructure and facilities, extensive promotion and education, changes to the law and measures to make car use more expensive and less convenient.
The ultimate goal established by the 2009 Victorian Cycling Strategy (the strategy) was to ‘grow’ cycling into a major form of personal transport. The objective of the strategy is, however, expressed more narrowly as being to ‘continue to support’ this growth. The strategy targeted areas with high demand and high growth potential, focusing on cycling for transport firstly for inner Melbourne and then for central activities districts, such as Footscray, and for regional towns. 
The audit assessed the effectiveness of the Department of Transport (the department) and VicRoads in developing cycling as a safe and appealing mode of transport by examining their performance in developing and implementing the strategy and achieving the intended outcomes.
Conclusions
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 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. 
Findings
The strategy as an effective blueprint for action 
The strategy formed a reasonable starting point for ‘growing’ cycling. However, even in its entirety, it was never likely to achieve the growth needed to transform cycling into a major form of personal transport. 
In terms of the strategy’s strengths, the department created a logical framework for action that formed the basis for increased investment in cycling infrastructure by:
·	developing an effective general understanding of the barriers to cycling and how other jurisdictions had been successful in overcoming these
·	recognising that success requires effective coordination between government departments, local government and non-government organisations
·	committing to monitor progress and to evaluate the strategy’s outcomes regularly.
The strategy, however, had serious limitations because it was:
·	not comprehensive—it did not include sufficient measures to effectively protect and educate cyclists, to promote cycling, to invest in facilities and to make car travel less attractive. These measures have been particularly effective in European countries
·	based on an insufficient understanding to determine what was needed to ‘mainstream’ cycling and to establish meaningful targets against which to gauge the success of the strategy.
These limitations were exacerbated by the tight time frame imposed on the development of the strategy. In consequence, the department was not sufficiently well‑prepared to implement, monitor and evaluate the strategy’s actions.
Progress towards the strategy’s goal 
Progress in implementing the strategy and dealing with its limitations was not satisfactory.
While cycling journeys in inner Melbourne have risen over the past four years, the rate of growth is less than that needed if the long-term goal of transforming cycling into a major form of personal transport is to be realised.
The department and VicRoads made satisfactory progress in delivering planned infrastructure, but had not: 
·	made similar progress in delivering measures to complement and support the government’s infrastructure investment
·	developed an adequate implementation plan
·	evaluated the whole strategy or its individual projects
·	gained an adequate understanding of current and potential cycling journeys
·	addressed the stakeholder issues missed in the strategy.
The recommendations are designed to assist the department and VicRoads meet the challenge of adequately informing an updated strategy to fit government policy.
Recommendations
Number	Recommendation	Page	
	The Department of Transport and VicRoads should:		
1.	complete implementation plans, when developing future cycling strategies, that describe objectives, time lines, resources and responsibilities and how a strategy will be managed, monitored and reported	33	
2.	improve the quality of project plans so that they consistently meet agencies’ internal requirements by creating better practice templates	33	
3.	finalise evaluation frameworks, when developing future strategies, that describe outcomes, realistic targets, benchmark data and how success will be measured and reported for component projects and for the overall strategy	33	
4.	develop a sound basis for informing and implementing government policy through an improved understanding of current and potential cyclists, the journeys they make, the barriers to ‘growing’ cycling and how to best overcome these 	33	
5.	apply the mechanisms required to effectively coordinate actions to ‘grow’ cycling and improve information sharing across the government agencies and non-government organisations involved in cycling	33	
6.	in consultation with other managers, review and update guidance on the construction, maintenance, auditing and retrofitting of shared bicycle paths and agree on the maintenance arrangements for the finalised Principal Bicycle Network.	33	
Submissions and comments received
In addition to progressive engagement during the course of the audit, in accordance with section 16(3) of the Audit Act 1994 a copy of this report was provided to the Department of Transport, VicRoads, Parks Victoria, the City of Melbourne, the City of Yarra, the City of Darebin and the City of Maribyrnong with a request for comments or submissions.
Agency views have been considered in reaching our audit conclusions and are represented to the extent relevant and warranted in preparing this report. Their full section 16(3) comments and submissions, however, are included in Appendix A.