The Reactivated Bike: Cycling Activity in the 2020 COVID- 19 Pandemic

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic restrictions saw a boom in cycling activity and business. This presentation reports preliminary findings from an Australia-wide survey that invited responses from those who changed their cycling behaviour during the shutdown periods. We were particularly interested to hear from people who had started cycling for the first time ever or since childhood to garner some insight into these new patterns of activity. The survey was circulated across a number of government, commercial and cycling organization email and social media channels. Very early figures suggest two thirds of respondents increased cycling activity during this period. Approximately a sixth bought new bikes. This produced some tension as a third of respondents indicated they reduced their cycling activity, with 45% of indicating it was because of too many people on shared paths. In those states where restrictions have eased, there was an increase in the number of people who cycled more than 4 hours per week (from half to three quarters of respondents). The survey research is contextualized with other aspects of the larger project, which includes semi-structured interviews and ongoing media archive work the exploring the competing media frames of cyclists and cycling infrastructure.