The pushbike song : Rolling physical cultural studies through the landscape

This article explores how small cities use cycling for both residential transportation and active tourism. While cycling may be child's play, and indeed a part of childhood socialization, the 'pushbike' has a role in regional development. Our work investigates cycling and cycling policy. We then focus on one small city at the southern tip of Western Australia. Albany is attempting to transform itself into a cycling city and an international capital of cycling. This article engages trans-local cultural modelling and evaluates Albany's goal in terms of health, sustainability and economic development. The synergetic and accidental commitment to cycling in Albany provides a model and opportunities for other small cities to consider, apply and improve.


Introduction
"Life is like riding a bicycle -in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving".Albert Einstein (2015) "Give a man a sh and feed him for a day.Teach a man to sh and feed him for a lifetime.Teach a man to cycle and he will realize shing is stupid and boring".Desmond Tutu (2015) 1970 was the year that maintained the whiff of 1960s optimism, freedom and buoyancy, without the foreboding and betrayal that would emerge through The pushbike song 185 cycling, placing attention on the cities where cycling is both common and successful and those where the practice is under-deployed and failing.The research literature from recreation, leisure and health is also accessed to recognize the specicity of cycling as both a commuter and recreational practice.The nal information sources are two interviews, conducted with a community cycling advocate and a local government recreation ofcer, that enable researchers to understand how and why Albany made a decision to commit to cycling.These interviews were conducted by one of the authors of this article -Leanne McRaewho grew up in this city and has family still resident in Albany.Through these theoretical and methodological inections, we demonstrate how small cities change and how the residents of small cities and the tourists who visit them can become more active in an array of movement cultures.

The bike and the cyclist
There are many descriptions of our contemporary age.Accelerated culture (Redhead, 2004) and zombie capitalism (Botting, 2013) are two of them.But in a time-poor and obesogenic space, how can the non-working moments be rendered pleasurable and productive, beyond a screen-dominated and sugar-fuelled visage?The commute to work, school or university is a time that can lapse into drudgery and stress.Cycling to work builds physical activity into a day but requires an array of storage, parking and changing facilities at the conclusion of this trip.There is also the challenge of weather.Recommending cycling in Albany in Western Australia is different from recommending cycling in Alberta, Canada.Stressing the health benets is not productive as the contextual barriers -time, distance, weather and facilities -are the key determinants for choosing to cycle.The perceived level of required tness to commence cycling is also an issue, but studies have shown that if participants attempt cycling even from a low skill base, then this concern is removed (Ravenscroft, 2004).Scholars and policy makers need to nd a way to understand, track and shape the multiple stories of cycling told by both participants and non-participants and then map those narratives over the landscape and weave them through policy.
Cycling and cities have an intertwined history.Emerging as an "urban phenomenon" (Knuts andDelheye, 2012, 1942), the velocipede emerged at the end of the 1860s (Knuts andDelheye, 2012, 1944).By 1900 in early adopter nations such as Belgium, the "urban bourgeoisie" (Knuts andDelheye, 2012, 1945) were the most frequent users.Even at this time, conicts emerged between disparate users, including pedestrians and horse riders.The rst cycling code was introduced in Ghent in 1891 (Knuts andDelheye, 2012, 1947).These early regulations of movement in cities focused on conictual use.The domination of young male cyclists congured them as a threat, similar to today's skateboarders.
Cycling is not only an activity of transportation and exercise.It is social.It is cultural.Therefore physical cultural studies offers insights into the ideologies of the practice (Brabazon, Redhead, McRae, 2015).A master's thesis was written in 1994 by Ben Hamblin at Murdoch University titled Cultural Studies does the bicycle (Hamblin, 1994).It seems appropriate over two decades later that Physical Cultural Studies does the bicycle.Neil Ravenscroft described cycling as part of a wider "shift away from organized 'group' sports to more individualized forms of active recreation" (Ravenscroft, 2004, 29).This is a mediated moving self.This is also a non-motorized self that congures identity, safety and the environment in a different way from those encased in metal and plastic.The challenge is that cycling can be enjoyable as leisure as long as it returns to work, productivity and the consumer.
This is a malleable self, shaped around ideologies of productivity, creating a malleable place.Kevin Smiley, Wanda Rushing and Michele Scott realized that "we can see that the malleability of place character can actually lead to it being reimagined and retained in a way that is constructive for places and inclusive of their residents" (2014,4).They are describing how a place can be experienced, rather than bypassed and ignored on the way to a destination.The reimagining and reconguring of Memphis in the United States, particularly after the global nancial crisis, resulted in a new governmental role being created in 2010: Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator.As the title of this post suggests, the challenge remains in creating alternative mobility cultures in highly motorised cities.Using Amsterdam as a model (Sirkis, 2000, 85) can seem attractive, but the embedded history and normalization of cycling -with attendant infrastructure -does make it a distinct and distinctive case.Its generalizability is debateable.
Australian cities have many advantages in the development and promotion of outdoor physical activities.Researchers such as Friedrich Froebel (1885) afrmed the value of learning outdoors, challenging our denitions of risk and opportunity.With all our senses activated, a range of new experiences can be gained.However, Helen Tovey has realized that the poorer the child, the fewer the outdoor experiences (2007).She stated that "children it seems are increasingly 'out of place' in many of our cities" (2007,5).The lack of opportunity for movement, in screendominated leisure, means that negotiating the variability of place through air, light, landscape, temperature and seasons, is being reduced.
Lifestyle.Recreation.Leisure.Wellbeing.These four words have different histories, ideologies and trajectories.Lifestyle is tethered to consumerism (Maycroft, 2004).Recreation re-creates the body for work.Leisure is locked in a binary of work and leisure.Wellbeing is more modern, ambiguous and is aligned with personal development.Most of these words and models are locked into what Tarquin Bowers described as "the well-worn restorative model" (2007,31).This means that leisure is tethered to the capitalist enterprise of work.The experience, the enlivening experience, of an activity, practice or behaviour in and on its own terms is rarely recognized.Valuing leisure time, beyond preparedness for work or consumerist activities, is rare.What Albany is trying to do is to match the utilitarian functions of leisure -sustainability, transportation, health -with community building and an emotional investment in a place.The location of the cycleway is also important.It is on Albany highway, which is the major thoroughfare into the city and runs directly from Perth.This moderation of speed is important, transforming the ideologies of urbanity.The pauses in and of life are important.The spillage of work into the rest of life -through digital platforms -means that purely analogue spaces are increasingly rare.
The slow food movement has inspired an array of aligned behaviours that reduce speed to enhance meaning.The transformation of transportationcaptured through the Cittaslow groups (2015) -values and validates walking and The pushbike song 187 cycling.Tourism, alongside commuting, becomes more sustainable (Ho, Liao, Huang and Chen, 2014).Yet the individual reasons to decide to cycle (or not) are dependent on physical abilities and condence, occupation and the proximity between home and workplace, and also the promotion of leisure and relaxation on its own terms.
The key division in researching cycling is between commuters and leisure users.Leisure users are pursuing tness, along with cycling tourism.This recreational group can be drawn to scenery, downhill tracks or hill climbing.The research literature conrms an array of social benets when cycling is selected as a recreational activity, including social connectivity, relaxation, autonomy, and connection with the environment (Ho, Liao, Huang and Chen, 2014, 13).Cycling is one of those rare pursuits that is almost uniformly positive in its outcomes for the environment, the economy, community building and individual health.There is an array of determinants that block the selection of cycling and they require policy or workplace interventions.These include road surface conditions, road safety concerns, requiring a car for work and child caring and rearing responsibilities (Mullan, 2012, 229-237).But the research is clear.Positive correlation is found between the length of time driving and the obesity rate.Similarly, a negative correlation is found between obesity and walking (Frank, Andresen and Schmid, 2004).The next section investigates leisure and recreational cycle tourism as a slower and analogue experience.

Slow moving
The challenge of environmental tourism is that there are risks to the natural environment.Adventure tourism is based on moving through beautiful and often conservation-protected environments.Mountain biking, which is often thought to have originated in Marin County in California in the 1970s (Hardiman and Burgin, 2013, 977), does pose specic challenges to the landscape.Trails are created.Downhill runs require skidding and braking, with environmental consequences on wet slops and bends.Mixed-use trails also pose their problems for users and in maintenance.Also, there are challenges with connectivity.As Neil Ravenscroft conrmed, "Many trails have been developed opportunistically -as resources have become available -and are thus not linked to an integrated transport network, or to key destination sites (Ravenscroft, 2004, 30).But he also argued that trails are more than infrastructure.They require an ethnography of users and the informal rules that govern the mixed-use path.Such an investigation is not only the building of paths and the assemblage of signage.It requires an understanding of the informal dialogues between the cyclist and the walker.Physical cultural studies is the ideal theoretical framework to conduct this work, as it can combine policy, sociology, bodily textualization and movement into a theoretical package.
In Australia, of the 753,843 bicycles sold in Australia, 70% were mountain bikes (Hardiman and Burgin, 2013, 977).However mountain bikes are the equivalent of four wheel drive motor vehicles.Most never go 'off road.'Similarly, most mountain bikes never climb mountains.As with the early history of cycling, mountain biking is dominated by young men, who will never be the majority in any pursuit or activity.Australian scholarship has shown that recreational riders outside of the mountain bikers list three reasons for cycling: relaxation, exercise and viewing the natural environment (Hardiman and Burgin, 2013, 978).Noting these responses, the tourist opportunities for adventure cycling are clear.The 7stanes location in Scotland was opened in 2001.A mountain biking venue was developed to attract both international and national visitors.The trails are able to attract both beginners and experienced riders (Hardiman and Burgin, 2013, 983).For such rural areas that are managing higher than average unemployment levels, the tourists add much to the economic environment.In 2007, 7stanes attracted 395,000 visitors (Hardiman and Burgin, 2013).
The importance of mountain biking for areas such as Albany is that the rural areas are the focus of recreational activity and provide economic benets.The attraction to mountain biking is clear, offering "exercise, fun, mental activity, technical challenge, recreation and entertainment" (Newsome and Davies, 2009, 237).Western Australia exhibits many of these international patterns and interests, with trails through natural settings, including an array of slopes and curves, being preferred (Newsome and Davies, 2009, 237).The challenge is to create controlled -articial and planned -pathways through the natural environment.This ideological clash in mountain biking -ensuring that the natural environment is respected and not damaged to enable sustainability in the practice versus the need for 'excitement' in remote and unusual places (Newsome and Davies, 2009, 241) -is 1 difcult to resolve .A similar problem is the management of multiple trail use, particularly ensuring that walkers and bikers share the infrastructure in a collegial and respectful fashion.
One of the great challenges when planning a cycling infrastructure for residents or visitors -and recreational and commuter cyclists -is the lack of consideration within the already existing network.Cities such as Montreal have suffered from a fragmented approach in developing integrated cycling infrastructure (Larsen, Patterson and El-Geneidy, 2013, 306).
Building infrastructure is not the only requirement to creating a cycling culture, but it is a determinant.The normalization of cycling as a viable recreation or transportation choice, along with public education programmes, is also useful.There are no causal variables or outcomes from cycling.It is a practice that can align sociality, economic development, environmental care and health into a powerful package.The outcomes are uneven.In Wen et al.'s 2009 study of 6810 Australian workers, they discovered that the men who cycled or used public transport were less like to be obese than those who drove to work.Such a relationship was not causal or clear for women (Wen, Kite, Merom and Rissel, 2009, 1-8).There are many reasons why individuals choose cycling.Therefore creating a sociology of cycling is difcult.However, studies are showing that those who cycle frequently are -even when allowing for sex, class, race, educational level, marital status, home and care ownership and age -more physically active in the rest of their life and maintain a lower body mass index (Forsyth and Oakes, 2015, 56).
The selection of a mode of transport is part of identity building.Particularly when distinctive modes of transport are selected that are not dominant, such as cycling and walking, they can congure a separation and deance from 'mainstream' culture (Aldred, 2013, 253).Like many subcultures or alternative communities, they are stigmatized.As Rachel Aldred conrmed, "cycling is never just cycling; it represents various prescribed or proscribed behaviours" (Aldred, The pushbike song 189 2013,253).This is particularly the case when selecting the bicycle as a mode of transportation for commuting to work, school and university.

The cycling commute
Modern life -and more importantly modern living -is obesogenic.Labour saving devices, such as washing machines and self-propelling vacuum cleaners, are examples.More serious is the desk-bound digital life where hours are spent answering emails.Such practices did not exist even thirty years ago.This has meant new spaces and behaviours must be sliced and slotted into daily working life.Organized weekly sport does not create the sufcient intervention or interruption in the daily seated culture.
The daily commute to work, school and university is important in the management of health and physical activity.Kathryn Terzano and Victoria Morckel studied university staff in three cities in the United States: Youngstown, Columbus and Washington DC.They discovered a -relatively self-evidentconclusion.The participants who lived within the city limits exercised more than those who lived outside of the city boundaries.In other words, peripheral locations for the home residence necessitated a dependence on the car.Their discussion of other social variables was more surprising.
Participants' income, length of commute, age, number of children living at home, and gender did not have a statistically signicant effect on the amount of time spent doing physical activities outside of the commute or the total number of physical activities engaged in (Terzano and Morckel, 2011, 495).
The researchers could nd no co-variant to track physical movement behaviours, tendencies and patterns outside or beyond the commute.However, this result may not be generalizable.Academics are a distinctive occupational group.They do have a freedom and exibility in their time that would not be revealed in other groups.It is helpful therefore to develop new understandings and relationships between 'sport,' 'physical activity' and 'exercise.' Phrases such as 'movement cultures' and 'physical cultural studies' can provide new opportunities.Dutch national physical planning policies have implemented the imperative for a compact city, with considered positioning of retail districts.Tim Schwanen, Martin Dijst and Frans Dieleman conrm that "national spatial planning has been most effective in retaining high shares of cycling and walking in the large and medium-sized cities, particularly for shopping trips" (2004,579).The Dutch recognized that understanding and managing urbanization is the key to health, transportation policy, a reduction in congestion and sustainability.There is also the question of equity.Bicycles are cheap.Cars are not.Sustainable cities require the generation of less pollution, while increasing efciency.Yet sustainable transportation systems are difcult to dene.
Simon Batterbury has provided a clear and enabling denition.
A sustainable transportation system is integral to almost all aspects of city life -work, leisure, emergency planning -and to the ways in which the city is "nested" within the region and the national political economy (2003,151).
However, Batterbury's wider point is a controversial and challenging one: "Planning is too important to be left to planners -especially those who do not ride bikes.The micro geography of the urban streetscape is best managed, and made more friendly and sustainable, by a coalition of citizens and professionals" (2003,163).He is right: an array of approaches and understandings of movement are required to enact urban planning and transportation policy.
We will enact this element in our study of Albany later in this article.Yet the ethics in movement also has to be managed.Judith Green, Rebecca Steinbach and Jessica Datta realized that "mobility discourses are tied to the responsibilities of 'a good citizen'" (Green, Steinbach and Datta, 2012, 272).The mobility choices selected by individuals are tethered to the responsibilities of citizenship.The challenges with automobility -such as the gridlock that reduces cars to a pace slower than a cyclist -means that alternatives need to be considered.While the car has been the symbol of afuence, this has recently been critiqued in some nations by a small, elite group that reside in the centre of cities, and walk and cycle to work and leisure activities.Local mobility without a motor vehicle is a new marker of status.Green et al. realized that "moving beyond automobility is generally presented as an emancipatory project" (2012,287).Such theories and tropes build on the profound initiatives from community health.The necessity for community organizing and building to 'manage' the profound gaps and injustices between rich and poor is dependent on what Meredith Minkler described as "coalition building and the creation of effective partnerships" (2012).The capacity to not own a car is a sign of afuence, choice and agency in integrating occupational and home life.
Cars dominate bicycles because the fast dominates the slow.John Urry and the Centre for Mobilities Research have shown (2015), that the powerful move.Paul Virilio conrmed that speed is a variable in the negotiation of power (1989).The capacity to select "mobility resources" (Aldred 2014) and make choices is perhaps the most powerful act of all.The private car once signied control over the personal timetable.However congestion and gridlock have reduced the freedom and self-efcacy possible through the automobile.
Perhaps the greatest afuence is choosing to reduce the space between work and home, so that an automobile is not required.Rachel Aldred's corrective is important: "it is not just moving, but the power to choose to move that is important.While in some respects the rich are super-mobile, in some contexts, they benet from being able to stay put" (Aldred 2014).While cycling is positioned between 'serious' working functions and recreation, the efciency and rationality of cycling is starting to be recognized.There is also an imperative to move beyond utility functionality.Many groups can gain enormously through cycling, particularly the elderly who will probably not be commuters, but benet from short cycling trips.Controversies about elderly drivers are recurrent tabloid fodder.Yet ensuring mobility choices through ageing, particularly if a driving license is removed, are important.It is a societal decision to make: once automobility is removed from the elderly, how are they to move around our towns and cities?
Automobiles have been associated with speed, freedom and exibility.Yet the power actualized through mobility is also changing.Living in the suburbs and using a car to commute to work is inefcient.Choosing a location to both live and work that reduces liminal time in a car is a new freedom and power.It is also multipurpose.Transportation, such as walking or cycling, aligns tness and health.

Shaping cities for cycling
Cycling is not only a behaviour enacted through individual choice.It requires social, geographical and cultural infrastructure.One of Australia's most signicant documents detailing the future shape of its cities was Our Cities, Our Future (Department of Infrastructure and Transport 2011).The imperative was to increase the productivity, sustainability and liveability of Australia, recognizing the role and imperative of the transportation network.The report stated that a large proportion of Australians -40% -commute less than 10 kilometres to work or study.However less than 1.6% of that group use a bicycle.While there are many causes for this lack of participation, the absence (or perceived absence) of a safe cycling route is reported as a major cause (Department of Infrastructure and Transport, 2011, 55).
Cycling is a focus of this report for many reasons.Cycling as an activity accesses and supports an array of ideologies about health, physical movement, reduction in a reliance on oil, sustainability and a liveable city.The Australian National Cycling Strategy 2011-2016(Australian Bicycle Council, 2010) was developed in partnership between Austroads and the Australian Bicycle Council in September 2010 and this report recognized both the scale of the challenges and the opportunities to increase participation, but noted that long-term infrastructure provision, integrated urban planning and attention to safety are all required.The benets recognized through the National Cycling Strategy encompassed societal, environmental, health, equity and convenience.
While most of these justications appear throughout the international policy and research literature, the attention to equity is innovative and strategically important.The NCS recognized that if a well congured cycling network is embedded into cities, including the outer rings, then less household income will be required for transportation.The Report recognized the lack of public transportation in Australia, and the disconnection between the systems.Cycling can provide mobility and sustainability, not only for a nation, but also for an individual householder.It counters the environmental effects of cars, but also recognizes the spatial waste of facilities such as car parks.Different types of facilities must be provided to manage cyclists, including secure bicycle parking, showers, lockers and changing facilities.Such facilities are also useful for those who walk to work, or exercise during the working day.
The attention to the outer ring of major cities made way for the state-wide Western Australian Bicycle Network Plan (WABN), published by the Department of Transport, to consider policies beyond the metropolis of Perth and into regional areas (2014).Change is required because less than 2% of journeys in Australia are cycled, compared by 10-20% of some European cities (Cycling Infrastructure for Australian Cities, 2009).While an obvious argument can be made that the distances are shorter in European nations, the clear caveat to such a blanket statement is the previously reported proportion: 40% of Australians commute less than 10 kilometres to work or study (Cycling Infrastructure for Australian Cities, 2009).The key determinate -and it is an obvious but important point -in moving commuters to walking or cycling, is distance from work, school or university.Millions of citizens in Australia's urban and regional areas have that proximity.Therefore, change is possible.192 Brabazon et al.What has been shown is that the construction of clear and measurable policies, aligning city council policies to key national performance indicators and investment in cycling infrastructure and education have revealed a lift in use and a shift in perception (Cycling Infrastructure for Australian Cities, 2009).Education policies do matter as surveys from around the world have revealed that perceived danger from motorists -and safety more generally -is a key blockage to commencing cycling for many possible users.While the 'lycra brigade' dominate the visuality of urban cycling in particular, a recognition and promotion of the multiple cycling abilities of users will model future growth and behaviour.
Increasing cycling participation is worth this effort.The affordability of cycling -at less than 1% of owning a car -is matched by environment and community benets.Improvements have been taking place.A March 2009 study found a substantive improvement (from a low base) in Australia.
In the six years to 2006 the proportion of people cycling to work has increased 45% on average across the nation.The most substantial increase has been in the ACT which has nearly doubled its commuter cycling share since 2000.Victoria has also experienced a sizeable increase over the same period, whilst NSW and Queensland have remained steady and WA has decreased considerably (Cycling Infrastructure for Australian Cities, 2009, 5).
The Australian Capital Territory is the region encircling Canberra, the nation's capital.It is the best educated and ttest population in the country.It is also a wellplanned city, built in grids.The surprise is that one state has decreased during this survey period.The reasons will be never be denitive, but one possible cause is the disconnection between the capital city and the regions of Western Australia.That is why this article focuses on Albany in the only state that is revealing a decline in cycling participation.
It is necessary, particularly when working with the regional areas of Australia that are major blind spots in cycling policy and initiatives, to learn from international urban planning practices that are creating bicycle-friendly cities.It is a balance between learning from what has worked, and also recognizing the profound specicity of many Australian regional towns.Copenhagen is the oftencited international example, because their cycling policies are not only profoundly successful, but they have aligned "liveability, sustainability, and public health objectives" (Nielsen, Skov-Petersen and Carstensen, 2013, 110).
Currently, 36% of commuters undertake their journey within the city limits by bicycle ((Nielsen, Skov-Petersen and Carstensen 2013, 110).There are concrete reasons for this success that cannot be dismissed as a quirky aberrance from the Scandinavian countries.As with their successful education and health systems, strong planning and integrated networks have fullled the transportation needs of mixed needs users.
There are economic benets from this expenditure, such as a reduction in the number of accidents and the health benets from assisting these movement cultures ((Nielsen, Skov-Petersen and Carstensen 2013, 111).These benets are not seen in nations such as the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.While the average 10-85 year old Dane travels 530 kilometres per year on a bicycle, in the United States, this gure is only 40 kilometres per person per year (Nielsen, Skov-Petersen and Carstensen, 2013, 111).

The pushbike song 193
Denmark focuses on utility cycling, integrating the bicycle into a wider transportation model.This is the most effective strategy and policy.Therefore, the leisure elements are less prioritized.Still, small cities like Albany can learn something from Copenhagen, in terms of policy commitments and infrastructural development.The integration of cycling into daily life also enables cycling to be naturalized as part of public health.Rio -a large global city -has seen the cost of "the hegemonic automobile-dominated transport model" (Sirkis 2000).Yet Alfredo Sirkis has realized that while the scale of the required intervention in Rio is large, there is great potential in the small to medium sized cities.He nds them much more open and available for a policy intervention.He also noted that cycleways are a "delicate type of infrastructure" (Sirkis 2000, 92) that require a sustainable plan for ongoing maintenance.
Cycling for transport (CFT) and cycling for recreation (CFR) require different policies and educational campaigns but can share much of the same infrastructure.Cycling for transport reduces congestion and creates more sustainable communities (Mullan 2013), but the health benets are shared by both.Indeed, recreational cycling provides the base-line entry (or re-entry after childhood) into the activity.But, as Mullan realized, the overlap between CFT and CFR can be over-estimated (2013,7).The question is how the space in between the origin and the destination -home and away -can be understood when the mode is cycling.
Rachel Aldred and Katrina Jungnickel took this liminality as a focus of their research.They termed their goal as understanding "the sociological signicance of mobile places" (Aldred and Jungnickel 2012, 523) and "mobile place-making through an analysis of the practice of weekend group leisure cycling" (Aldred and Jungnickel 2012, 523).Arguing that the car is globalizing and yet under-discussed in the expansive literature on globalization, they suggest that academic disciplines have focused on origins and points of arrival, but 'the journey' and the mode of transportation have been under-discussed.The discussion of mobile placessitting on a bus or in a car, the process of walking or cycling -is rare.When commencing such a study, the impact of cycling's marginality in most nations is clear.The micro-struggles over space, visibility and time are difcult to grasp.Aldred and Jungnickel stress "multi-sensory involvement" (Aldred and Jungnickel 2012, 523).Cycling tourism creates and enables this engagement.Therefore, we now investigate Albany and its challenges, aspirations and opportunities as a cycling hub.

Albany: Australia's capital for recreational cycling
Perched at the southern tip of Western Australia is a small city.The rst European settlement of Western Australia, it is geographically disconnected from the capital city of the state, being 420 kilometres away from Perth.This renders the city distinct from the clustered third tier cities around global capitals, like Luton around London, Oshawa around Toronto, and Parramatta around Sydney.These cities are so close to the global capital that it sucks the population and work into a quasi-commuter belt.When moving just beyond a 90 minute commute, the small cities have an independence not possible when tied to a global city.Currently, just over 30,000 people live in Albany, making it the sixth highest population centre in 194 Brabazon et al.Western Australia.It features a wide and picturesque natural port that not only was the last stop for troops sailing to Gallipoli in the First World War, but was the home port of whaling through its early colonized history.This bloody part of its history concluded in 1978.It was the last whaling port in the southern hemisphere.Currently, Albany is known for the proliferation of its windfarms, high quality agricultural produce, and timber and tourism.Education is also important, with seven primary schools, eight secondary schools, a TAFE (Technical and Further Education) college, and an outlier campus of the University of Western Australia all present in the city.The Noongar indigenous communities described Menang Albany as "Kinjarling" (the place of rain).The summers are long and mild, and unlike much of Australia there is a discernible difference between autumn and spring, and the winters are mild.But this temperate climate makes possible an array of movement cultures to ourish, including recreational cycling and walking that would be difcult in Port Hedland, Derby or Wyndham in the State's north.
Albany's cycling plans have a touch of Wayne's World about them.A couple of young men decide to produce a low stakes/low prole public television programme and then reach fame, fortune and a meeting with Alice Cooper.Similarly, Albany, a small city in Western Australia has summoned an integrated bike plan to transform it into the primary cycling destination in Australia.Facilities are a focus, by building infrastructure to provide impetus for those who have not cycled to 'jump on a bike' and those who currently cycle to participate with greater frequency.A 'Go Cycle Albany' (2015) pamphlet maps different routes and views throughout the city.The focus is tourism and tourists, but there is also attention -perhaps incidentally -to commuting and local recreational activities.The emphasis is increasing the safety of local cycle paths.As has been shown in the international research literature, not only is safety important, but the impression of safety for a cyclist is integral to increasing participation.Diversication has also been important.Because of this The pushbike song 195 singular commitment to cycling, there has also been a proliferation and diversication of cycling practices that are supported.An Albany Urban Downhill is hosted for mountain bikers (2015), alongside a Mountain Bikers' Club (2015).
Cycling has been used in Albany and in many small cities around the world to align sustainability, climate change policies and health initiatives.Albany remains distinct because the local focus is extended into an aim to raise the city's national and international prole.The key initial strategy -that is working well -is to normalize cycling culture in the city.A diffused imperative to improve infrastructure has emerged to enhance the recreational experience for both residents and international visitors.At this stage, the alignment between recreational and competitive cycling is unclear.An implicit assumption remains that building a cycling infrastructure will inevitably build a healthier community.This merging of recreation, leisure and tourism is not as self-evident as has been assumed.
To understand how communities and local government initiatives are aligned, two interviews were conducted to capture this currently unwritten history.The Albany Bicycle Users Group was formed in 2006 and was the rst regional bicycle 2 users group in Western Australia .Their advocacy role is clear.
Leanne McRae: As I understand it, this group was really instrumental in getting this bike plan up and running.Has there been a long history of advocacy within the group?Murray Gomm: Yeah -it was about curating membership facilities, on-road bike lanes, and connecting up dual-use paths within a 5kms radius of Albany.They were quite simple goals.There were a number of activities we did in terms of getting the money and developing the rst bit of the Go Cycle Albany map as well.It was putting together a submission as part of the Western Australian Bicycle Network Plan.There was a draft document out that had a very small section in it on regional areas and didn't even mention Albany.So there was an extensive submission that went into that in terms of all the reasons and rationale as to why we would want to create Albany as a cycling City including cycle tourism and it was actually in collaboration with a government department -D.E.C. [Department of Environment and Conservation] then, it's called DPAW now -Department of Parks and Wildlife.At the time I was working for the Munda Biddi Trail Foundation but I was also advocating on behalf of ABUG and so I had access to a staff member from DEC and with the Munda Biddi trail coming in we realised that coming into Albany wasn't that great.
So that was costed-up and went to the Liberal Party branch and they endorsed it overwhelmingly.So then the Minster for Transport's Ofce contacted me and says we want to meet -so we're getting close to an election -so I met with him and so did DEC and so did two representatives from Grange Resources because part of the dual-use path was subject to Grange getting funding.They would build their pipeline for a certain distance and they had to build a dual-use path on top of that and that would hook in with the section that we costed.So we weren't sure that was going to happen.
What happened was the State government announced $900,000 for cycling infrastructure for Albany which was over three years and the City had to match it, so it was actually $1.8 million.So the City didn't have a bike plan even though we'd been advocating for a bike plan because they didn't have one.So The City essentially did a really quick and dirty bike plan.
There was a positive community response to the reconguration and rebranding of Albany as a cycling city.But managing the differences between residential recreation and tourism remained unclear.The key difference and tension revealed in the Albany policy materials is between the 'utility' of cycling, as a mode of direct transportation, and cycling as a movement culture of leisure and pleasure.The nations with the highest rates of cycling -such as Denmark and the Netherlands -do not binarize cycling in this way, conguring leisure, pleasure, recreation and commuter utility on a continuum.Where the rates of cycling are much lower, such as the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom, the division between work and leisure cycling is much starker.Recreation is undervalued, under-discussed and dismissed, with the focus on reducing the carbased commuter journeys.Yet recreation matters to health and wellbeing, placing employment into a more expansive and sustainable context.As reported by Gomm, it was tourism -the extension of the Munda Biddi tourism trail -that created the funding and political momentum for change.
A 'quick and dirty' bike plan was developed for Albany.It promoted and normalized Albany's bike culture, as revealed in Cardno's February 2014 Final Report: City of Albany Bike Plan, presented ve objectives: 1. To develop and implement a bicycle network of safe, connected, accessible and well maintained routes and facilities.2. To be a City where walking and cycling becomes an easy choice of travel for all trips of up to 5km, around identied community hub. 3. To be a City that recognises and expands on the potential of cycle tourism.4. To be a City that attracts, supports and encourages cyclists of all types, ages, backgrounds and skill levels.5. To build a bike riding culture in the City of Albany so that it is seen as a legitimate use of the road, with mutual respect between all users (2014, 5).These ve objectives established a networked plan of infrastructure developments alongside education and promotion of cycling to achieve an acceptance of multiple road uses and users.There was also attention to the multiple skill level of riders, from the inexperienced and school students through to professional mountain bikers.The community consultation plan was successful, encompassing a questionnaire in analogue and digital formats and a community workshop.Over 450 completed surveys were returned and 65 people attended the workshop.What emerged through this consultation is that signage became a priority to ensure that diverse road users would not come into conict.This signage would also signal the intention of Albany to become a cycling city (Cardno 2014, 6).
The formulation of this plan was developed through both community advocacy and local government support.Leanne McRae spoke with Samantha Stephens, Manager of Recreation Services in the City of Albany, about how the Bike Plan was formed.
McRae: Considering the infrastructure is quite poor in Albany what is the objective of and for the infrastructure to provide a safer environment for cycling and cyclists?
Stephens: When we talk about cycling we've looked at it from a perspective that you are condent or you are uncondent.The condent cyclists will go on the road and use normal road infrastructure.The uncondent cyclists will be looking for that off-road path and quieter streets.It's about enabling people to come in from community hubs into The pushbike song 197 activity hubs -so either the business or recreation or arts, you know those different sorts of social activity hubs that get them around shopping.
McRae: It seems that it is not just a City-focus; it really is kind of a Shire of Albany -larger -project?
Stephens: Yes -it is the whole city.So when we talk about the City of Albany it's the whole boundary of it.We look at it -I guess -as a rural and an urban aspect of it, and main roads talks about that -because main roads also own some of our roads too so that was a key partner when we were doing the plan -they'll talk about a rural environment and an urban environment.
McRae: And do you see the objectives differently for the rural and urban component?Stephens: I don't think they are necessarily different.Just because they don't have the number of roads out there you might not have the mass but they still need the same corridors into town.To cycle from Elleker is not an unusual distance.I think lots of people do that.We have lots of people who cycle in from Lower Kalgan into town, so they're cycling the distances already but probably with some risk.I think our process was good -the way we engaged community in it.We established our governance really clearly, we established a project control group making terms of reference and the control group had internal staff and external stakeholders.So we had ofcers from works and services, planning and community services working together on it.So we had a really cohesive group that assisted with the community engagement process and assisted with reviewing the document and assisted with assessing the projects.And some of them also assisted with the Saddle Survey.We did have a consultant that developed the report for us.The City accepted the background report but then went on to develop the strategy based on the report.After we established the governance we did go out and do a blank slate survey aspect where we surveyed the community, we held some forums and then based on that initial community engagement process we developed up a draft plan.So we didn't just turn up with a plan and said 'here you go guys, this is it', but the time we had taken the plan to council everybody's comfortable to where we've got to.It's an achievable plan.This commentary from Stephens was valuable, particularly because it stressed the complex relationship between urban and rural Albany.A cluster of third tier cities around the world manage this dualistic conguration.It is important to name and recognize the specic challenges and differences from both these zones.For Stephens, the focus is sociality and the enabling capacity of cycling.Embedding movement and physical activity into daily life is the goal.In this way, tness, health and transportation policy are not imposed from outside of Albany, but t into the interests and specicity of the region.The range of Council consultative processes conrms that this was not an imposed measure.It is a profound challenge to enable residents to improve their own health through voluntary activities.Engagement, participation and collaboration are the key.Without judgment, abuse or attacks on the behaviour of others, the key is to build links between behaviour and outcome, activity and health (Edberg 2015).Smoking and brushing teeth are activities that are aligned and naturalized with health outcomes.Food consumption and physical activity are tethered to body size.The key is to build a link between behaviour and health, to manage diabetes and heart disease in particular.
The combination of policy and community was important, particularly in creating agreed goals and outcomes.
Stephens: The bike plan's vision is to create Albany as one of the premier cycling destinations and then it looked at a variety of things that would help us achieve that visions with a number of key objectives.One was around improving the cycling network.The other one is around cycling participation.The third objective was safety and respect for all road users.So we have a situation at the moment where people are just not respectful of each other on the road.There's confusion around where people should be on the road.The fourth objective was around cycle tourism.So that was a great opportunity to use cycling to attract tourism to the region and the city.And the fth objective was around management and implementation of objectives.So how we are going to measure ourselves in achieving the objectives?McRae: I guess a key question is why cycling?Why was cycling singled out as a particular activity that would be good for Albany?Stephens: It was driven from the community.So, we have a very strong advocacy group that's called Albany Bicycle Users Group -ABUG.That group was keen, I guess in driving cycling as an activity for Albany.But also alongside of that, we are the terminus point for the Munda Biddi -so we're at the beginning or the end of that trail depending on how you look at it.So that was also a motivator, for the cycle tourism aspect of it.We also have a really strong mountain bike group.So with the cyclists you have your on-road and your off-road.So the City of Albany Cycle Plan is for hard infrastructure and the mountain bikers come under trails.So they're interconnected but they're funded differently.They're funded from different bodies.So, we look at them in separate plans.But they are interconnected plans, if that makes sense?So we have two very strong community groups.We have a signicant trail that starts and ends in Albany.Our climate is extraordinary for cycling.It's very a very comfortable climate for cycling.And our 3 landscape is brilliant.So we had quite a few things that helped to shape it up .
Albany, like many third tier cities, is not simply split between urban and rural elements.It features four types of terrain: an urban core, farmland, forestry and coastline.This diversity adds interest to a range of recreational activities including walking, running and cycling.An array of attractions punctuate this diverse landscape, including remarkable natural rock formations hugging the beach and Whale World that both recognizes and reconciles Albany's role in the whale trade.Albany also has the benet of climate as much as geography.It is a compact and small city -enabling short cycling journeys to be conducted with ease -but also a cool climate.Yet it is recreational cycling -rather than commuter trips -that are increasing.The attention to coastline infrastructure and scenery is attracting riders (Cardno 2014, 7).
Importantly, for Stephens and the Albany Council more generally, there is an emphasis on cycling tourism.Building infrastructure for one group will enable the others.Leanne McRae asked how to build sustainability, encouraging new users while encouraging challenge and innovation for the more experienced riders.
McRae: Is there also scope for education in terms of how you create a sustainable cycling community or do you think the cycling community is going to take care of itself?Is the objective to get more people cycling or to support the people already cycling?Stephens: There is a clear objective to increase cycling so that it becomes the choice of transport for trips 5kms or less around the city.So that's one of the clear objectives so that it's a clear choice of transport.So that will have ongoing health benets for people.Getting kids cycling to school, that sort of stuff.I guess there is an emphasis on infrastructure because infrastructure is poor at the moment but I think as we get the plan adopted -it goes to council …August [2014] -you'll see that the other four objectives out of the ve objectives.One focuses on the network, the others are about different outcomes.
McRae: How does the bike plan aim to recruit future cyclists or is that not part of the plan at this stage?Stephens: It's not a specic objective, but through running more events and activities for cyclists -the hope is that we'll have an ofcer who'll drive cycling in the community.So implementation and building of the network happens through the works and services, if the city is successful in attracting funding for a cycling ofcer that will sit under community services which is about delivering events and encouraging participation and building that sense of community.So you have two arms to it really.
Cycling operates well at the edges of urbanity.In the case of Albany, the 40 kilometre cycle between Lower Kalgan and Frenchman Bay is already well utilized and has space for further capitalization.The vision for the city extends far beyond a few routes.The goal of this vision is to increase the casual, commuter and recreational cycling, with attention to off-street facilities and the multiple condence levels of cyclists (Cardno 2014, 12).Impairment and disability is also recognized, planning for the diverse mobility needs and opportunities for all cities.The City of Albany's documents and policies recognize that men and women with impairments can benet from an open, accessible and diverse transportation system.Men and women in wheelchairs gain from a widening and extension of footpaths, and the creation of pathways through scenic environments.Leisure and recreation opportunities are enabled.Tractile pavement markings were recognized as important in any transportation plan (Cardno 2014, 14).Albany's Public Open Space Policy for example, guarantees recreational and sporting spaces in present and future residential areas (Cardno 2014, 19).
These initiatives are working.The most recent survey of Albany residents revealed that 74% rode bicycles for leisure or recreation (Cardno 2014, 26).How this large group cycle is diverse.The young, families and inexperienced frequent  Commuter cyclists have increased ability and condence, travelling at higher speed on the roadway (Cardno, 2014, 31), but also require end-of-trip facilities.Recreational riders reveal a diversity of ability levels and are both tourists and residents.These riders are frequently interested in the landscape and seeing the sights, and therefore occupy off street tracks.Signicantly, this mode of recreational riding is not geared to connect locations, but to offer either a view or a challenge to cyclists over a particular distance (Cardno, 2014, 32).Albany has also focused its policy on school children, because they are next generation developing skills and condence to continue cycling through their lives.The commute to school is an obvious strategy to develop cycling condence, but also a way for young people -before they gain a driving license -to experience cycling as a leisure activity (Cardno, 2014, 82).
McRae asked the key question of Gomm: how to encourage diverse movement cultures in Albany.
McRae: Do you think there is going to be a shift in consciousness in Albany to be more receptive to different forms of transport?Gomm: Oh there will be, to a certain extent.Because if you get more cyclists on the roadlet's just say in the bike lane on the road all of a sudden cyclists are more visible and as a car driver you got to get used to, more used to seeing them.For some car drivers that might mean more abuse.For others that might just mean, well OK there's people on bikes, I need to be careful.I mean it depends if there's any funding that gets put into any public campaigns and we've lived in a community or a country that's been designed for cars so there is this … Unfortunately when there's deaths and accidents involving cars and bikes I think 70 or 80% of the time the car is at fault but they don't get prosecuted because there's a reluctance to enforce the road rules because what is a cyclist doing on  While Albany is revealing the intricate negotiations for cycling in small cities, there are emerging areas that will require future development.Most of these challenges require some concrete and clear creative industries strategies to align policies, goals, initiatives, strategies and industries.So, for example, recreational riders should be targeted and planned for when developing policies for tourist attractions within the City.Connecting eating establishments with end-of-trip facilities and adding cycling opportunities to food tourism are all part of this connectivity.While the Council is aware that the state-based Department of Sport and Recreation and the Department of Education and Training, alongside Bikewest, should be involved in Albany's development, there is yet to be a concrete presentation of the role of diverse industries and the potential of aligning them in and through cycling for the diversity of users.At its most basic, the installation of urails throughout Albany and its surrounds remains a physical reminder that cycling is important, catered for and recommended.This initiative is a model for other small cities.
These overt, clear, planned and predictable connections between industries (such as Swan Valley wineries and popular music concerns or the Napa Valley and green transportation networks) are under-developed in third tier cities like Albany.In the Albany Central Area Masterplan 2010, the importance of being 'clean and green' was recognized.

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To reinforce the ACA [Albany Central Area] as the commercial and cultural hub of the Great Southern Region.

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To improve the attractiveness of the ACA through streetscape improvements.

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To create a pedestrian and bicycle-friendly environment through the ACA • To promote the redevelopment and/or adaptive reuse of older buildings within the ACA through planning incentives/bonuses There is potential in these directives and goals.Increased residential living in the ACA is a characteristic of enlivened cities. Pedestrians and cycling are mentioned, but so is parking.Connected and innovative commercial opportunities are required, as in all third tier cities.These goals revealed cascading problems.Young people leave small cities because of a lack of work.Health and education facilities follow them.There are fewer consumers for local businesses.Local businesses close.Then the pattern perpetuates.
McRae probed the consequences of the population and commercial movement from the city.
McRae: So do you think that's a common thing -that there's a cycling (there's a metaphor) of population -a movement of the population of people moving and coming back that contributes to change in Albany?Stephens: Interestingly, the City has just bought a more detailed version of the ABS [Australian Bureau of Statistics] -you can buy a more sophisticated version of it and it actually tells you where your community's migrating to and from.And we have a large  This microanalysis of Albany's population movement is important.Local advocates and policy makers are integral to projects that can create both the infrastructure and the culture for cycling and walking (Higashide 2012, 9-11).The transferability and generalizability of international success stories -particularly in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands (Hull and Holleran 2014) -seems disconnected from interventions or developments in Australia, the United States or Canada.But the status quo is not possible for these oil-hungry cycling minnows.As Jacob Larsen, Zachary Patterson and Ahmed El-Geneidy conrmed that Concern over climate change, trafc congestion, and the health consequences of sedentary lifestyles has resulted in a surge of interest in cycling as an efcient form of sustainable transportation (Larsen, Patterson and El-Geneidy 2013, 299).
Their study based in Montreal, Canada argued that infrastructure was necessary, but cyclists should be involved in the location and form of that building.There is personal agency to consider.The Albany case study shows the value of that integration.Our two interviews -with a community activist and a council ofcershow how opportunities can be activated and enhanced.There is a powerful propulsion to walking and cycling.Personal and public health is enabled.Considering that the non-motorized future has great potential, there must be attention to the group that may cycle -and may cycle more -with support (Forsyth and Oakes 2015, 299).
Albany is a distinctive place.Cycling is the ideal way to combine the urban and rural areas, the coast and the forest.Yet cycling can also make a place.Community engagement and Council interest is aligning to build change.Tourism -and the imperative for the tourist dollar -is leading the desire for change.But the need to connect these initiatives through the urban centre of Albany, means that the city's core is not neglected.Albany remains important because in a non-cycling nation, in a state with reducing participation rates, it is peddling for change.
Albany exhibits the Wayne's World condence of building an international prole with a DIY ethic, but also continues the delicate, slow and textured journeys captured in 'The Pushbike Song.' Past and present, urban and rural, coastal and forest, tourist and residents, Albany is a small city with a big plan.If they are successful, then they will provide a key model for the United States, Canada and other Australian regional cities.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Albany Wind Farm 23rd June 2015 Photo by Leanne McRae rd

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Cycleway on Frenchman Bay Road Albany 23 June 2015 photo by Leanne McRae rd

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Construction of cycleway along Albany Highway 23 June 2015 photo by Leanne McRae

Figure 4 .
Figure 4.The diversity of cyclists in Albany th

Figure 5 .
Figure 5. Bike Racks bottom of York Street Albany 12 Jan 2014 photo by Leanne McRae

Figure 6 .
Figure 6.The recurrent challenges of third tier cities Endnotes 1.While this seems an analogue activity, digital mountain biking is offering great potential through GPS mapping.It not only enables trails but monitors the movement of mountain bikers in protected areas.2. Interview with Murray Gomm, former President of ABUG -Albany Bicycle Users Group, conducted by Leanne McRae at Orange Tractor Winery, July 22, 2014.3. Interview with Samantha Stephens, Manager of Recreation Services City of Albany, conducted with Leanne McRae, July 22, 2014.