a short movie about my pasteup art at IBUG Art 2025 in Chemnitz.
soundtrack 🎶 also made by me using a Lyra8, Model D, hermod+, Ghost, CP88, Ableton. all content created without using AI. just love for the ibug team and all the artists involved. ❤️

#chemnitz #ibug #pasteupart #urbanart #streetart #lostplaces #hospital

i‘m a pasteup artist from germany. this is my first post at mastodon. picture: ibug art festival 2025 in chemnitz. #pasteupart #streetart #ibug #chemnitz #banam

Is #cycling a beginner-friendly #activity?

We often hear from the community that, despite the promises of flexibility and freedom, getting started with cycling is more complicated than it should be.

Even if you do have some experience, a pause on your cycling journey also has some consequences: a bike with two deflated tyres, #fitness levels lacking, and confidence on the road lower than usual.

In the end, it can be easy to stick to what you know. Forget the bike, take the bus, or hop in the car.

#Illawarra #BicycleUsersGroup (#IBUG) has launched a fantastic initiative to reverse these habits. The #BicycleBuddy scheme is a mentor program aimed at increasing the #confidence and #skills of #women and #nonbinary people to ride their bikes for active transport and #leisure.

And since it was rolled out in July 2025, the program has been a huge success.

Behavioural research on cycling tells a similar story to the one we often feel anecdotally. It reveals that the obstacles to cycling are made up of three fundamental components:

Capability - people lack the skills and knowledge to ride confidently.
Opportunity - people default to the transport mode they’re used to, when a new one can seem difficult.
Motivation - cycling can be seen as unsafe.

For more people to take up cycling, things must shift in all three areas. Transport for NSW’s campaigns to get more people cycling have been constructed with this in mind, aimed at showcasing short tasked-based trips as reasons to use active transport, paired with behavioural-led messages.

One of the recurring themes in behavioural research is the importance of segmentation, and understanding a specific audience. This makes designing systems and landing the impactful messages more effective.

The IBUG Bicycle Buddy program has been created specifically for women and non-binary riders. IBUG committee members studied the research and identified that both demographics can be more risk-averse to starting cycling, and require more encouragement.

IBUG’s scheme works by creating pairs of mentors and mentees who organise to ride together on a regular basis. The goal is to develop the skills and confidence of the mentees and help them to choose cycling for daily trips in the local area.

The rides are tailored and flexible. Some participants need to practice riding skills and build fitness in a quiet street, park or parking lot. Others want to find a safe backstreet route for school and shopping trips, or learn how to reach the shared path along the coast for car-free access to beaches.

Importantly, the basics are never assumed. Mentees are helped with fitting a helmet, checking tyre pressure, adjusting the saddle, and choosing clothes, drinks and snacks.

And there are some impressive testimonials for the idea from within the IBUG community.

Gemma wanted to be able to ride to the beach as it is very hard to find parking. She was nervous about riding on busy shared paths.

"I met with my buddy Gemma at the Stuart Park practice track to work on her slow riding skills,” said mentor Lise from IBUG. “It was excellent and by the end of it she felt confident enough to ride the Blue Mile. Next step: showing her the shared paths and cycleways to the beach from her home."

“I had been unable to ride my bike for several years due to health issues, and it was gathering dust in the garage,” says Penny, a mentee. “My Bicycle Buddy Marie helped me to get my bike roadworthy again. However, I still needed to build up my strength and coordination a bit so we set the bike up on a training stand.

“Now I can use my bike as a stationary exercise bike indoors and practice changing gears, and get used to the posture and effort of riding. Hopefully, I’ll be able to go out for a short ride with Marie soon.”

Marie has been riding to work for years. She really enjoyed showing Kaitlyn how to ride to work.

“It feels really good to be paying it forward,” said Marie. “This is a great way for women to get some support getting on a bike. It’s lovely getting active transport going too.”

The Bicycle Buddy program is a worthwhile reminder that whilst big transport projects often gain the most attention, it can be the smaller everyday changes to people's routines and habits that are the most effective way to make a difference.

And if behaviour research enforces the idea that individual human motivation fluctuates, then the support of someone else can be particularly valuable. With the right person, the challenge of changing a behavioural pattern can be made much easier.

In other parts of the world, research has shown that leisure cycling can be a key driver in inducing travel behaviour changes.

A study in Colombia showed that riders often shift from recreational rides to using their bike for everyday trips. An important side benefit of leisure cycling is that riders tend to become more bike-aware when back behind the wheel, driving more cautiously and respectfully around cyclists and pedestrians.

Another data-set of 1,100 adults in Sardinia, Italy, showed that people who cycle frequently for leisure are also more likely to cycle more frequently for utilitarian purposes (commuting/errands), suggesting a behavioural ‘spillover effect’ from recreational to transport cycling.

These types of studies help designers, planners, and policymakers move from asking “How do we build more cycling infrastructure?” to asking “How do we create behavioural conditions that make people want to ride?”

Increased cycling infrastructure may very well cause more people to ride, but a longer term challenge is to examine how people actually form new cycling habits, and crucially, what keeps them cycling long-term.

IBUG is a very active bicycle user group that is affiliated to Bicycle NSW. IBUG works to make the Illawarra a great place to ride for everyone. IBUG’s goals are: to represent and advocate for bike riders increase cycling, and improve infrastructure.

IBUG engages regularly with elected representatives at all levels of government, as well as advocacy colleagues at Better Streets, 30 Please and Healthy Cities Illawarra.

Members write detailed submissions on local projects and strategies, run regular rides across the Illawarra, and meet every two months to plan advocacy activities.

IBUG had a significant advocacy win in 2025 as part of a successful campaign to reinstate the walking and cycling bridge at Mount Ousley Interchange.

https://bicyclensw.org.au/bicycle-buddies-changing-behaviour-in-the-illawarra/