Towards Zero: Ride Like a Local

This project was a collaboration between the Amy Gillett Foundation, Monash University, RMIT University and the Alpine Shire Council. The aim of the project was to create a campaign that humanises cyclists as members of the community. A key deliverable was the creation of a video that included the local area and residents. The project was conducted in four stages: 1) focus groups with key stakeholders; 2) online survey about cycling and driving in the Alpine region; 3) development and creation of the campaign, and; 4) post-campaign survey about cycling and driving in the Alpine region and the impact of the campaign. Key findings identified that the video did achieve the aim of humanising cyclists with the unprompted messages from the video including people riding bikes are normal people, mutual respect in road sharing and people enjoy and need to ride bikes. The campaign also identified that road safety campaigns need to include the local area (91% agree) and people who live in the region (82% agree).

While the project successfully delivered on the aim, it also identified new insights and raised additional questions that were outside the scope of this project. These considerations are important in terms of road safety, in particular highlighting negative attitudes towards people riding on the roads. The report includes recommendations for future work in the Alpine Shire area and in other areas of regional Australia.