More than $140000 in grants give bike riding a push

Overview

Action 2.13: Support community driven projects to encourage more Queenslanders to ride a bike.

Lead agency: Department of Transport and Main Roads

Status: Complete

Achievements

As part of our Bike Riding Encouragement Program, we established a new community grants program supporting local level initiatives to increase the number of people who regularly ride a bike.

The program offers financial support to not-for-profit and for-profit organisations. Local government and Queensland Government entities could also access funding when they partnered with a community organisation to design and deliver an initiative. 

The first round of the grants program opened in September 2020. We invited applications under two funding streams:

1. grassroots initiatives up to $5000
2. innovation initiatives up to $20,000.We received more than 50 applications and awarded $141,000 for 15 community projects across the state.

Successful initiatives included:

• training, education and promotional resources encouraging more women to take up and maintain bike riding
• online mapping of bike riding routes and associated promotional campaigns
• mountain biking coaching and skills sessions
• bike riding skills programs for children, including those with special needs.

We celebrated the positive impact of several of the grant projects through posts on our social media channels.

Evaluation indicated the grants program was an effective way to drive innovation and community involvement in bike riding encouragement efforts and promotion.

Next steps

We will offer a further round of Bike Riding Encouragement Program Community Grants in 2023–2025.