BENDIGO, the bicycle capital of regional Australia.
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That is one of two major goals of Bike Bendigo, a new not-for-profit, community-based organisation made up of a diverse set of individuals and groups with a passion for cycling.
While only officially launching last Thursday, the organisation's spokesman Steve Abbott said the Bendigo Bike story had been growing for about a year.
"It started with a series of a very passionate local people who were keen to co-ordinate the bicycle friendly efforts of the city, both in community and business but also in government as well," he said.
A community forum, on a wet winter's night this year at the Old Church On the Hill, brought together about 100 like-minded people, as well as speakers from Bendigo and Melbourne.
It proved the tipping point, Mr Abbott said.
"The energy in the room was overwhelming," he said.
"We said, right, we have to do something here."
Mr Abbott said the forum highlighted Bendigo was a "gold mine" for harnessing the interests of existing cycling groups, most of whom were wanting to build more facilities and grow their membership bases.
It also identified the need for a unified strategy to not only harness the popularity of recreational cycling but also address areas for improvement, such as low commuter cycling rates.
"If we co-ordinate the passion and the efforts of everyone across the community who’s interested in cycling, then we could do things like have one website that cross promotes everything and all events throughout the year, we could develop a community cycling plan to show different decision makers in government the priorities for the community around infrastructure but also around behaviour change and bike share schemes," Mr Abbott said.
Bike Bendigo came out of a group of people committed to make all of these ideas happen, Mr Abbott said.
"It's got a really simple vision - get more people on bikes and see Bendigo become the bicycling capital of regional Australia," he said.
Mr Abbott said the 15-member group included those with backgrounds in marketing, roads and different tiers of government.
"It's a real skills-based organisation, not just interest based. It's not just because we care about cycling, it's because we want to contribute our life skills as well," he said.
Mr Abbott said the organisation was going through the process of being incorporated.
"This is not just going to be an overnight group, the intent is we’ll establish a way of revenue raising, whether it be membership or sponsorship or business-based initiatives," he said.
"We want to build a sustainable model which will continue to drive Bendigo to being that bicycle capital."
The group's public launch, the Bike Bendigo Festival, will be at Hargreaves Mall on Friday, October 17 from 5.30pm to 7pm.
Mr Abbott said it would be a "short and fun" get together, with people encouraged to ride there after work.
"It’s a chance for us to bring everyone together and say this is us, this is the official arrival of Bike Bendigo," he said.
But he said the long game, looking 10 or 15 years down the track, was international recognition for the regional city.
"When an international arrives in Sydney and people ask where to go for cycling, we want people to say you should go to Bendigo," he said.
He said Bike Bendigo was following in the footsteps of other community-based bicycle groups around the world such as those in San Francisco and Copenhagen.
"It’s similar to Copenhagenize, which saw Copenhagen become this international Mecca for cycling over the space of 30 years," he said.
"We believe there is a similar opportunity in Bendigo. There’s nothing stopping us... it's time to drive this community-based vision."