By XAVIER SMERDON
WYNDHAM Council is one of the top performing council’s in Australia when it comes to funding bicycle infrastructure, a new report has found.
Bicycle Network Victoria released the results of the Bicycle Expenditure Index (BiXE) survey last week which measured how much council’s across Australia spend per head of population on building and improving the bike networks.
According to the survey, Wyndham Council ranked 12th in Australia, spending $11.65 per resident on bike infrastructure this year.
The average amount of bicycle expenditure for outer zone councils, which includes Wyndham, was just $5.83.
Bicycle Network Victoria recommends that every council spend a minimum of $5 on bicycle infrastructure per resident.
According to the report Wyndham will spend more than $1.9 million, not including additional spending sourced from external grants and funds.
Mayor Heather Marcus said the council was committed to continue its track record with bicycle funding.
“It’s important because we’ve got more people wanting more cycle tracks in the municipality,” Cr Marcus said.
“It’s something that we’re really pushing so that people can get from A to B on a bike without worrying about being knocked over by a car.”
Cr Marcus said improving bicycle infrastructure could reduce Wyndham’s gridlock traffic.
“If we can make it easier for people to ride bikes around Wyndham then that means we have less people in cars and that would of course help with congestion,” she said.
“That is one of our priorities and there will be a lot of people that are very excited to see those figures.”
