The Working Week
With an average of 60% less cyclists on weekends compared to weekdays, the day of the week is the primary driver of trends in bicycling trips.

Over 1,477,710 cyclists have passed the Canberra Bike Barometer since November 2017.

There is a clear weekday versus weekend trend:

• In 2018 the number of cyclists on weekdays averaged 1,568 trips compared to 568 trips on weekends.

• Note the longer whiskers for the lower quartiles of the weekday counts, quite a lot of variation in numbers of cyclists.

• Hover over the outliers and have a look at some of the other factors influencing when we ride.

• The outliers include three days of the Christmas week and a very wet Thursday.

Data Source: (1) ACT Government(2021), ACT Bike Barometer - MacArthur Avenue, Open Data Portal dataACT, data file, Transport Canberra and City Services, Canberra. Retrieved 11 October 2021, https://www.data.act.gov.au/Transport/ACT-Bike-Barometer-MacArthur-Avenue/62sb-92ea
(2) ACT Public Holidays, Google Search

Rainy Day Blues
On average 28% less cyclists used the bike path on rainy days during 2018, with 54 days having more than 1mm of rain.

• Overall, days with rainfall over 1mm reduced the number of cyclists on the bike path by 28% compared to days with 0-1mm of rainfall.

• The effect of rain by day of the week was surprising, rainy Mondays actually had more cyclists on average (1,558) than Mondays without rain (1,513).

• Rainy Tuesdays (1,233) and Fridays (948) had the lowest numbers of cyclists compared to their rain free equivalents, 1,755 and 1,448 cyclists, respectively.

• Please note rainfall is collected on a 24 hour basis, so rainfall during night time hours cannot be quantified but is unlikely to affect cyclists and may mask some of the effects of rain.

Data Source: (1) ACT Government(2021), ACT Bike Barometer - MacArthur Avenue.
(3) Commonwealth of Australia (2021), Daily rainfall: Ainslie Tyson St, Climate Data Online: All years of data, data file, Bureau of Meteorology, Canberra. Retrieved 17 October 2021, http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/weatherData/av?p_display_type=dailyZippedDataFile&p_stn_num=070000&p_c=-980153996&p_nccObsCode=136&p_startYear=2021

School’s out
When the kids are home, some of the cyclists are too, with 22% fewer cyclists on the path during school holidays.

• School holidays affected 93 days in the ACT in 2018.

• While their effect on weekends is minimal, there is a marked reduction in the average number of cyclists during weekdays, from 1,362 cyclists during school term, to 1,058 cyclists during school holidays.

• The effect of school holidays on weekdays is fairly consistent overall.
  
  

While not specifically plotted (other than in the additional hover data for the working week boxplot) public holidays average out at 666 cyclists per day, which is only a little over the weekend average of 567 cyclists per day. This is a 59% reduction from the average number of cyclists on normal working days of 1,608 cyclists.

Data Source: (1) ACT Government(2021), ACT Bike Barometer - MacArthur Avenue.
(4) ACT School Holidays (2021), Past Years: 2018, 2019, ACT School Holidays, Canberra, viewed 17 October 2021, https://www.actschoolholidays.com.au/past-years/

The Hourly Grind
While the highest peak times are towards the city between 7-9am and from the city between 4-6pm, there are some interesting smaller trends too.

The interesting peaks in the hourly data for cyclists by the direction they were travelling in are as follows:

• Cyclists heading towards the city at the 8th hour of the day (172, with the wider range being between 6-10am), were cyclists most likely heading to work.

• Cyclists heading away from the city at the 17th hour of the day (212, wider range being between 3-7pm), were most likely heading towards home.

• The surprising peak is the spike in cyclists at the 5th hour of the morning (81) heading away from the city, likely due to pre-work exercise and possibly group cycling or training.

• The school peaks can be observed in the small spikes, one away from the city at the 8th hour (34) and a mirrored spike towards the city at the 13th hour (33), likely cyclists transiting to and from school.

Data Source: (1) ACT Government(2021), ACT Bike Barometer - MacArthur Avenue.

As the Seasons Change
Autumn is the most active season for cyclists, with 29% of trips being taken between March and May, while Winter was the least active at 20%.

The seasonal effects are quite distinctive in the bike barometer data:

• Autumn is the most active season for cycling, with an average of 1,504 cyclists a day over Autumn and 1,636 cyclists during March, the most active month for cyclists in 2018.

• Spring is the next most active season, with an average of 1,367 cyclists a day and 1,500 cyclists in October.

• Summer was relatively low at 1,234 cyclists per day, this is likely due to a combination of high temperatures and the summer school holidays, the average for February (1,586) is markedly higher than for January (1,166) and December (950, the least active month of 2018).

• Winter in Canberra tends to be very cold, likely the largest influence on the seasonal average of 1,047 cyclists a day, with July being the least active month in winter with 971 cyclists.

Data Source: (1) ACT Government(2021), ACT Bike Barometer - MacArthur Avenue.

The 2020 Effect
With a high proportion of the population working from home in 2020, the average number of cyclists during the work week dropped by 28% compared to 2018-2019.

• 2020 was an interesting year for observing sweeping and dramatic change in everyday life.

• The average number of cyclists in 2018 was 1,285, and 1,254 for 2019. By contrast, the average number of cyclists per day for 2020 was 958, a 24% reduction on average.

• For cyclists, this change was reflected in a disruption to the daily routine in travelling to and from work, with a marked decline in the weekday number of cyclists of 28% between 2018-2019 and 2020.

• It is likely however, that many cyclists continued to exercise in their local area, which is reflected in steady weekend cyclist numbers between all three years, if anything there was a slight lift in cyclist numbers on Sundays.
  
  

**The data for 2018 and 2019 was very similar. Due to disruptions at end of 2019, the 2018 data was used to make a comparison to the 2020 cycling data, seen in the next plot.

Data Source: (1) ACT Government(2021), ACT Bike Barometer - MacArthur Avenue.

A Year of Disasters
Bushfires, Covid-19 and heavy rainfall made their mark on 2020, with 25% fewer cyclists out on the path compared to 2018.

• Heavy smoke from the Black Summer Bushfires blanketed Canberra from November 2019 until February 2020, leading to a 38% reduction in the numbers of cyclists in January and 10% in February.

• The Covid-19 lockdown was relatively short in Canberra, with heavy restrictions from 23 March until 30 May, seen in the 49-51% decrease in cyclists per day in April and May. After May the effects of Covid-19 on cycling gradually diminished as the year progressed.

• August and October reflect a decrease in cyclists numbers due to the unusual occurrence of high rainfall in Canberra during 2020. August 2020 had 115.6mm of rain, with 11 days over 1mm, comparatively August 2018 had 34mm and 4 days of rain over 1mm.

• October had an even greater amount of rain with 126.8mm and 13 days over 1mm, October 2018 had only 3 days of rain over 1mm, with a total of 14mm for the month.
  
  
  

Data Source: (1) ACT Government(2021), ACT Bike Barometer - MacArthur Avenue.
(3) Commonwealth of Australia (2021), Daily rainfall: Ainslie Tyson St.