Wagga Tops 2024 City Ratings

The City Ratings for the 13 NSW towns and cities assessed in 2024
(Image: Bicycle NSW from PeopleForBikes data)

Looking at the scores, you may wonder how the figures were calculated. Since when did Alice Springs or Kempsey become bike towns? Why is Sydney’s score so much lower?  Surely City of Sydney or Parramatta, for example, where so much effort has been put into developing a safe and connected network recently, should put Sydney higher on the table?

Bicycle NSW explored the rankings to find out more.

What are City Ratings?

Every year since 2018, US advocacy group PeopleForBikes has scored towns and cities on the quality of their bike networks and their amenability to cycling.  

6 factors are assessed, captured in the acronym SPRINT: Safe speeds, Protected bike lanes, Reallocated space, Intersection treatments, Network connections and Trusted data.

The full methodology is described here. 

Each city receives a City Ratings score on a scale of 0 - 100. A low score (0-20) indicates a weak bike network, meaning the city lacks safe paths or there are gaps in the network. A high score (80-100) indicates that most common destinations are accessible by safe, comfortable bike routes that serve people of all ages and abilities. 

Over 2,500 global towns and cities were ranked in the 2024 City Ratings. Cities in Europe, Asia, South America and Australia are now on the list.

How did Wagga Wagga get top marks in NSW?

Wagga Wagga is the largest inland city in NSW, with a population of 65,000. This is expected to increase to over 80,000 by 2040.  It was clear that the city had to reduce reliance on cars to avoid future gridlock. The 2017 Wagga Wagga Integrated Transport Strategy put active transport front and centre. 

Wagga Wagga City Council received funding to build a 56 km network of shared paths. By December 2023, 52.5 km of the pathways had been completed. The new cycling and walking network links education facilities and workplaces. It passes within one block of 90% of schools in Wagga Wagga.

Wagga Wagga’s Active Travel Plan represents the largest network of new, high quality, safe and accessible shared walking and cycling links ever constructed as single project within a short timeframe in regional NSW (Image: Wagga Wagga City Council)

They built it – did they come?

It was important to study the impact of this on participation. Evaluative research by TfNSW, University of Sydney and Wagga Wagga City Council was published in 2024.

The findings are encouraging:

• The paths are well-used, particularly by people walking. 
• People who use the network had 3.7 times the odds of meeting physical activity guidelines, compared to respondents who did not use the network.
• Intercepted path users overwhelmingly reported using the network for the purpose of being physically active. 
• Around 1 in 7 users reported that their current trip was for commuting. 
• A key missing link, inadequate signage and lack of awareness of the network have inhibited greater use. 
• Education and promotion are essential to engage more residents in using the network for transport.
• And of course – car-first thinking still prevails in Wagga. Parking and driving are still fairly friction-less so mode shift is a hard sell. This will change as population increases.

The riverside paths in the city centre are very popular with up to 500 users a day (Image: WWCC)

According to avid local bike rider and manager of the Wagga Cycle Centre, Andrew Treloar, the new shared paths make cycling easier for people, but there is a lot more to be done. 

And whilst Wagga Wagga comes out on top in NSW, it rates poorly when compared to places such as Cambridge in England, which has a rating of 84.

The impact of high speed limits

Wagga and Canberra have shared path networks that are completely separated from vehicles. But in other places, most bike routes use roads. 

The SPRINT assessment of these routes factor in vehicle speeds to determine a score. And almost all cities in Australia have high default speed limits, restricting the score that can be achieved. 

“The default speed limits remain very high at 50 km/h on neighbourhood streets where cars and bikes mix. This is a challenge for most Australian cities in our ratings,” explains Rebecca Davies, City Ratings Program Director at PeopleForBikes.  “With speed limits of 40 km/h or lower on neighbourhood streets, most Australian cities would score significantly better, especially places like Newcastle that have already invested in dedicated bike infrastructure.”

Are there other reasons for Sydney’s low score? 

The score of 29 is averaged out for Greater Sydney. The data can be explored with a fascinating heat map. This shows that areas known for new, well-connected cycle infrastructure, such as Parramatta, City of Sydney and Macquarie Park, have scores well in excess of 60. But across the metropolitan area, many areas rate very poorly.