Wagga named state's top cycling spot, but locals eye improvements

The latest PeopleForBikes City Ratings - a data analysis tool ranking global cities and towns for their amenability to cycling - has Wagga ranking as the top-rated cycling destination in NSW with a rating of 40/100, but shows Australia is lagging behind the rest of the world.

A manager at Wagga Cycle Centre, Mr Treloar was shocked to hear Wagga achieved the City Ratings' top spot.

"I think it's great to see an area like Wagga stacking up well against the rest of the state ... for how much population we have," he said.

"It is really promising from a regional point of view. How far it's come in the last 20 years is fantastic. Green sustainable transport is this century. So it's really positive from my point of view

"The council does have to be commended for a lot of the work they've done. A lot of those numbers I'm going to say straightaway are definitely from the shared path use and the way it's been really nicely integrated.

"We had the [Active Travel Plan] that was about integrating cycling tracks into the town ... and I think the council has done a lot of good to make it work."

Wagga was closely followed by Albury-Wodonga (38) in second and Kempsey (37) in third.

Bicycle NSW Chief Executive Officer, Peter McLean, said it was pleasing to see regional NSW leading the charge on active transport.

"Congratulations Wagga. It is also interesting to note that many other regional areas are also taking advantage of the regional tourism opportunities that connected cycleways bring," he said.

Mr Treloar puts the good rating down to the city's shared paths, recreational cycling facilities, river tracks, tracks out to the wetlands, tracks connected in the suburbs, the Gears and Beers festival.

"They're brilliant, it proves that everything that has been done in the last 10 years ... has really paid off," he said.

However, Mr Treloar did note Wagga may have ranked first in the state, but was still behind places like Canberra (55) and far behind European cities like Paris, France (87), Munich, Germany (85) and Cambridge, England (84).

"There is obviously work to be done. Wagga can't really move forward with any more of those networking, commuter, recreational, shared path tracks," he said.

"The next step forward to say 'how do we become even more integrated?' or 'how do we get a better rating?' is probably a little bit more targeted.

"We are getting a quite targeted track from Wagga out to the RAAF Base ... that's really important. That's a real purposeful destination.

"But from my point of view, here in the shop, the thing that people want to see next is definitely improvement to the mountain bike tracks."

Mr Treloar thinks there is a feeling of die-hard mountain bike riders who want upgrades to Wagga's facilities and therefore only a small section of the community.

"We've got a great mountain bike park and some of this rating has definitely come off the back of the cycling complex. It's not just for the hardcore cyclists," he said.

"There are very desirable ... mountain bike tracks around Australia ... [which] have been proven incredibly successful, where they have a real structure in place.

"Quite gentle tracks that aren't much different from the actual tracks that we currently have around the town, but then they integrate into the fairly serious mountain bike tracks for the real enthusiast, and then some hardcore tracks."

"Making that sort of integration work would be the thing that I get asked the most about. That's the next step moving forward."

The PeopleForBikes City Ratings and Mr Treloar's call for updates to Wagga's mountain bike tracks come after the Australian Government's May budget announcement of $100 million over four years for new cycling and walking paths across the country.

PeopleForBikes president and CEO, Jenn Dice, said the investment was a crucial opportunity to improve cycling conditions across the country.

"We hope this data will inspire policymakers and community leaders to create safer, more connected environments that support zero-emissions travel and vibrant, active communities," she said.