City: Hobart, Australia

Reporting to: Manager, City Transport

The Challenge

According to the Greater Hobart Travel Survey 2023, two out of three trips within the city are less than five kilometers—yet 53% of these short tips are made by car. While more than half of all Hobart households own at least one working bicycle, most are ridden for recreation, with only 25% of riders reportedly using their bikes for city transport.

Expanding bicycle transportation is essential to achieving Hobart’s zero emissions goal by 2040. However, our hilly terrain and limited annual budget require smart investments to make cycling a viable option for more residents. With her Council colleagues, Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds has backed current trials of temporary protected bicycle infrastructure along primary cycling routes in Hobart’s downtown (e.g., Collins Street and the Argyle/Campbell Streets). She has also called for partnership with the state to achieve the “step change” necessary to increase and improve the safety of cycling infrastructure in our capital city. This effort will involve creating primary bike routes that ensure safe movement throughout the city, building community awareness of biking’s benefits, and mapping neighborhood connections to identify where small investments can have the greatest impact.

To advance this work, the city has started to develop a series of Local Area Mobility Plans and School Active Travel Plans (e.g., Goulburn Street Primary School, New Town Primary School and South Hobart Primary School) focused on specific mobility needs in study areas. This fellowship will focus on helping us make data-informed decisions about barriers in our identified bike routes across Hobart communities. More specifically, we hope that the fellow will help the council identify important changes to neighborhood connections that could increase bicycling for short trips—particularly for people who face transport inequity, such as youth and aging populations. The Hobart Bike Plan is scheduled to go to the Full Council for consideration in 2025, with a request for $50,000 in the 2025/2026 annual budget to implement the fellow’s findings and support the plan’s neighborhood connection component.

Key questions that we hope the fellow will address are:

• Where are the barriers in the identified bike network that currently discourage people from choosing to bike?
• Where are there geographic pockets of potential bike riders?
• What are the simplest 10 improvements that can be made to the bike network that would result in the highest uptake of bike ridership?
• What barriers would these 10 improvements specifically help people overcome?
• How can the city make this a sustainable work effort? Is there missing data that would improve future analysis? Is there a way to automate analysis?

What You’ll Do

The fellowship is centered around analyzing and collecting data to help the council better understand where investments in the bike network can achieve the highest uptake of new bike trips. To do this effectively, the fellow will initially take stock of existing data, which involves working with colleagues across the city, including the Lord Mayor’s office and executive leadership team, as well as council staff from City Transport, Community Engagement and Communication; the Spatial Solutions Group; Urban Design; Public Art Program Group; and Strategic Land Use and Planning. We will also provide the fellow with training on data collection to inform survey design.

Over the course of the fellowship, the fellow will be expected to:

1. Conduct an audit of existing data and identify potential data gaps. This includes developing recommendations for future data collection processes.
2. Inventory neighborhood connections by:
   • analyzing available qualitative and quantitative user data, such as BikeSpot, Strava, annual bicycle counts, and vehicle volume and speed data, to map barriers visually and inform recommendations, and
   • using available demographic data, such as vehicle ownership, employment, and school attendance information, to map visually where using a bike could be an option for more people.
3. Prepare a report summarizing findings and using criteria identified in the bike plan to prioritize 10 areas for improvement to present to the Lord Mayor and key stakeholders.

In parallel to the data work, the city seeks to engage the local community through a public art program alongside the bike paths. Depending on timelines, there is an opportunity for the fellow to support the work around a community-led, city-sponsored wayfinding and public arts project.

What You’ll Bring

• Data analysis
• Qualitative interviewing and analysis
• Mapping (GIS), ideally familiarity with ArcGIS
• Community engagement and urban planning
• Ability to ride a bicycle (desired)