Let’s start with the natural environment. The recently developed bike track near Lake Canobolas is a better location than the more ecologically sensitive Mount Canobolas.

Mountain bikes do impact the environment, and I’m a mountain bike rider mindful of this. Compared to motorised bikes the impacts are much lower, but there is an obvious traffic volume-impact relationship with both.

While Earth First might sometimes have a different view to the local mountain biking community, it’s important to recognise the biking community are committed to maintaining the trail environment.

The Lake Canobolas mountain bike track and recent improvements at the bottom end of the Kinross Forest mountain bike track both show this commitment.

It’s also no accident that Western NSW Local Health District was a partner with Orange City Council in helping develop the Lake Canobolas bike track because – as with many forms of physical exercise - cycling is good for our mental and cardiovascular health.

Cycling reduces emissions in urban environments as well as congestion and infrastructure costs.

According to a 2013 Sydney Morning Herald article a bicycle path costs about $1.5 million a kilometre to plan and build. Whereas roads for motorised vehicles cost within $15-30 million per kilometre.

So we’re looking at about 10-20 times more for the standard urban road.

Of course a key aspect of road cycling needs to be safety. From March 1 drivers have had to give cyclists one metre when the speed limit is 60km/h or less and 1.5 metres when the speed limit is more than 60km/h.

There have been increased penalties overall and a need to carry photo identification, but the overall intent of the changed rules are to save lives.

If cycling participation doubles, the mortality risk per rider, per km falls by about 34 per cent according to Jacobsen’s Growth Rule. 

This relationship would factor in various push and pull effects – such as people riding more when it’s safe and enjoyable, councils responding by building better cycling infrastructure and drivers becoming more cyclist aware.

Of course, offsetting this, there are increasingly more cars on the road, and hence the need for slower traffic to minimise accidents in high use areas. 

Thankfully, there are now more on- and off-road cycle paths in Orange since the mid-2000s, which improves safety.