Yes, one should include fitness and health benefits. The World Health Organisation has produced a tool for assessing the Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) for Cycling. The benefits are substantial.
Interesting that the Northern Territories no speed limit trial is being done to alleviate driver tedium on long journeys. I was thinking more about the pleasure some people take in fast cars and fast driving. The activities involve health risks – but so do most activities and most inactivities.
The Queensland train/bicycle is similar to the London policy but better expressed. Is the requirement for folding bikes to be in bags as widely ignored in Queensland as it is in London? I do not think I have EVER seen a folding bike in a bag on a London train. In fact the restriction to folding bikes is often treated with a blind eye and this causes annoyance when some officials enforce it. I have only once been told to put my folding bike in a bag and managed to satisfy the man (or rather his boss – I had to call for the manager) by wrapping it in a folding raincoat. This happened at midnight at Heathrow and the prospect of cycling 23 miles in the dark in the rain with my holiday luggage had little appeal.

Here is an article on the NT speed limits. [ http://news.drive.com.au/drive/motor-news/northern-territory-to-trial-roads-without-speed-limits-20131015-2vjzl.html ] I am not sure how it would feel to have a road train with no speed limit bearing down on you!

Your car will be a great buy if you ever decide to sell it! (How is it avoiding the obesity problem or does it get a sensible diet that takes into account its lack of exercise?) There aren’t cycle parks in Australia as far as I am aware. In Brisbane it is more common to cycle a certain distance and then catch the train to complete the journey and what usually happens is the cycle is accomodated on the train with the passenger.

[ http://www.queenslandrail.com.au/railservices/city/pages/bicycles.aspx ] It seems if you want to travel in peak times you need a bicycle that folds up.

Can you tell me more about the ‘stretch of road in the Northern Territory without speed limits’. I wish I had known about it when calling for such a thing in a book about 15 years ago – my suggestion was that it should be in Russia. It is not that I like fast driving (far from it) but I know that many people do and the liberal in me thinks they should have their opportunities – just as I think the smokers I hated when they fumigated me in meetings should have good accommodation outside buildings. It is wrong to make them cower in wet doorways like tramps.
Re sport the OED identifies 1 ‘Senses relating to play, pleasure, or entertainment’.
(a). Diversion, entertainment, fun. Freq. with modifying adjective (as good, great, etc.). in Warning (1985) ii. 24
(b). Success, pleasure, or recreation derived from or afforded by an activity, originally and esp. hunting, shooting, or fishing. Freq. with adjectives expressing the level of success.
(c). Lovemaking, amorous play; (also) sexual intercourse; an instance of this, an amorous exploit. Obs.In later use freq. punning on sense 1b.
I think we can pretty well rule out (c), though I do wonder why people wear Lycra, and I think that though there are aspects of (a) and (b) to cycle commuting, the main objective is ‘getting from A to B as quickly and cheaply as possible. But I also think cyclists enjoy their commuting more than those who use motorized vehicles. There is no competitive aspect to my own cycle commuting but I love it and feel the worse on those few days I have to drive a car to work. I also feel a bit for sorry for my car because it does not get enough exercise!
In Denmark and Holland, and to a very much lesser extent in England, people cycle from their homes to railway stations and then complete longer journeys by train. Do you see large cycle parks by suburban stations in Australia?

Does the distinction depend on you looking the part in Lycra? (Well yes Islamic countries are making a slow entry into the Olympics and are being challenged by the restrictions of female dress codes)

Looking again at the photograph of Brisbane you are probably right that they are riding to the university.

My guess is that commuting by bike in Sydney is much more difficult than in Melbourne and Brisbane. Brisbane has very bike friendly public transport as well as good bicycle paths. Melbourne is much flatter with the advantage of wide streets and a grid (although the trams are an added risk for cyclists to dodge). It seems some statistic research is in order to answer your question…

I was slow vacating a lecture room a few weeks ago and discovered that the next lecture was about the ‘sociology of sport’. Perhaps I should have stayed to listen. My first thought was that it must be a ‘non-subject’. The sociology of cycling sounds a much more important topic and your choice of photographs are enough to get it launched. Maybe enough to launch whole university departments devoted to the subject. True to the origins of sociology there would have to be a Marxist emphasis – a thorough grounding in the analysis of social classes. My guess is that cycling began as relatively upper-class activity, then became a lower-class activity and is now resurgent as an activity favoured by young professionals. This analysis is unlikely to apply to Islamic countries. Many of them ban female cycling because men get over-excited if they see too much of female ankles and I doubt if young professionals in Islamic countries cycle.
Lovely pics of dogs and kids in cycle trailers. Both are admirable – but do they show the human race as fundamentally crazy? t is hard for me to say why but the Brisbane photo shouts ‘morning’ at me. Great to see so many cyclists in Sydney. If the street was busier and the scene a little more chaotic (and fewer cyclists) I would have guessed it was a photo of London. Could it be that 90% of the 1% of Australians who commute by bike live in Sydney?

Are you good at picking the time of day in photographs? [ http://jacdigital.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/bikes_riverside1.jpg ] If it is the morning in Brisbane they are probably cycling to the University of Queensland, however if it is the evening they probably cycling home from work in the CBD.

This brave man in the cooler clime of Melbourne is definitely riding to work.
[ http://images.theage.com.au/2010/03/04/1194868/cyclists-420×0.jpg ] At a guess, it is probably spring or autumn. In summer he would not be looking so crisp, while in winter he would be too cold in shirt sleeves.

Sydney’s commuter culture looks predominantly male – with a spattering of business dress and cycle wear. [ http://images.smh.com.au/2013/09/11/4738982/LCbikewide-20130911184909518146-620×349.jpg ] What informs this choice of attire? Is it shower and wardrobe facilities at the workplace? Or is it a distinction between cycling for exercise and cycling for transport?

I think it was the Germans who solved the problem of how to take kids to school by bike. They use cycle trailers. I agree there is no difference between male and female cycling needs. The reason for more men cycle-commuting could be that they enjoy the slightly-macho aspect of cycling in London. Japanese cyclists are MUCH more civilized than British cyclists.
Until about 15 years ago (and still, I think, in southern Europe) French cycling was a primarily a recreation and a sport. Paris is now doing more than London to provide for cycle commuting. In London I notice lots of cars heading out with bikes on the back for weekend rides.

How is child care accommodated within the cycling culture? Who does what, when and why?

I am also wondering whether there is a gender difference in the recreational/commuter cycling community?

Is there a dedicated cycle tourism industry? Is it adventure cycling or family cycling holidays?

Are these statistics different in different countries and why? There may be gender barriers to raising cycling rates which are practical or perceptual.

Yes, it would be good to see female cyclists and male cyclist unite, (with or without coullottes and sword) to advance the issues surrounding cycling, including the health and safety ones.

I have not seen a gender analysis of London cycling and it could be that the collection of such data would be regarded as sexist and divisive. But from observation I would guess the ratio is about 2:1 male:female. Here is a photo and a comment on London cycling from a female journalist on the Economist. The press is well-worked-up on the issue and politicians have got to thinking that ‘something must be done’. There is a wonderful militancy among cyclists, to which I am only too happy to contribute. It is the nearest I have come to drawing a sword or going sans coulottes to help the female cyclists who are helping the male cyclists to man the barricades. ‘It is better to die on your wheels than live on your knees’. We all think we are an oppressed minority fighting for our civil rights and our lives. Please tell any Australian cyclists you meet that this is the ONLY way to get justice for cyclists and that London is now the front line in the world fight against car supremacy. Future generations will look back on this period as Wordsworth looked back on the romance of Paris. He visited the city in 1790 on the first anniversary of the Fall of the Bastille:
Oh! pleasant exercise of hope and joy!
For mighty were the auxiliars which then stood
Upon our side, we who were strong in love!
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven!–Oh! times,
In which the meagre, stale, forbidding ways
Of custom, law, and statute, took at once
The attraction of a country in romance!
When Reason seemed the most to assert her rights,
When most intent on making of herself
A prime Enchantress–to assist the work,
Which then was going forward in her name!
Not favoured spots alone, but the whole earth,
The beauty wore of promise, that which sets
(As at some moment might not be unfelt
Among the bowers of paradise itself)
The budding rose above the rose full blown.
What temper at the prospect did not wake
To happiness unthought of? The inert
Were roused, and lively natures rapt away!

Cycling research also needs to be differentiated by city.

Is Brisbane doing more or less well than other Australian cities with its cycling infrastructure? Are the main users recreational or commuters? etc etc
[ http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2011/09/08/3312420.htm ]