Coronavirus Update for Cyclists

To help the cycling community and our membership understand what the Coronavirus’ impact is on their personal riding, BQ is ensuring we are keeping you up to date with advice on how to ride safely and the upgrades to social-distancing restrictions. 

*All information and commentary is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of publishing. 

Although people are now being told to stay at home during the pandemic, you are still allowed to exercise on a daily basis but with new restrictions. 

You should remain home unless you are doing the following:

• buying essential supplies;
• going to work (if unable to work from home);
• exercising;
• attending personal medical appointments or for compassionate reasons.

This means it remains advisable for people to cycle for their health, fitness and well-being, but in line with our previous guidance, you should only do this alone or with members of your household unless any of them have a reason to self-isolate. You may also cycle for transport, either to the shops for supplies, or to work if you are an essential worker.

Group rides are off the table, because we want to be part of the solution, not the problem. Please refer to our previous cycling Q&A statement on COVID-19 and what it means for you.

When you are thinking about where to ride for exercise, here are some elements of your route to consider: 

1. For your own safety, stay away from high traffic roads. With most people abandoning public transport, the roads around our major centres are still very busy.
2. For best-practice social distancing, consider staying away from high pedestrian areas. These would include promenade walks such as South Bank or Sandgate foreshore, even ‘bikeways’ such as Norman Creek and Kedron Brook are very busy at the moment. Quiet backstreet routes that link up with longer bikeways like the Centenary Cycleway or the Gateway North bikeway are good.
3. However, female cyclists especially may also prefer not to ride solo in isolated areas, for personal safety. Let’s give each other the space we need, on the paths and on the roads.