'It's life-threatening': Roads where ACT cyclists feel the most unsafe

A crowdsourced map on the Australian government-funded website BikeSpot has been collecting input since October and contains about 1000 entries from Canberrans.

The five roads, including Fairbarn Avenue (ranked second) and Eastlake Parade in Kingston (ranked fifth), were listed as unsafe because of absence of infrastructure, hazardous intersections, and a risk of car dooring.

Cyclist Simon Copland frequently rides along Northbourne Avenue to reach his office building.

He said he had experienced multiple near-misses on the road and called it the most perilous place for cyclists in Canberra.

Mr Copland is the executive director of Pedal Power ACT and said he received frequent reports of accidents on Northbourne Avenue.

"There's a lot of interaction between cars and bikes on that road," he said.

According to him, any road with a high volume of traffic, without separated bike lanes, and a speed limit of 60kmh or above were not safe for cyclists.

"Adelaide Avenue, Canberra Avenue, those roads that are kind of big and busy ... they're the most dangerous and we are calling for the government in those areas to replace those with protected lanes. That means the separation between vehicles and people on bikes to reduce unnecessary interactions," Mr Copland said.

Mr Copland also felt some drivers didn't have respect for or an understanding of road rules relating to bike riders.

But he said the bigger issue was errors in judgement while driving.

"We all make mistakes. I've made mistakes both riding my bike and driving a car. If a mistake happens and there is a person riding a bike on the road with you, that can be really can be life-threatening," he said.

"We've heard stories of people where someone has had to swerve by mistake or hadn't seen someone and that has resulted in someone getting knocked off their bike.

"When you have a one-ton car hitting someone on a bike, the [cyclist] is always going to come second best."

BikeSpot was created with the help of interactive mapping tool Crowd Spot and the Amy Gillett Foundation, an organisation dedicating to promoting cyclists' safety.

"We did it in 2020 across all of Victoria and we had some great LGA partners ... this is the first time it's Australia-wide and we're at over 35,000 submissions so far," chief executive of the foundation Dan Kneipp said.

"We're hoping we can show some of the road builders that safety is the number one reason that more people don't buy a bike."