A population health worker has urged better collection of cyclist crash data to help combat the high rates of injury seen in the ACT.
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The territory has an annual rate of "high threat to life injuries" for cyclists more than double the figure seen in other states - almost seven per 100,000 people. It has also recorded significantly higher rates of serious injuries for cyclists for almost a decade.
The figures are believed to be an underestimation of the problem, with cycling crashes under-reported to police and emergency departments retaining data on diagnoses rather than reasons for a person's visit.
ACT Health Population Health Protection and Prevention worker Paula Sutton has written that improving data collection would help the government better prepare injury prevention strategies and evaluate and best target infrastructure and interventions.
"Canberra has a high cycling participation rate relative to other Australian jurisdictions, and this is almost certainly a contributing factor," she wrote.
"This fact emphasises the need to both reduce the number and severity of injuries sustained by cyclists, whilst at the same time increasing the number of people who cycle for transport and recreation.
"To move forward, the ACT Government needs to adopt innovative approaches to utilising routinely collected data, or explore collecting and analysing other routinely collected data sources (such as ambulance data) that have not previously been investigated for information on cycling crash injuries."
Canberra Cycling Club president Nathan Edwardson said many racing cyclists did not see the need to report incidents - particularly when only they were involved.
However, he said cycling infrastructure in the ACT was "really good" and described Canberra as a much more cyclist-friendly city than Sydney or Melbourne.
Mr Edwardson said the work commute often proved more dangerous than racing and supported more training programs for casual cyclists.
"We see a lot of people on the roads who don't know what they're doing," he said.
"They have their helmet on backwards, which makes it useless, or on the handlebars."
A government spokeswoman said the government's Active Travel office collected and analysed data that informed policy, safety and infrastructure decisions to improve cycling accessibility throughout Canberra.
"The data collected by the Active Travel Office may be used to model future transport scenarios, identify safety hot spots and prioritise infrastructure upgrades and improvements," she said.
The government also launched live feeds of cycle crash data in 2015. The data forms heat maps and is used to develop options for paths and road improvements.
The territory's first Active Travel Counts Week will be held from March 17 to 24 as part of the ACT Ride and Walk Festival.
