Alicia Celaya Jauregui had been riding to the Turner Primary School to coach tennis when a BMW driven by an 18-year-old P-Plater reportedly crossed to the wrong side of the road. While investigations are continuing police do believe the car was speeding.

Ms Jauregui, who officers said was "travelling lawfully upon the road", was killed because - through no fault of her own - she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Friends have said the sports fanatic, who was loved by the children she coached, was only riding to work because her car needed repairs.

Less than 24 hours after the Denman Drive crash two riders taking part in the trans-Australian Indian Pacific Wheel Ride were run down in separate incidents. One, a 62-year-old man, was killed. The other, a man in his 50s, was critically injured.

It is just over five years since renowned British endurance rider Mike Hall was killed while competing in the same event south of Canberra on the Monaro Highway in February 2019.

The latest ACT cycle death comes at the same time Pedal Power is campaigning for a major investment in safe cycling infrastructure in the ACT. It wants an increase in the number of dedicated cycle lanes, especially on heavily trafficked thoroughfares such as Northbourne Avenue.

Cycling advocates find it ironic that while governments are always keen to talk up bicycles as an "active" transport option that reduces traffic congestion and the demand for parking spaces, and improves health outcomes, they drag the chain when it comes to backing up the hyperbole with money for infrastructure.

While Canberra is definitely more bicycle friendly than, for example, Sydney it lags well behind cities such as Amsterdam which, by comparison, is a rider's paradise.

Australians should be horrified that almost 1300 riders have been killed in the past 30 years.

Whenever surveys on cycle usage are conducted the issue of safety - especially on the road network - is most frequently cited as the reason people don't ride to work.

According to a recent study, conducted by the University of NSW (Sydney) and published in the journal Injury Prevention cycling deaths have only declined on average by 1.1 per cent annually since 1994.

That is much slower than the rate at which road deaths overall have fallen in the same period. In 1994, 1928 people died on Australian roads. In 2023, despite a post-COVID spike, the figure had fallen to 1266.

Improvements in cycling safety are not keeping pace with improvements in road safety overall - despite bicycle technology improving in leaps and bounds over this period.

A cause for concern is the real increase in the number of deaths in the over-60s age group.

This has been credited to a number of factors including that older riders are more susceptible to serious injury as they are frailer, and that there is anecdotal evidence more people in this age group are riding.

Professor Jake Olivier, a co-author of the study, sees infrastructure as having a crucial role: "Segregated cycling lanes separate cyclists from motorists and reduce the likelihood of multi-vehicle cycling fatalities".

And infrastructure needs to be maintained. "Just because there is increased ... dedicated cycling infrastructure doesn't mean all of it is good or well kept," co-author associate professor Soufiane Boufous said.

"It's not uncommon to find debris or cracks along cycle paths".

There is still much to be done.