Cycling in Melbourne, the capital city of Victoria, Australia, is enhanced by the city's relatively flat topography and generally mild climate. The city has an active cycling culture for commuting, recreation, fitness and sport, and the metropolitan area has an extensive network of off-road bicycle paths, as well as designated bicycle lanes on many streets. As in most Western cities, commuter cycling in Melbourne saw a dramatic decline in popularity during the 20th century with the coming of mass car-ownership and the resulting urban sprawl, metropolitan Melbourne being one of the lowest density major cities in the world. In addition to this, the introduction of mandatory helmet legislation (MHL) in the state of Victoria in the early 1990s, the first such legislation in the developed world, further exacerbated the decline in cycling's popularity (see below). However, in the 21st century, cycling for health, fitness, and as a non-polluting alternative to the automobile has begun to increase in popularity once again, though still not back to the pre-MHL levels: cycling's transport modal share accounts for less than 2% of all trips throughout the Melbourne metropolitan area, though bicycles comprised 16% of all morning peak-hour commuter vehicles entering the CBD in March 2017 – up from 9% in March 2008. Though Melbourne has been named the Economist Intelligence Unit's "most liveable city" many times, the existing cycling infrastructure in Melbourne is often very much inferior in terms of providing safety for cyclists and far less ubiquitous compared to the bicycle-friendly cities of Western Europe. Since 2000, the Victorian state government and local municipalities have become more favourable to investing in cycling infrastructure projects, but expenditure on a per capita basis fluctuates year to year according to whichever state government or councils are in power at the time, and it generally remains low compared to the most bicycle-friendly international cities. Regardless, improvements to CBD cycling routes and other major arterial routes throughout the rest of the metropolitan area continue to be made. History 19th century During the worldwide bike boom of the 1890s, cycling was seen an exciting new option for transport taken up eagerly by many people. The craze for cycling in the 1890s is portrayed in the poem Mulga Bill's Bicycle by Australian poet Banjo Paterson, and many other ballads from the time. For women at the time, cycling provided the opportunity of more freedom and being able to wear less