A month after the Chief Minister and Minister Steel recommitted their support for active travel, this is where we stand with Fast Track. At the current rate, it will take 166 years to double the length of off-road paths suitable for cycling. The investment in Fast Track is welcome but is too little, too late.
After decades of neglect, there is good reason to make up for lost ground. Many of the older paths in the older suburbs need maintenance and many new paths need to be built for cycling. Much of the Fast Track investment is directed at projects that have no benefit to cycling. Only a very small part of the $35million will be spent on cycle paths. Cyclists are left out in the rain!
Few compliant paths
The ACT Government has currently committed to 14.4km of new paths funded through Fast Track. Only 3.5km of those are compliant with the ACT Governments own standards (MIS05) for active travel. Canberra.bike describes these as of strategic importance, as they increase the likelihood that people will take up cycling. Non-compliant investment is orange and the strategic investment green in the following charts.
Strategic cycling investment
“Taking stock on community paths” provided a summary of the community paths in the ACT before COVID-19 (2019) and the portion of those that are suitable for cycling.
- Total path network length: 3,106km.
- Most common width: 1.2m and a total length of 1,667km.
- Next most common width: 2.5m and a total length of 479km.
- The portion of the path network that has the 2.5m minimum width suitable for cycling: 19% or 581km.
The 581km of suitable paths is shown as the grey area below. The green box shows the new length of paths that will be added to the network as a result of the Fast Track investment. At the current rate, IT WILL TAKE 166 YEARS TO DOUBLE THE LENGTH OF OFF-ROAD PATHS SUITABLE FOR CYCLING! The new paths have a total length of just 3.5km.
Have a look at the below area comparison, with grey being existing infrastructure pre-COVID-19. The lonely green “comparative by area” cube reflects the Fast Track investment.
Community paths for pedestrians
The Fast Track investment on paths is mostly for paths that are non-compliant with the ACT Government’s own active travel standards for “retrofit”. The standard (MIS05) specifies a minimum path width in new estates, such as Whitlam in the Molonglo Valley, that are built on a greenfield. In older suburbs, the standard permits narrower paths of just 2.5m. New community paths should NOT be narrower than this. Unfortunately, much 10.9km of the 14.4km of new Fast Track paths are too narrow (76%). The ACT Government will have to go back and widen or rebuild these paths at some stage.
From a change management point of view it is essential that the paths are wide enough for all target groups to use. Make them too narrow and you trigger resistance and conflict. As a consequence this will make a positive change to active travel even more challenging. Canberra.bike already noticed pedestrians complaining about cyclists on “their” paths. This is a trend to be nipped in the butt quickly. The paths are there for everybody. The paths are there for everybody.
The 2,525km of community paths narrower than 2.5m is shown as the grey area below. The orange box shows the new length of non-compliant paths that will be added to the network as a result of the Fast Track investment. The new non-compliant paths have a total length of just 10.9km.
Fast Track project list
The ACT Government website listed (8 August 2020) 50 community path projects being built as part of Fast Track. The path designs for the vast majority are non-compliant. Those that are compliant with the ACT Governments own standards (MIS05) for active travel are of strategic importance, as they increase the likelihood that people will cycle.
The strategic projects are listed at the top of the table and the non-compliant below. Paths lengths of less than 50m are listed as 0.0km. A 10m section of 3m path can be most beneficial in joining two parts of the cycling network. Joining gaps is highly beneficial.
| Town | Surface | width (m) | length (km) | importance |
| Tuiggeranong | asphalt | 2.5 | 0.8 | strategic |
| Woden | asphalt | 2.5 | 0.8 | strategic |
| Woden | asphalt | 2.5 | 0.7 | strategic |
| Gungahlin | asphalt | 2.5 | 0.5 | strategic |
| Gungahlin | concrete | 2.5 | 0.3 | strategic |
| Central Canberra | asphalt | 2.5 | 0.2 | strategic |
| Central Canberra | concrete | 3.5 | 0.1 | strategic |
| Belconnen | concrete | 2.5 | 0.1 | strategic |
| Central Canberra | asphalt | 2.5 | 0.0 | strategic |
| Central Canberra | asphalt | 3.0 | 0.0 | strategic |
| Belconnen | concrete | 1.5 | 1.5 | non compliant |
| Central Canberra | concrete | 1.5 | 0.8 | non compliant |
| Central Canberra | concrete | 1.5 | 0.6 | non compliant |
| Tuiggeranong | concrete | 1.5 | 0.5 | non compliant |
| Belconnen | asphalt | 2.0 | 0.5 | non compliant |
| Gungahlin | concrete | 1.5 | 0.5 | non compliant |
| Woden | asphalt | 2.0 | 0.5 | non compliant |
| Woden | concrete | 1.5 | 0.4 | non compliant |
| Gungahlin | concrete | 1.5 | 0.4 | non compliant |
| Central Canberra | concrete | 1.5 | 0.4 | non compliant |
| Central Canberra | concrete | 1.5 | 0.4 | non compliant |
| Central Canberra | concrete | 1.5 | 0.3 | non compliant |
| Woden | concrete | 1.5 | 0.3 | non compliant |
| Central Canberra | concrete | 2.0 | 0.3 | non compliant |
| Belconnen | concrete | 1.5 | 0.3 | non compliant |
| Central Canberra | concrete | 2.0 | 0.3 | non compliant |
| Central Canberra | asphalt | 2.0 | 0.3 | non compliant |
| Woden | concrete | 1.5 | 0.3 | non compliant |
| Belconnen | concrete | 2.0 | 0.3 | non compliant |
| Central Canberra | concrete | 2.0 | 0.3 | non compliant |
| Central Canberra | concrete | 1.5 | 0.2 | non compliant |
| Central Canberra | concrete | 2.0 | 0.2 | non compliant |
| Central Canberra | concrete | 1.5 | 0.2 | non compliant |
| Woden | concrete | 1.5 | 0.2 | non compliant |
| Tuiggeranong | concrete | 2.0 | 0.2 | non compliant |
| Central Canberra | concrete | 1.5 | 0.1 | non compliant |
| Central Canberra | concrete | 1.5 | 0.1 | non compliant |
| Woden | concrete | 1.5 | 0.1 | non compliant |
| Central Canberra | concrete | 2.0 | 0.1 | non compliant |
| Woden | concrete | 2.0 | 0.1 | non compliant |
| Central Canberra | concrete | 2.0 | 0.1 | non compliant |
| Woden | concrete | 2.0 | 0.1 | non compliant |
| Central Canberra | concrete | 1.5 | 0.1 | non compliant |
| Belconnen | concrete | 1.5 | 0.0 | non compliant |
| Woden | concrete | 2.0 | 0.0 | non compliant |
| Central Canberra | concrete | 1.5 | 0.0 | non compliant |
| Gungahlin | concrete | 1.5 | 0.0 | non compliant |
| Gungahlin | concrete | 2.0 | 0.0 | non compliant |
| Central Canberra | concrete | 1.5 | 0.0 | non compliant |
| Woden | concrete | 1.5 | 0.0 | non compliant |
| All projects | 14.5km | 50 projects |
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