Tag Archives: AP-R611-20 Integrating Safe System with Movement and Place for Vulnerable Road Users

What is a street?

The street and road are not the same thing. Simply put, the road is for cars, but everybody benefits from the street. Take way the road and we still have a street and it may even serve the local community better – particularly for children.

William Hovell Drive: a distraction we cannot afford

New year resolutions are quickly forgotten, and so it seems are ACT cycle priorities. Canberra has a strategic infrastructure list for cycling since 2012. There is much to be done to improve safe cycling in the ACT. We do not lack lists, however, cycling in the ACT continues to be hijacked by motor vehicle priorities. The latest chapter of this saga is being written at William Hovell Drive. The cycle lanes on William Hovell Drive are not likely to get much use. Certainly they are not a priority. Our efforts should be focused on cycle priorities.

Section 7: Movement and Place

This section explains what the Movement and Place Framework means for cycling and the challenge to implement the Movement and Place Framework in the ACT, as it will require the collaboration of both ACT Transport and ACT Planning. This is something recommended in the ACT Active Travel Key Documents, but yet not done.

Section 4: Safety

This section provides data on the trends, risks, and costs of Canberra car culture, where vulnerable road users have ‘no place on our road’, and the young and the old are particularly at risk. They are disadvantaged not only due to cognitive (or physical) limitations but also due to the lack of options. Some of the best reasons for fixing active travel in Canberra are health, human equity, and safety.

Section 7.1 Feels like home

For a few years now, the ACT strategies have promoted a Movement and Place Framework. The idea, best shown in pictures, is difficult to put into practice, as it presumes the ACT Planning and Transport directorates work together.

ACT Transport Strategy 2020: Movement and Place

Extracts from the ACT Transport Strategy 2020 regarding the Movement and Place Framework.

Gradients in Molonglo 3: cycling from John Gorton Drive Bridge

Bicycles are arguably the most efficient machine ever invented, however, everything has its limits. A 30m section of steep path is all that is required to bring a cyclist to a stop. Pushing a bike up steep paths is not popular amongst cyclists. Better is to build the paths so that they are never so steep to become unrideable. Austroads Standards tell us how. Hilly terrain requires careful route and path design.