canberra.bike
Farrer or Eddison Park Nature Play playgrounds were introduced in the last post and riding there is discussed here. Farrer is surrounded by other suburbs and a great place for a playground. Woden town centre is tricky with kids and an island to itself.
Canberra.bike recommends Komoot for cycle navigation in Canberra.
In 2015 a study was carried out for the ACT Government reviewing mountain biking in Long Gully Pine Plantation. The report is attached and holds many interesting details. The Spine has been mentioned previously as it is accessible to everybody. It is certainly worth a look. The route “Isaacs Ridge peak from Woden Bus Station” follows The Spin up the hill.
June is usually budget time in the ACT. The 2020-21 ACT Budget has been postponed. Canberra.bike looks at the last years budget and what the coming budget could hold. In general, the investment in active travel infrastructure in the ACT is not well documented.
Light Rail Stage 2 is coming and open now for the third round of community consultation. Gungahlin light rail taught us that bike paths are forgotten or even destroyed in the light rail construction. The light rail is an opportunity to improve Canberra’s cycling infrastructure.
The ACT Government website shows imagines of the light rail route on the Virtual Light Rail Tour. Cycling infrastructure is noticeably lacking on these images. Although it is an artist’s impression, leaving out the bike paths may mean that none are planned.
Go to the ACT Government YourSay website and suggest they build a bike path.
The bicycle path along Heysen Street is keenly awaited. The current project ends at Devonport Street. As you can see that still leaves a gap (see CyclOSM map).
The construction of Heysen Street has finally been announced. This project has been discussed for many years, and was promised by ACT Labor at the 2016 Territory election, and again in the 2019 Federal election.
“Great news. It always feels dodgy riding heysen street through there due to the lack of shoulder and the hill which reduces sight lines. Now if they can just do something about the 2 heysen street magpies!”
Dane Roberts 9:30 pm 13 May 20, comments to the annoucement in The RiotACT.
The ACT Government has many active travel projects but only a small number are cycle paths. Of those there are dedicated pages on the ACT Government website providing information about them. Those pages are listed here.
Missing links is a term that describes gaps in the cycling network, and those gaps can be quite short. An example would be a 100 m of missing path that would connect two good bike paths. Without this short link, a cyclist may need to ride a great distance.
Filling the gap and building a cycling path to form a network does not need to be expensive and it is very worthwhile. The value of fixing the missing link far exceeds the construction costs as it makes the whole path network more attractive to cyclists.
Last updated: 1 July 2020. See also Kuringa Drive missing link.
The ACT Government has annouced their fast-track program. This program includes path infrastructure.
Pedal Power ACT have consistently lobbied the government to complete ‘missing links’ in the cycle network. At the last federal election the federal and state ALP pledged funding for cycle projects in the ACT. These projects are not currently included in the COVID-19 stimulas measures. Below are maps of the projects that are.
It is unrealistic to expect the ACT Government to fund all active travel infrastructure from general revenue as capital works. It cannot be done. Alone the maintenance to a high standard an ever-expanding bike paths network is a challenge.
The sale of land for dwellings will always be a top priority for the ACT Government due to the expected population growth and ever-growing costs of servicing the existing Canberra population. The ACT budget is spent on the services that are regarded by most Canberrans as essential (health, education, etc).
We are proud of Canberra, our bush capital. The environmental regulations will continue to be front-of-mind for estate planners to protected and preserve these environmental assets. The downside is that it comes at a price. There are many places in Canberra where you will not get approval to build a bike path.
Land sales are revenue, so the ACT will prioritise that over finishing suburbs (and bike paths). The land release will remain staged. This type of estate planning is within a bounded area and the bigger picture outside those boundaries, such as cross city cycle highways, are left off the map.
We will need to accept that without capital funding, the active travel infrastructure will never be built all at once, but in a fragmented way.
Riding to work requires cycle highway networks that span the city. With the above constraints, it is achievable but not quick or easy. Without long term planning and enduring effort, it will never be achieved.
