Cycling Frustration. Why Canberra’s cycling infrastructure is terrible.

If I see one more “cycle to work” program I am going to scream.

Credit: Julie Kinnear

To be clear I am not anti-bike, I am pro bike. People should cycle everywhere, and Canberra should be an ideal place to cycle everywhere.

But it isn’t. Despite Canberra’s mild temperatures, flat valleys, and well maintained infrastructure. Canberra is one of the worst places to cycle in Australia.

For the simple reason that no one is putting any money into bike infrastructure.

Over the last 10 years Canberrans have seen a billion dollars go into a tram network that completely overhauled Northbourne.

And yet the Northbourne bike path is still a narrow avenue of death that only the brave and the fool hardy ride along.

At the same time Canberra has completely destroyed a vast swath of farms near the Molonglo river to build the new suburbs of Coombs Wright and Denman’s Prospect.

But have put 0 dedicated cycling lanes into these suburbs. Even the existing cycling lane that follows the Molonglo to Weston Creek simply ends before these new developments forcing cyclists to take kilometres of detours.

Even as the Barr governments touts its cycle paths the vast majority of cycle paths in Canberra are nothing more than a thin white line painted on the edge of a highway.

Even existing dedicated bike pathways like the Braddon – City path are beautiful but meandering paths that take commuters kilometres out of their way.

Canberra bike infrastructure seems to be designed with absolutely no mind to what is convenient.

Canberra is a small but spread city, which might not be able to invest heavily in bike infrastructure. But good bike infrastructure does not require large investment.

Take Toronto.

Toronto and Montreal both found themselves with a need for bike paths and not much room. When these cities have been unable to put dedicated bike paths in place they simply add plastic lane dividers to existing bike paths.

These make it impossible for a car to drift into a bike lane without noticing and make cycling feel significantly safer along major roads.

Why when the government put a billion dollars and 5 years into redeveloping Northbourne did they not at least add a few lane markers for cyclists?

Or for that matter along Barry drive and Belconnen way. Where the bike path is little more than a gutter in an 80km/h zone? Despite there being plenty of room for a full-sized bike path on either side.

Even worse is when Canberra has a convenient bike path (as rare as that is) and it simply ends at the edge of whatever town centre you are trying to get to.

The areas cycle paths are the most needed are areas of high speed or little space, like town centres. And yet not a single bike path actually extends into the town centres they are supposed to be serving.

Dropping cyclists at the edge to duck and weave through commuters and drivers alternating between sidewalks and gutters.

Gee. Now why are some people reluctant to cycle?

In the lead up to the last election Greens, Labour, and Liberals promised investment in cycling infrastructure.

And as Labour is now dependent on the Greens perhaps the AUD15 million promised will actually find its way into bike paths around Canberra.

Although given the ACT has over AUD2 billion dollars in infrastructure construction and $200 million dollars per year directly invested by the government. Perhaps we shouldn’t get too excited over something that is little more than pocket change for the per capita richest city in Australia.

So the next time a politician belly ache about how more people should cycle while putting little to nothing into infrastructure, listen closely, because you might hear the sound of me screaming hysterically in the background.