The ACT's latest Budget has committed $10.4 million to the Garden City Cycle Route through Canberra's northern suburbs.
The 5km Garden City Cycle Route will be made up of off-road paths and on-road separated bike lanes through Watson, Downer, Dickson, Ainslie, Braddon, and into the CBD to connect with Canberra's main cycling network.
The project received $5 million in federal funding in 2022. The $10.4 million from the ACT Government is part of a new $26 million investment in active travel in its 2023-24 budget, and will be used to stage fund stage one of the route.
The path design will be shared with the community for consultation.
"Canberra consistently ranks highly as one of Australia’s best destinations for cycling, and we know that by making the right investments now our city will benefit for decades to come," says Chief Minister Andrew Barr.
As part of the new active travel package, the government has also committed more than $5 million to the maintenance of Canberra's existing walking and bike paths, more than $1 million to improve lighting and fixing missing links in the network, $2.4 million to improve the safety of streets surrounding schools and $2.6 million to upgrade the shared path between Cunningham Street and Bowen Park.
The 2021 National Walking and Cycling Participation Survey showed that ACT residents have higher bike riding rates than the national average.
Earlier this year, the ACT Government also shared a new design guide for separated Canberra intersections that could offer these riders better protection as they move through the city.
"The focus of these upgrades is providing safe infrastructure for walking and cycling, to make it more attractive to take up these sustainable forms of travel," says Minister for Transport and City Services Chris Steel.
Every journey that Canberrans take on foot, by bike, skateboard or scooter helps make our city cleaner, healthier and less congested."