Hobart City Council is due to meet this Monday 10 May to give the final go ahead for a trial of separated cycleways on Campbell Street and short connectors to Argyle Street on Liverpool and Bathurst streets.
The decision whether to go ahead or not is based on getting funding from the state government.
The cycleways would be the first of their kind in the Hobart council area, Glenorchy City beat Hobart to the punch when it built a bi-directional separated cycleway in Peltro Street connecting its main road to the Intercity Cycleway.
Hobart Council has adopted several vision and strategy documents that prioritise the development of a connected cycling network.
The greater Hobart mayors have also strongly pushed the development of cycling networks as part of the City Deal and Greater Hobart Committee processes.
If governments are going to see any success in getting more people to ride for transport they need to create cycling corridors physically separated from traffic. This project is the first step in making that happen and is why it’s so important to see it go ahead.
Hobart Council meetings are again open to the public to attend from 5 pm at the Hobart Town Hall – if you can’t attend in person you can watch on You Tube.
Where will the trial cycleway go?
We reported on the council’s initial decision back in December 2019 to go ahead with a trial of the separated cycleways and the route remains the same.
It will start on Campbell Street just after Brisbane Street, where the current painted lane stops. It will run the length of Campbell Street down to Davey Street, where riders will have to cross over at the lights to get on to the Intercity Cycleway.
The cycleway will be placed between parked cars and the footpath, separated by upright traffic bollards, although in peak hour the parking lane will become a traffic lane. The exception to this is the mixed use slip lane on the block outside the hospital between Liverpool and Collins streets.
There will be connecting separated cycleways on Liverpool and Bathurst streets to give riders access on and off Campbell Street.
There will also be some changes on Argyle Street but it won’t be separated the whole length like Campbell because of the challenges posed by the car park and hospital. The section between Davey and Macquarie will be separated by bollards and the separation will restart just before Bathurst Street and continue up to Brisbane Street.
You can view the full designs on the agenda of the 28 April Infrastructure Committee.
Transport Strategy framework coming
Also discussed at the Infrastructure Committee meeting which looked at the cycleways was a draft Implementation Framework for delivering Hobart’s Transport Strategy in light of the intervening City Deal arrangements.
The draft framework outlines the approach the council intends to take in delivering the goals of its Transport Strategy and the City Deal, and it will be worked on with stakeholders before going to council for adoption.
Of interest for bike riders is the goal to increase the percentage of daily weekday bike riding/micromobility trips to 10% by 2030, up from 3% in 2016. As well as the intention to fill in the missing links in Hobart’s cycling infrastructure to create a network that goes through the city centre.
You can view the draft document on the agenda of the 28 April Infrastructure Committee.