The ACT government says it is time to redesign the national capital, to make active travel — such as cycling and “micro-mobility” alternatives like e-scooters — safer and more viable.
It wants to retrofit Canberra’s streets and intersections to protect cyclists from traffic, and build more direct cycle paths to the places commuters actually want to go.
We need cycle lanes between town centres. 10 or even 20km isn’t too far to commute on an ebike.
The network between the major centres is mostly there, albeit not always very direct or separated from cars along the entire route (looking at the map going beween Tuggers and Belco is an example displaying both of these issues).
The bike path network could definitely do with separating the on road sections remaining on major routes - another example being the section through Kingston when going City/QBN. I think it’d be helpful if there was more paths around the parts of the town centres where people work, being able to get to or at least close to work without mixing with the traffic in the town centres would make people more comfortable on a bike.
I think separated bike paths closer to the industrial areas would also be a good idea for increasing cycling to work. From my experience there’s a lot of people who don’t have licences or cars and still need to get to the industrial areas, but getting to much of Fyshwick and all of Hume requires cycling along busy roads and that is a bit too risky for many (particularly in the early morning or late evening).
