The proposed Glenelg Highway bike path

It's been a while since posts - I've been busy with a new job - but I wanted to talk in a bit of detail about a new proposed shared use path along the Glenelg Highway in Sebastopol and Delacombe. The City of Ballarat is currently seeking feedback, so I wanted to talk through some of the opportunities this presents and encourage others to feed into this process. 

Proposed Glenelg Hwy path stages (via City of Ballarat)

The proposal is to essentially link the Yarrowee River with Delacombe Town Centre via a new separated bike path along the southern edge of Glenelg Highway, to be built in three stages. The first stage would link Phoenix College and Beverin Street, which presumably was the project boundary for the recent works on the Midland Highway/Glenelg Highway intersection revamp. Stage Two would extend the path from Phoenix to DTC, while Stage Three would extend the other way, from the Midland Highway to the Yarrowee. At this stage only Stage One construction is funded, but the design work for all three stages is funded and will happen upfront, which is good - it gives me more confidence the later stages will end up getting funded, and it helps ensure a seamless link the whole way along. 

The funding is from the State government, so like the Sturt Street path, it's a situation where the two levels of government need to work together. This is important for many reasons, but a key issue will be that the two have different ideas for where the strategic cycle routes in Ballarat should go. I've discussed the differences between the two plans in detail in What are the State's cycling priorities for Ballarat? but suffice to say they've taken two different approaches to selecting roads, and so they don't always line up with each other. 

As you might guess, given this project is happening, they do both agree on the need for a link along Glenelg Hwy; but there is less agreement on the routes that interesect with it - and they are specifically seeking feedback on opportunities for connections to other routes, and key crossing points. So that's what I want to focus on. 

City and State plans in the area (via Google Maps)

Happily, they both consider Spencer Street to be the best route heading south from the highway - and the new path is planned to be on the south side of Glenelg Hwy, so there shouldn't be any issues connecting with that. All good. 

Heading north from here is a real mixed bag, though. The Victorian Government's Strategic Cycling Corridors show the route heading north along Clarkson St, which becomes Talbot St, and then terminating at a T-intersection with an east-west route along Sebastopol St. The City of Ballarat's Cycling Action Plan 2017-25 shows Route 4 beginning one block west, on Verdon St, which becomes Ripon St; at La Trobe St, the route takes a brief east-west detour for one block, to Pleasant St, where it continues north to Lake Wendouree and beyond. However, the City of Ballarat has recently announced Trails and Connections plans for a separated bike path along Pleasant St from Rubicon St to Bell St, at Morshead Park. 

Proposed off-road path along Pleasant St (via City of Ballarat)

Does this mean the City of Ballarat has changed its strategy since 2017, so Route 4 would now continue along Pleasant & Alfred St instead of jumping over the Ripon & Verdon? Not sure! I think there's a lot of merit in this, so I kind of hope so, and my feedback reflects this. I think it makes a whole lot of sense to add bike lamps to the existing Alfred St/Glenelg Hwy traffic lights, rather than having to create another safe crossing at Verdon or Clarkson - plus, if Route 4 just continues in a straight line all the way down Pleasant & Alfred, that's a lot more legible than jumping over a block or two. 

But what I also said in my feedback is, essentially, "Whatever plan you have is fine, as long as you have a plan!" If they are keen to stick with Verdon or Clarkson for the north-south link, that's fine, as long as what they do today reflects what they're going to do tomorrow. I can live with a slightly suboptimal route as long as there's joined-up thinking and consistent planning! 

Looking at Stage Two, the intersection between the Glenelg Hwy and Sutton St/Tait St will be important. This is very unsafe today, with high volumes of traffic at high speeds, so it will need fixing if only for the path to cross Tait and continue on its east-west axis; but it's also important to provide a crossing of Glenelg Hwy here. This is partly because of the Early Learning Centre on the northwest corner, which the path will be handy for accessing (but only if people can cross the road safely). But the Trails and Connections plans are relevant again, because they include a north-south link along the eastern edge of Sutton Street, so it'll be important to provide a link to that. 

My strong preference would be for this intersection to be signallised with bike lamps, but theoretically it could work if they substantially rebuilt the roundabout; it would need to be narrowed and tightened to slow traffic speeds, and provide bigger pedestrian refuge islands (big enough to fit a cargo bike), but it's possible. 

Proposed paths along Sutton St & Banyule Dr (via City of Ballarat)

A bit further along, we see an existing shared-use path along Bonshaw Creek to the south. Immediately to the north, the creek is underground, but we have Banyule Drive taking us up to Greenhalghs Road, where the creek resurfaces and there's another SUP through the green space adjacent to Delacombe and Lumen Christi Primary Schools, and Delacombe Community Kindergarten. (There's another Early Learning Centre on the corner of Banyule Dr and Glenelg Hwy). Banyule Drive doesn't have any plans for separated cycling infrastructure at the moment - it was included in the Trails and Connections plans but only with footpaths for pedestrians. Nonetheless it should be relatively quiet and suitable for on-road cycling, and clearly it fills a gap between two other routes - so I'm proposing another safe crossing point here. 

I have no view on how this crossing point should be constructed, and the transition from SUP to on-road cycling is tricky, so I'm leaving it to the professionals as to how they do it - but I do strongly believe there should be a safe crossing point of some kind. 

There will also need to be a safe crossing point at the final intersection before DTC, but I assume that will be pretty straightforward - bike lamps on the signallised intersection. 

They're also seeking feedback on rest points, bike hoops, and the like - I think it makes sense to have a rest point at Bonshaw Creek, and bike loops at the schools, the shops, and at the Bupa Aged Care facility - I can envisage people riding their bikes to visit their parents or grandparents, so they'll need somewhere to park their bikes while inside. 

Anyway - if you're keen on Ballarat getting better cycling infrastructure, I'd encourage you to submit to the feedback process - they have a survey you can fill out, or you can email a document if you prefer. Anything generally positive is a good idea, since it helps them see the community wants this (and will help secure funding for later stages) but I think the part they'll need the biggest push on is those safe crossing points: this will be the most expensive, and might have some potential for backlash if handled poorly, so a strong show of support would be great.