More Ballarat cycling projects

Proposed design of Macarthur Street (via CoB)

The City of Ballarat has been announcing new cycling projects faster than I can keep up with them, which is a very good problem to have! Today I want to talk very briefly about a project that's already closed for consultation, and in a bit more detail about one you can still give feedback on. 

The first is the Yarrowee River Places and Connections project, which will provide a bunch of upgrades to walking, cycling and general amenity in a bunch of places along the Yarrowee corridor. 

Zone 1 looping around the Eastern Oval from Peel to Davies Street (via CoB)

Zone 1 of these works will fix a long-standing problem, where the existing paths along the northern section of the Yarrowee come to an abrupt end at Peel Street North, with a staircase from the path up to street level - wholly unsuitable for bikes. Their solution is to create a short new section of path between Nicholson and Peel that never dips down as low and so doesn't have to rise up again - I approve. 

From there, they propose a path that would do kind of a long loop around the sporting facilities at the Eastern Oval, before crossing Scott Parade at Davies Street, and connecting to existing north-south infrastructure via the railway underpass. This all works quite well if you're actually travelling to the Eastern Oval (and kids attending sports are an important cycling constituency!) or if you're travelling east-west along Route 3, to the railway station or beyond. But if you are wanting to make that southerly connection to Route 2 and head to the Bridge Mall and beyond, it is a bit indirect - not ideal. 

Nonetheless, a pretty good outcome by all accounts. 

The scope of the whole Yarrowee project (via CoB)

Zone 2 is immediately south of the Bridge Mall precinct - along Anderson Street, and providing a safe connection over Grant Street. The latter of these is particularly important, and the designs all look good. Zone 3 continues south from here, and aside from a proposed new SUP bridge that seems very oddly-placed, again it seems broadly fine. Zone 4 adds some nice amenities and connections around the Prest Street bridge - again all looks fine. 

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The second project is the Macarthur Street Streetscape Improvements. The website notes that this will provide an important connection between Route 3 at Creswick Road, and Route 4 along Wendouree Parade - but what's not mentioned is that it could provide a link to Route 2a as well. More on this later. 

The other notable positive is that it's jointly funded by the Federal Government under their Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program. There is a huge need for the higher and wealthier levels of government to do more to support local governments to build out walking and cycling infrastructure, so it's great to see this and I hope there's more to come. 

An overview of the Macarthur Street project (via CoB)

The proposed infrastructure itself seems pretty decent, if ambiguous. It does seem clear that the existing footpath would be retained, and that the intersection crossings would be shared between pedestrians and cyclists, but the new path is labelled "shared" in some documents and a "bike lane" in others. In a context like this it absolutely makes sense to keep cyclists and pedestrians separate as much as possible, so I'll be pushing for the new paths to be bike-only. 

The Macarthur Street plan around the Burnbank Street roundabout (via CoB)

I'm pleased to see raised, priority crossings at the Burnbank Street and Wendouree Parade roundabouts, and that they're set back about a car's length from the roundabout proper (like Dutch roundabouts). There will also be a nice increase in greenery along the whole corridor, which will add a lot to amenity. 

The Creswick Rd end of the project, with no intersection upgrades proposed (via CoB)

The big missing piece of this project is the connections at the Creswick Road end. Macarthur Street currently has an SUP on its south side, east of the Creswick Road intersection, and the proposal is to build this new SUP on the north side. However there are currently no bike lamps to cross Creswick Road or Macarthur Street, nor are the painted lines as wide as you'd see on a shared crossing - it is very much pedestrians only, and there's nothing in the plans that suggests this would change. But it needs to: the link to the Lake will not be complete until this intersection is upgraded. 

Ballarat Bicycle Network. Note Route 2a in yellow in Ballarat Central. (Zoomable map by CoB)

The second missing link here is to Route 2a. This is a route that fills an important north-south gap in the centre of the city, before using the Creswick Road service road to connect up to Route 3. It's a route that didn't appear on the City's draft plans, but was a late addition to the final plan - however it seems like it's slipped off the radar. The project website specifically mentions Routes 3 and 4 but doesn't mention Route 2a - and what's more, the "plan update map" on the general Bikepaths and Walking Connections page is a bit iffy as well. There's nothing on Lyons Street, per the City's plans, nor Raglan St, per the State's priority network - just a "future missing linkage" that seems to go all the way down Creswick Road to terminate at Grant Street - passing several blocks further east and terminating several blocks north of the original plans. 

A "plan update map" showing existing links, current projects, and future/missing linkages (via CoB)

This is concerning, because as I said, Route 2a is an important route - if it's been deleted (or shifted several blocks over) that creates a big hole in the middle of the CBD, where there's the most destinations (shops, workplaces, a school) and where the network should therefore be the densest. What's more, it could definitely do with some investment in the medium term, but for now it's a pretty cheap and easy win for Council - the original routes were relatively low-traffic, particularly the bits north of Mair Street, so for now they could basically just designate it as a route for on-road cycling and move onto the next project. 

There just needs to be a short connection between the cul-de-sac and the lights (via Google Maps)

One of the very few things it needs in the short term is a rational link between the little cul-de-sac at the top of the Creswick Road service road, and the intersection. The plans show a new path connecting the service road on the northeast corner of the intersection - literally all they'd need is something similar for the southwest corner. 

Anyway. Overall it's a really great project and I'm glad to see it get up. Hopefully they can make some tweaks to fix the connectivity at the eastern end. You can provide your feedback on the City of Ballarat MySay website.