The future of Ballarat's bike network

The City of Ballarat adopted their 2017-25 Cycling Strategy many years back, and - through all the setbacks and budget limitations - has been working towards that plan ever since. There is still a ways to go, but it's almost due for a refresh. And with council elections in October, now seems like a good time for me to put my 2c in about what the next strategy should look like. 

The Cycling Strategy includes a bunch of general policies and initiatives, but a key component was the Ballarat Bicycle Network - setting out, street by street and path by path, what the bones of the cycling network would be. 

The cycling network grid around Wendouree (via CoB)

This was a great first step, aiming to have more than 90% of homes within 500m of a route, which implies a grid of routes approximately 1000m square. If we look at Wendouree, for example, it's about 800m between the north-south routes along Gillies, Forest and Dowling Streets; and about 950m between the east-west routes along Norman and Gregory Streets. 

But there are definite gaps in the network - particularly when we consider not just whether there's a route within range of someone's house, but where that person might like to go. Residents in Delacombe, for example, have decent coverage - but if they want to ride north to Victoria Park, they'll have to go the long way. (Ditto if someone from Alfredton wants to shop at Delacombe Town Centre). 

There's no north-south link through the industrial bit of Delacombe (via CoB)

I get it - they wanted to get the bones of a network in place as quickly as possible so that people could start riding, so they've prioritised what was achievable in the short term. This was crucial for building a critical mass of bike riders, who could help bolster the cause for future improvements - and they've succeeded in that. I might quibble about some details, but they absolutely made the right strategic call. 

But nearly a decade hence, much of the bones of the network are in place, and it's time to start thinking about phase two - how to flesh out the network and make it more comprehensive, even if that means taking on some more difficult or expensive projects. I want to propose five key principles for how the City of Ballarat should do that. 

1. Complete a comprehensive ~1km grid across the city

The work on the 2017-25 plan isn't finished yet, so clearly any unfinished business needs to remain on the agenda. (Although there are a few cases where I'd like routes to be rejigged slightly). 

There's some quite high-quality infrastructure that existed in 2016 but wasn't incorporated into the plan - those will certainly help fill some gaps. 

There are also a number of quiet residential streets that are fairly safe to ride on, and don't really require any new construction of infrastructure - or at least, they're acceptable enough in the short term, and we can build out something fancier later. So they help. 

The State Government has revised its Strategic Cycling Corridors in the years since the plan was adopted, so these should be taken into account - state (co-) funding could really help move things along. 

A network covering all built-up areas of Ballarat

But essentially I'd like to create a network of routes, usually 800-1000m apart but erring on the side of smaller gaps, so that it's truly an everywhere-to-everywhere network. 

I won't lie - this will require a lot of new routes. (It's the blue bits of the above image). It will be ambitious and it will require commitment - but it will be worth it. But more on that below. 

2. The network should be densest where there are the most destinations; therefore key areas should have a ~500m grid. 

Where there are a lot of shops or jobs that people will want to travel to, we should significantly increase the density of the grid. Right now, to my mind, this rule should apply in three places - the CBD, Howitt Street, and Albert Street. 

Howitt Street, Wendouree and Albert Street, Sebastopol are very much shopping strips - long, linear corridors. So basically this just means installing protected lanes on those two streets. 

Proposed denser network in the CBD

The CBD is a lot chunkier, so it wouldn't be just a single linear route in this case - it'd be a properly dense bit of grid. Obviously the City would need to do the consultation and technical legwork, but to a first approximation, I think this looks something like: north-south routes along Raglan, Armstrong, Grenville/Anderson, and Humffray; and east-west routes along Webster/the rail corridor, Sturt/Little Bridge, and Dana/Steinfeld. 

3. Shift away from shared-use paths; separate pedestrians and cyclists 

Internationally, it has long been considered best practice to provide separate infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists. In urban areas, this very often means one-way cycle paths, between the footpath and the road, on both sides of the street - allowing easy access to shops on either side. Shared-use paths are rarely suitable, except in very low-traffic (often rural) environments. 

Despite this, Ballarat (and Australia more broadly) has focused heavily on shared-use paths, even in very urban environments. They are also usually two-way paths on one side of the road, which makes access to destinations on the other side of the road more difficult. 

One of many Shared Use Paths built in Ballarat in recent years

I understand the political compromise here - one SUP is cheaper and easier to justify than two cycling-only lanes, and is sometimes easier to retrofit into existing streetscapes. And again, with the strategy being "build the bones of the network as quickly as possible to build a critical mass of support", that is a compromise I've been comfortable with up till now. 

But for phase two, we need to shift away from this kind of half-measure. As the number of cyclists grows, they will cause more and more conflicts with pedestrians (as is already happening with e-scooters). And as the constituency of cyclists grows, it will become easier to justify building the higher-quality and future-proofed infrastructure we need. 

SUPs might still have a role for off-road paths (along creeks etc) but in urban environments - especially shopping strips - we need to shift towards proper, separated, Copenhagen-style lanes. 

4. Prioritise safe routes to schools

Kids riding their bikes to school are an absolutely key constituency, and we have the opportunity to set lifelong habits, so they really need to be front of mind when we're planning the network. 

When schools are off the main grid, we should use spurs to connect them

Scotsburn, Glen Park, and Mount Blowhard Primary Schools are extremely rural, so it's not practical to connect them. But all the rest - public, private, primary, secondary - should be well-connected, even if that requires an extra spur off the main grid. 

5. Identify and mandate cycling corridors in future growth areas

In new housing developments in Ballarat's west, safe cycling infrastructure is being installed from day one - which is good to see. This is clearly something council is requiring as part of the planning process, since the developers are all doing it - but they're all doing it in ways and locations that are convenient for them, and which don't necessarily line up with the infrastructure in the neighbouring development. 

Developers are building cycling infrastructure, but it doesn't always link up

This could lead to fractured routes that don't really go anywhere, rather than a coherent network. 

To protect against this, the City should lay out the grid for a future cycling network on all land that is part of their designated growth areas. (And this should be an ongoing process, with new corridors identified whenever they designate new growth areas). 

This might align in some cases with natural features like creeks, but in many cases it's essentially laying out a future grid road network, with the cycling routes along key major roads (where you would also locate things like shops and schools). 

Proposed network, and reserved future corridors

Developers can do whatever quirky cul-de-sacs they like within the squares, but they would be required to have straight, continuous corridors along the lines council drew - and to put safe cycling infrastructure along them. 

(Spoiler alert, they should do the same for buses - basically every second cycling corridor should be an arterial road with a frequent bus route along it.)

~*~ 

Putting these principles together, I've created this zoomable concept map for what the next phase of the strategy could look like. It's just a first pass, and any official strategy would have to be subjected to proper analysis and consultation, but hopefully it can act as a conversation-starter. 

And with council elections in October, now's the time to have those conversations. It doesn't have to look exactly like this, but what vision do your local candidates have for cycling? Will they make it a priority when working on the annual budgets? Will they be willing to stand up for cycling infrastructure when a noisy minority push back against it? 

We've made such good progress so far, and finishing a comprehensive network like this could make Ballarat a genuine cycling haven. But we'll only get that if we demand it of our candidates, and if we vote for it. 

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EDIT 10 August 2024 

I wish I'd spotted this earlier, but I've just come across the City of Greater Geelong's Principal Bicycle Network maps. (The 'Click to enlarge image' link on this page doesn't seem to actually enlarge, but there are links to the left for individual areas with nice big PDFs). I don't know how much progress they've made on actually building this out, but just looking at the lines on the map makes me feel like I'm on the right track - there is a roughly 1km grid identified in most built-up areas, and a tighter grid in the CBD.