Oral submission Eastern Suburbs Cycleways

Introduction

First of all CAW want to congratulate the Council on its commitment and effort in consulting
the community on Eastern Suburbs Cycleways.
For this oral submission we want to focus on general considerations for making suburbs
more friendly and safe for people to cycle. We won't go into the detail of our written
submission.

What we want to advocate for the Eastern Suburbs and other suburbs is
● People friendly suburban streets and areas in addition to safe key cycle routes
● Dedicated cycle paths over shared paths
● Routes that connect not only to the CBD but also other suburbs
● Looking at other things that can make a difference

So looking at each of these points

People friendly suburban streets and areas
● We are very much in favour of a 30 km/hour speed restriction on quiet residential
streets
● Creating friendly neighbourhood streets where people are a priority and cars are
forced to slow down
● This can be through traffic calming features such as creating one way or no exit
streets where the road is the same level as the footpath
● The community can become very much part of this by helping to build and maintain
planter boxes that are used for communal vegie and fruit gardens.
● This can be gradually introduced using trials
● Doing this will create a safe environment for people and especially kids to cycle
around the neighbourhood
● In addition we urge the Council to get on and put in place a regular closure of the top
of the Miramar Peninsula so that people young and old have a wonderful
environment to try out and enjoy cycling and walking without motorists around.
● These are minor improvements that make a big difference

Dedicated cycle paths over shared paths
● Sharing the road with motorists is obviously not ideal but can be OK if traffic is
slowed down
● Walkers and cyclists having to share a path should not be encouraged unless there
is plenty of width, separation, and an expectation on cyclists to keep speed down

Connections to the CBD and other suburbs
● Safe connections to the CBD is obviously important, and this should include a way to
safely cross Cobham Drive.
● Consideration needs to be given to create a safe link to Newtown
● The Eastern Bays is ideally positioned to create safe cycling routes that link up with
the Great Harbour Way

Making the difference
● Don't focus on or two big projects that swallow the whole budget
● We support a sensible and pragmatic approach
● As noted before, minor improvements can make a big difference
● This includes improving intersections to make things feel safer
● Use trials to test out creative solutions
● Monitor what is happening and be open to making ongoing improvements
● Work together with the community, schools and businesses
● Understand and address the genuine concerns
● But also remind people why this is being done
● Which is to target that enormous group of people young and old who are interested in
cycling but will only do so if they feel it is safe
● Which in turn helps to create healthy and happy people friendly suburbs and
communities