Walking + Cycling Plan updates
Unley’s Walking and Cycling Plan is getting an update! Why, you may ask, when Unley has what is certainly the most comprehensive plan in South Australia? Well, the current plan runs until 2027, and so it’s important that the plan is reviewed and updated to take stock of what’s been achieved since the inception of the plan and to set Unley up for a further five years of best-in-class walking and cycling improvements.
Last week on Monday 7th September, Unley BUG attended an ‘elected members briefing’ at the council chambers. At the briefing, council’s transport team briefed elected members on the proposed direction for the new plan and sought feedback on what should be kept and what needs to change.
Celebrating the wins
The information session began with an acknowledgement of what the City of Unley has been able to achieve in the last four years. It’s pretty impressive, at least for Adelaide standards:
- 2.7km of cycling infrastructure improvements
- 27 new bike racks
- Continued growth in cycling numbers, especially compared to other inner-Adelaide councils
- Continued improvement in safety for people walking and cycling
These last two points were heartening to see, and a real validation of the continued investment that Unley has made in making our streets safer, more pleasant and more convenient to walk and cycle on.
Refinement, not revolution
The overall tone of council’s presentation was if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. That is, the structure of the plan, with its clear goals, list of priority projects and explicit timelines has been working well. In particular, it was recognised that balancing funding between design, consultation and implementation each year means Unley always has several projects on hand to take opportunity of grant funding opportunities as they arise. The importance of this approach cannot be overstated. After all, if you don’t ask, you don’t receive – and in the last four years, Unley successfully received nearly $5 million in external grant funding for walking and cycling projects!
Having said that, there were some changes proposed to the current plan. The below points aren’t set in stone – the plan will of course go out to public consultation prior to being implemented – but reflect the general tone of discussions on the night:
- A focus on collecting useful data. If you don’t count people walking or cycling, they don’t count, as the saying goes – and it was acknowledged that current measures such as five-yearly census ‘Journey to Work’ data and annual ‘Super Tuesday’ counts cannot capture the improvements to everyday cycling that Unley is seeking to achieve.
- Improvements to wayfinding. Unley has a lot of great infrastructure already, but many people doesn’t know that it exists!
- An increase in behaviour change promotion and education, e.g. extending successful programs with schools, such as recent work with Unley Primary School where student travel to school apparently went from 70% driving to 70% walking and cycling.
- Amendments to the priority routes and projects:
- A new neighbourhood bicycle route on Rossington/Riverdale Streets (P7 on the map below)
- Tweaks to the Wattle St neighbourhood bicycle route at either end where it approaches Glen Osmond Rd and Goodwood Rd (P2)
- A connection in the west to the rapidly-improving Flinders-City Bikeway in Mitcham (P9)
- Designation of Victoria St in Goodwood as a neighbourhood bicycle route in acknowledgement of how important Victoria St is for people walking and Cycling to Goodwood Primary – hooray! (P10)
- Recognising that the Greenhill Rd Shared path (advocated for by Unley BUG) will continue outside the plan as a cross-council collaboration.
Interestingly, elected members called for the inclusion of a ‘hero project’ into the new plan, an ambitious proposal that could be timed to present to candidates at a forthcoming state election to seek funding.
To that end, it was mentioned at the end of the evening’s session that there would be another briefing session in October discussing the transformation of King William Rd. Not the part that’s just about to be finished, nor the part that’s one of the best main streets in Adelaide; no, the bit in between the two that has yet to be renewed. Given this section forms a crucial link between the Charles Walk, Wood-Weller and Mike Turtur Bikeways, you can bet that Unley BUG will be there to hear and report back on what is being proposed!
You can view the slides presented to elected members here:
What’s next?
Following this briefing session, council staff will proceed with the preparation of a draft plan which will be put to council later this year. If it successfully passes, it will then go out to community consultation early next year and return to council for a vote on implementation.
Crucially, this timeline means the new plan will have to be voted in by the new council following local government elections next year. The current council is very supportive of initiatives to improve walking and cycling in Unley, but it’s anyone’s guess as to the approach the next council will take. Unley BUG will be doing our part to continue Unley’s legacy of being the BEST place to walk and cycle in Adelaide by reaching out to all candidates in the lead up to the election – just like we did last time!
Charles Walk Intersection Improvements
Unley Council has gone out to consultation on improvements to the intersections of the popular Charles Walk between King William Rd and Unley Rd.
Long story short, people walking and cycling will be given priority at each intersection, with interventions to make sure this happens. Looks like those deadly, collapsible bollards will be replaced too!
This has been in the Walking and Cycling Plan for a while and a long time coming. Charles Walk is one of Unley’s very few east-west cycling links and particularly popular as a walking trail, so these improvements will be very welcome.
Let Unley Council know what you think by filling in the survey here.
Spring Equinox Adventure Ride
We’ll be welcoming in the warm, sunny weather tomorrow with our Spring Equinox Adventure Ride! We plan to make the most of the fantastic forecast weather with a ride up the magical Chambers Gully to the Long Ridge lookout. Bring your own coffee, snacks and take in the panorama of the city with us before we descend down the Winter Trail back into suburbia.
Our quarterly Adventure Rides are conceived as something of a ‘step up’ from our regular social rides, so if you’re thinking of attending please keep the following in mind:
- We’ll be riding halfway up Mount Lofty. This will involve some climbing (500m+) so, even with our party-pace riding, a level of fitness will be required.
- Ensure you’re comfortable riding your bike on loose surfaces. We recommend a bike with a tyre of 35mm width minimum for comfort and control.
- Bring along a spare tube or a way to fix punctures.
- Ensure you bring adequate water and sunscreen.
As always, we’ll be setting off at 8am from the Unley Town Hall carpark.
You can see the full route here.
Mike Turtur Bikeway – a grand opening at last?!
Could it be really happening? The latest update from the project team delivering the new overpasses on the Mike Turtur Bikeway has re-confirmed an end-of-September opening date for the new overpasses. We know the community is wary – after all, the bikeway was promised to open first in January, then July, and now the end of September. Commuters and recreational cyclists alike have endured over a year of disruptions to one of Adelaide’s busiest bikeways. But it seems the end is in sight.
And who knows, if the bikeway is reopened as planned by the end of the month, that will tie in very nicely with our forthcoming October Social Ride…
We need your help!
The Unley BUG Committee is always looking for people that are interested and willing to making Unley a better place to walk and cycle. If you’re interested in helping out, please reach out! What makes Unley BUG strong is that our members contribute in ways that build on their own strengths and interests. So if you have an idea of something that could be done to improve walking and cycling in our local area, we’d love to hear it!
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