The Western Australian government has become the latest jurisdiction to unveil its highly anticipated plan to create a bicycle network across the state’s metropolitan areas over the next two decades.
Detailed in the Western Australian Bicycle Network Plan 2014-2031 (WABN), the Colin Barnett government has laid the path for an ambitious expansion of the state’s cycling facilities and growing cycling requirements.
The plan was released by WA Minister for Transport Dean Nalder as a blueprint to build new infrastructure in response to the five-fold increase of people cycling to work and for leisure in Perth the past 15 years.
Mr Nalder said there has also been a 14 per cent growth in cycling on paths around the Perth CBD over the past year.
The plan will have a wide scope, focusing on building ‘principal shared paths’ along freeways and railway lines and review of the Local Bicycle Routes network connecting all suburbs to destinations.
More remote areas haven’t been left out of the plan, as it will also focus on medium to long-term planning for cycling facilities in large regional cities and towns.
Mr Nalder said the planning for regional cycling facilities will support the growth plans of cities and major towns, “complemented by the annual grants programs to local government”.
The government has already allocated funding to build new cycling infrastructure, with an investment of $47.18 million over the next four years.
While the City of Sydney and the Australian Capital Territory government have been hard at work at trying to improve their own cycling infrastructure, the WA government reckons it has more cyclists using its existing infrastructure.
In coming to that conclusion, the government used baseline data established for the National Cycling Strategy 2011-2016, which said that WA has cycling participation rates significantly higher than the national average.
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