Advocacy
As issues affecting the cycling community arise, Cycling NSW would like to have its members opinion on topics that may affect their cycling. Below is the current issue of the Centennial Parklands Grand Drive Safety Project. If you would like to leave your thoughts on the project, email: nsw.cycling@cycling.org.au and we will endeavour to post the best emails.
Cycle Centennial Update
05/04/2012
After the excitement and hard work of the past week and a half, our submission has been finalised and approved by our constituent clubs and organisations.
We have had considerable success since we first met, culminating in the encouraging press release by the Minister for Environment last week plus meetings with Centennial Park director, Kim Ellis.
There is still more to do, though, and the thinking is we should hold another meeting to discuss further matters in the next week or so.
The suggestion is that Cycle Centennial should formalise its existence by electing a representative committee of interested individuals to work on promoting cycling in Centennial Park into the future. These individuals would ideally be a diverse cross section of the cycling community (club/tri/recreational/tandems/unicycles!) and naturally have the desire and skills to help in the promotion of the cause.
It is hoped that Cycle Centennial will work closely with Centennial Parklands in actively improving the experience for all. From being involved in decisions on traffic management at exits to big projects like the relocation of the childrens cycleway - it's a long term vision.
This meeting is open to anyone. I would recommend advertising to your friends/club mates etc as they should be involved and have the opportunity to participate if they're interested.
The meeting is to be held at 16 Kendall st, Woollahra at 6pm Wednesday 18 April.
Please let me know what you think, along with proposed agenda items.
Melissa Neumaier
Centennial Parklands Grand Drive Saftety Improvement Project: Feedback
1)
Dear Sir/Madam,
I've just returned from a bike ride, including a few laps around Centennial Park (entered the park approx. 7:20am) and wanted to make a few observations and suggestions.
While in the park I noted that there were:
- zero cycling groups
- a few cyclists, either in pairs or alone, some commuting through the park, some, like me, on a fitness ride
- a few pedestrians, primarily jogging on the walk/run track on the inside of Grand Drive
- a few cars, mainly of people using the park for recreation rather than using to commute through.
- one group of kids, looked like they had just finished riding bikes with a few parents in attendance
All in all, a Park being used without issue by various different groups.
So, to suggestions.
It strikes me that the Park is perhaps trying to be all things, to all people, all of the time. The vast majority of training cyclists/triathletes, whether that be in groups, or individually, get their training done early in the morning, on both weekdays and weekends. The vast majority of families use the park during the day, primarily at weekends. Could the Park regulations be adjusted to favour cyclists in the early mornings and favour families in the weekend afternoons?
As an example, how about a regime as follows:
1. Prior to say 8:30am, 7 days a week, the Park is biased towards cyclists/triathletes. We can ride in groups, exceed 30km/h etc.
2. After 8:30am on weekdays, the current 30km'h limit is enforced and things continue as they currently are.
3. After 8:30am on weekends, the speed limit is 20km/h, everywhere in the park, all the time for all users, cars & bikes.
This strikes me as a fairly balanced plan, in which cyclists/triathletes get an improved training facility when they are most likely to use it, families get a much safer environment when they are most likely to use it and their environment would actively discourage training cyclists/triathletes from using the park at that time. The rules are also clear, and easy to follow. They are cheaper to implement than the existing proposed solution, and, since your current proposal currently has the attention of all the local cyclinf and triathlon groups, it should be fairly easy to communicate the new regime to the relevant groups.
I'd suggest a two year trial, with the explicit understanding that if the cycling/triathlon groups fail to confine their group training to the allotted time slots, the 'draconian' speed bump option will go ahead. However, as part of the trial, relevant accident and complaint statistics should be made publicly available so all parties can clearly see the nature of any problems (time, location, whether the 'offender' is a cyclist, pedestrian, car etc.)
Regards,
Donncha Redmond
Maroubra
