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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-10-15 Daily Xml
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BICYCLE LANES

The Hon. M. PARNELL (14:50): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Road Safety a question about bicycle lanes.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M. PARNELL: Today is National Ride To Work Day. It was my great pleasure to be talking to some cyclists this morning in Victoria Square, and a topic that came up was the quality of our on-road bicycle lanes and whether or not they are as effective as they could be. Cyclists raised with me issues of lanes that are discontinuous, and there are questions of maintenance and obstacles. One issue that was raised related to the hours of operation of bicycle lanes because, as members would appreciate, it is one thing to mark a bicycle lane on a road, but it is also important that its hours of operation are appropriate for those who seek to use it.

One example is the bicycle lane on Shepherds Hill Road not far from where I live, in fact, which applies only during the hours that children are heading to and from school. However, the biggest users of this bicycle lane are commuting cyclists who are heading down onto the Adelaide Plains or returning to the Mitcham Hills. It seems that this bicycle lane that only operates in the afternoon between 3pm and 4.30pm in fact misses the vast bulk of users. By contrast, most bicycle lanes on arterial roads are either full-time or at least they cover both the morning and the afternoon peak commuting periods.

My question of the minister is: will the government commit to a review of the effectiveness of existing bicycle lanes to ensure that they fulfil their full potential and are available to a maximum number of cyclists?

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Road Safety, Minister for Gambling, Minister Assisting the Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:52): I thank the honourable member for his important question. I must admit that I was not able to attend the breakfast this morning. I am sure that the honourable member was present and that everyone there had an enjoyable time. Ride to Work Day is a very enjoyable and important initiative.

The Hon. R.I. Lucas: Did you ride to work?

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO: Well, I said I was not able to attend, so I have been up front about that. I am sure that the Hon. Mark Parnell was able to ride to work. Indeed, from memory, I think we were represented by two ministers from the other place this morning. In relation to cycling lanes, we often talk about Adelaide being just the perfect city for cycling lanes because in a lot of places of course it is flat but, regrettably, what we have—and I am sure all established cities would face the same issue—is that cycling lanes and planning have to go hand in hand and, of course, the city itself was established long before we decided that we should have cycling lanes.

Whilst a lot of people would dearly love door-to-door cycling lanes, it will not be possible all the time, depending on the existing infrastructure. Certainly, under this government, we have a cycling strategy, and Adelaide's bicycle network, known as Bikedirect, now has a total length of 2,271 kilometres, within which there are 411 kilometres of bicycle lanes and 307 kilometres of path. The remainder of the network, I understand, is mapped and signed routes without any specific cycling facility, loosely described as the backstreet routes of Adelaide.

As I have said, whilst we all would wish that we could have bicycle lanes extending from one's home to one's destination, it is not always possible, but we do have a number of programs and funding committed every financial year to ensure that we continually improve our bicycle networks in the state.

The honourable member has mentioned Shepherds Hill Road. I am not aware in particular of what arrangements do exist on that road. I think the honourable member did place it on record. However, I undertake to go back to the department and seek some advice from it as to how the hours that he described were actually decided upon, and I will bring back a response for him.

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