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Bike lane part of Melville St proposal

The University of Tasmania has lodged a development application to transform half a block of Melville Street, replacing a traffic lane and parking bays with a painted bike lane alongside a temporary platform for seating and street trees.

While it’s great to see provision of a bicycle lane and painted buffer between the lane and traffic, it’s also an opportunity to trial physical separation between the bike lane and traffic.

The application is open for public comment until 23 November via the City of Hobart website: https://apply.hobartcity.com.au/CurrentlyAdvertised

Coastal pathway action this summer

Good news for Coastal Pathway watchers, with work starting on the Don–Lillicoe and Sulphur Creek–Penguin sections and continuing over summer.

The path on the eastern side of the Don River is currently closed off to allow work on the approach to a new bridge and installation of its abutments and piers.

Once the bridge is built, work will begin on a new 6.5 km path that will follow Don Heads and Waverley roads to the southern side of the Bass Highway and on to the underpass at Leith that will then connect in to the Central Coast Council's paths.

Once finished it means you'll be able to ride the 23 km or so from Leith to Latrobe on pathways the whole way!

And further west, work is about to begin on 5.6 km of 2.5 metre wide path from Hogarth Road in Sulphur Creek around to the new pathway in Penguin.

It should take about 6 months to complete with some fencing along the way to protect penguin habitat.

The next section being planned is West Ulverstone, from Rockliff Road to Bertha Street where it will meet up with the current shared path.

Hobart parliamentary traffic report out 

Tasmania’s Legislative Council has released its final report into traffic congestion and not surprisingly making active transport more attractive is one of the main recommendations.

The main recommendations of the report are:

  • Establishment of a single, statewide transport authority.
  • The government should prioritise a link road between the Tasman Highway and Bowen Bridge; more bus park and rides; more parking and charging points for bicycles, scooters and motorbikes; a connected network of separated cycleways across greater Hobart.
  • More autonomy for Metro to better satisfy passenger needs and greater investment to increase the proportion of trips taken by bus to 10%.
  • The government should work with schools to reduce private car drop-offs and with the public service and business to vary starting times and locations.
Whitewater Creek Track closure

Whitewater Creek Track from John Street around the Kingston playground will be closed for the next few months while council upgrades the path and connects it into the playground.

Back on your Bike launches one-on-one sessions

Our new Back on your Bike program is already expanding its offering, with one-on-one sessions being offered in addition to the small group sessions being run with local councils across the state.

Just register your interest online at www.bicyclenetwork.com.au/back-on-your-bike and we'll get in touch to arrange a time and place.

The webpage also has the dates for group sessions, with Howrah the next off the rank on 25 and 27 November, and the Huon Valley on 16, 22 and 23 January 2022 and Hobart sessions soon after.

Brighton Council proposes South Brighton masterplan

Brighton council has released a masterplan for the area south of Brighton where a new high school is being built, which is proposing shared paths to join the new area to the existing township and primary school.

There is no more detail on how wide the paths will be, what they will be made of and whether all the paths that are marked on the map as shared will be similar widths.

There is a short online survey to fill out if you think the plan doesn’t capture the connections needed for a good cycling network for local residents, before 26 November.

We’re keen to see a good connection with road crossings between the new area and the primary school.

https://www.brighton.tas.gov.au/community/have-your-say/