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Pre-election survey |
Biking Survey of Candidates for
13th September 2008
Byron Shire Council Election
Byron Shire Bicycle User Group[1] is a non-partisan group
representing the biking community here. We are asking all candidates in the
September Council election their views on cycling and their commitment to
improve biking facilities in our community, if they are elected.
The following survey has been
sent to all candidates standing for election.
In the week preceding the
election we will publish a table summarising the results of the candidates
survey so that voters concerned about support for cycling here, can best judge which
candidates are serious about encouraging cycling, reducing green house gas
emissions, cutting traffic congestion and improving the health of our community.
For a brief background on biking
infrastructure and its funding in the Shire please see overleaf which you may
want to read that before completing the survey.
Please circle the most
appropriate answer
1. I agree that bicycle riders
are legitimate road users?
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree
Strongly Disagree
2. I am a cyclist or I have a
cyclist in my household
Yes No
How often do you (they) ride?
_______________________
3. I support a coordinated, planned,
“whole of Council” approach to infrastructure development that incorporates cycling
infrastructure as an equal participant in transport planning
Strongly Agree Agree
Disagree Strongly Disagree
4. I will back the Council’s
Bike Plan implementation by supporting an increase in funding so that the
following lengths of bikeways can be built per year
2 5 7 9
11 Kilometers
5. I think Council should spend this
percentage of the total road budget on bikeways AND road shoulders
none 2% 5% 10%
20%
30%
6.
Bikeways
connectivity between Shire communities and from schools to communities should be
priority infrastructure projects
Strongly Agree Agree
Disagree Strongly Disagree
7. Here are my further brief comments
on cycling in the Shire
Candidates Name:________________________________________
Signature:_______________________
Date:___________________
Byron Shire Funding for Bikeways &
Shoulders:
Regardless
of previous and current Bikeway Plans, the reality is that the Shire is not
building enough bikeways per year to make a significant impact in moving people
out of cars to bikes.
People
will not ride a bike or allow their kids to ride if the perceive a lack of
safety or completeness. In places where bikeway networks have been constructed
usage has grown very rapidly. There is clear community demand in the Shire for
both bikeways and road shoulders.
Prior
to 2002 only a few Km of bikeways had been built, with the Shire under spending
its bikeway funding allocation from the RTA. 2002 and 2003 were also quite low
construction years - this was often put down by the staff as due to a lack of resources
and priorities. In more recent times (2004-08) an average of 2.4Km/year of
bikeway has been built at a cost of about $380,000/year, from all sources. Approximately
20% of this is from Council revenue, 10% from Section 94 Developer
Contributions, 25% from the NSW RTA, 20% from the NSW Dept. of Planning –
Coastline Bikeway and 25% from Federal Roads to Recovery.
We
have 57Km of bikeways in the Shire; however their use is relatively low as
mostly this consists of disconnected segments, not a network. Often a segment
ends in an area very unsafe for biking. Most of our kids cannot safely ride to
school.
The recently released Byron Shire Draft Bike Plan, http://www.byron.nsw.gov.au/PublicExhibition/#id1091, is a good basis for establishing a usable, safe
network of bikeways in the Shire. It proposes 100's of Kilometers of bikeways
both within localities and linking them. Our considered estimates are
that a minimum of 30Km and preferably 50-60 Km of additional bikeways are
required for such a network. Neither the current Council Management Plan
nor the draft Bike Plan have any yearly bikeway or shoulder targets. The
past 4 years an average of 2.4Km per year of bikeways has been constructed by Council.
Unless the rate increases significantly we are looking at 12 to 25
years before we have a network. The current Plan has no specific yearly or
other firm funding or construction targets. The Plan is several years late.
A 100Km bike network seems appropriate –
e.g. Wangaratta is a Rural City in Victoria (population 25,000 vs. Byron Shire
30,000) with the commitment and vision to become the cycling capital of
Australia. Wangaratta was one of the first councils to develop a cycling
strategy 14 years ago and today has a network of bicycle paths totaling 99 km
in length and is still increasing. The Wangaratta council is also committed to
encouraging kids to ride to school and has been able to attract State
Government funding to create linkages to local schools.
To
get to 9Km of bikeways per year, at the cost of $70/sqm (which is what the 4 yr
average is), the amount of money required is $1,575,000. That would about 20%
of the total yearly Council Roads budget ($7.1 million in 04/05, assuming it
has grown a bit). Significantly less than 50% of this would come out of general
revenue as Section 94 Developer Contributions, Federal Roads to Recovery funds
and matching RTA, Dept of Planning Coastline Bikeway and other grants are
available. It is important to note that without committed Council funds matching
grants are far harder to get and good planning is difficult.
Shoulders
– an overwhelming majority of the Shire roads have no shoulder, and this when
combined with 80-100Km/hr speed limits (often broken) presents grave dangers to
bicyclists, cars and pedestrians. The cost per sq m of shoulders is
approximately the same as bikeways.
BSBUG requests that Byron Shire Council:
(i) adopts an overarching direction
- declaring "Bike Friendly Byron Shire" & making that very public
with signage, web site, promotion etc
(ii) acts accordingly with (i) in all
areas of policy & practice including but not limited to: roads
(specifically including adding shoulders whenever roadworks are performed
on 80-100kph segments), health, community planning, tourism
(iii) commits to specific targets,
such as all schools connected to bike network within 5 years
(iv) commits to funding to complete an
absolute minimum of 9km of bikeways per annum, with a minimum of
20% of the road budget being allocated to bikeways and road shoulders
(v) adopts a best use of funds approach
with a competitive tender for all bikeways
(vi) approaches State & Federal
Govts. to obtain specific funding for utilising the rail corridor for a bike
and walking trail, while preserving the option of future use for light rail
(based on other Australian, New Zealand & other countries experience this
would provide both a major visitor, low impact, high benefit draw card as
well as a gently graded communities linkage).
For further information please
contact: Bernard Grinberg, bgrinber@bigpond.net.au,
mo 0412 107 415