Missing link: filling the cycle infrastructure gaps

A bike network is more than the sum of its parts. Small gaps can greatly decrease the popularity of the route. Missing links is a term that describes gaps in the cycling network, and those gaps can be quite short.

A bike network is more than the sum of its parts

Adding another 100 m of missing path, connecting two other bike paths, makes a network. Without this short link, a cyclist may need to ride a much greater distance.

Filling the gap and building a cycle path to form a network does not need to be expensive, and it is very worthwhile. The value of fixing the missing link far exceeds the construction costs as it makes the whole path network more attractive to cyclists.

At the 2016 ACT Election, ACT Labor promised several missing links. Here is one example of the Heysen Street Link.

A bike network is more than the sum of its parts. Small gaps can greatly decrease the popularity of the route.
Canberra.bike

Heysen Street Link

Heysen Street shortens the ride from the new suburbs in Molonglo Valley / Weston Creek and Woden Valley. The road was of a “rural road standard” and a death trap for cyclists.

Heysen Street Link benefited from the 2020 Fast Track program. Heysen Street Link was slow to move forward but now planned all the way to Woden.

Constructed in 3 stages

The funding came from different pots, but produced a cycle path from Weston to Woden Town Centre.

Heysen Street Link, ACT Government, 12/10/2020

Stage One – completed

Type: off-road shared path
Where: from the intersection of Devonport Street and Derwent Street, through the Oakey Hill Nature Reserve, along Heysen Street, ending at its intersection with Hilder Street.
Construction: August 2020 to late 2020
Funding: ACT Government $1.2 million

Stage Two – completed

Type: off-road shared path
Where: from the underpass near the Lyons shops, along Launceston Street to Burnie Street.
Construction: late 2020 to early 2021
Funding: ACT Government’s Fast Track Program.

Bike path along Launceston Street, Lyons. Woden Valley

Stage Three – status 8 October 2021 near completion

Type: on-road protected cycle path
Where: along Devonport Street between Derwent Street and the Lyons shops.
Construction: early 2021 to mid 2021
Funding: Federal Government’s Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program.