30 year history: cycle infrastructure in Belconnen

Belconnen Town Centre opened in the late 1970s. Over the last 40 years, we have had many plans to improve the cycle infrastructure but the progress has been slow. Here maps for the Belconnen district from 1992, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2016, 2019, 2022

This post shows maps of the grand plans for cycle infrastructure over a 30 year period: 1992-2022. Little has been done and there is still much to do.

The nearby Jamison Centre, the first commercial centre in the district, opened in 1969. The Belconnen Town Centre located on the shore of Lake Ginninderra opened in the late 1970s.

Belconnen, Wikipedia, accessed 1 May 2022.

Grand plans but nothing built

The ACT Strategic Cycle Network Plan, Technical Report, 6 August 2012 was made public from a freedom of information request (FOI 20-030).

The following are enlargements of ACT Government’s trunk cycling network from 2007 and 2011 for the area of Belconnen. The images are a little grainy, but you will get the gist. Since 2007 there has been hardly any change to the cycling networks in Belconnen. The ACT Cycling and Pedestrian Network Plan from 2011 is the same today except for the Belconnen Bikeway. Put in this context, the Belconnen Bikeway took ten years to build and is still not finished (as Benjamin Way is still unfinished).

Progress constructing off road cycle infrastructure in the ACT is painfully slow. The planned off road bike path along Belconnen Way past Weetangera and Hawker from Coulter Drive can be seen on the 2011 map as a proposed trunk path (Main Community Route). This path is the extension of the path along Belconnen Way that stops at Coulter Drive. Nothing has been done and its construction is still uncertain. There are other examples to be found on this map.

The proposed trunk network maps from the ACT Cycling and Pedestrian Network Plan from 2011 have never been built. That so little progress has been made would indicate that many more decades could pass before half of this network is built. The CBR Cycle Route network is even less ambitious, and the progress on that too is slow. Meanwhile, the ACT’s pollution is expected to double by 2060.

1992

1992 Belconnen Trunk Routes, Figure 1 1992 Trunk Cycle Routes, Ten Year Master Plan Trunk Cycling and Walking Path Infrastructure, Roads ACT, 2004.

2004

2004 bike network plan for Belconnen, enlargement of Figure E2 Proposed Cycle Lanes and Share Paths, Ten Year Master Plan Trunk Cycling and Walking Path Infrastructure, Roads ACT, 2004.

2007

Belconnen enlargement Trunk cycling network from the Commuter Cycling Network Study 2007. Background review and analysis of existing cycle network, ACT Strategic Cycle Network Plan, Technical Report, 6 August 2012. Spackman Mossop Michaels on behalf of ESDD. FOI 20-030 ACT Strategic Cycling Network Plan August 2012.

2011

Enlargement of the cycle map from Existing and proposed trunk network maps from the ACT Cycling and Pedestrian Network Plan for Belconnen. Background review and analysis of existing cycle network, ACT Strategic Cycle Network Plan, Technical Report, 6 August 2012. Spackman Mossop Michaels on behalf of ESDD. FOI 20-030 ACT Strategic Cycling Network Plan August 2012. A6.

Legend: Existing and proposed trunk network maps from the ACT Cycling and Pedestrian Network Plan. Background review and analysis of existing cycle network, ACT Strategic Cycle Network Plan, Technical Report, 6 August 2012. Spackman Mossop Michaels on behalf of ESDD. FOI 20-030 ACT Strategic Cycling Network Plan August 2012.

2016 ACT Election

ACT Labor 2016 Election Belconnen Bikeway

Town centre since 2016

2019

2019 Belconnen bike paths. TCCS website, ACT Goverment, accessed 15 April 2022.

2022

2022 Belconnen bike paths. TCCS website, ACT Goverment, accessed 15 April 2022.