200,000 people will soon live in Belconnen and Gungahlin, it is relatively flat, which gives the area great cycling potential. CBR Cycle Routes C11, C1 and C7 carve their way through the north, but not in ways that we would expect. Many grass reserves force the cyclist on huge detours. We still do not have a direct route between Belconnen and Mitchell. What are our options?
CBR Cycle Route C11 Flemington Road
The CBR Cycle Route C11 runs along Flemington Road from EPIC to Well Station Drive and forms one side of a triangle in a loop that connects Belconnen, Dickson and Mitchell. The strength of loops for navigation is that you can leave and join them wherever and whenever you like. This provides the cyclist with many options.
The route is along a number of CBR Cycle Routes, shown below in the Active Travel Infrastructure Practitioner Tool.
- CBR Cycle Route C11 City – Gungahlin via Dickson to the East
- CBR Cycle Route C1 City – Gungahlin to the West
- CBR Cycle Route C3 City – Belconnen via Town Centre to the South
- CBR Cycle Route C6 ANU – Dickson to ride into Dickson
The east side of the loop, CBR Cycle Route C11, runs along Flemington Road from EPIC to Well Station Drive (see below).
CBR Cycle Route C7 Gundaroo Drive
From Belconnen there are two ways to Gungahlin: the CBR C7 and the C1. Both are not new. They have existed as long as Gungahlin itself and form a loop through Kaleen. The strength of loops for navigation is that you can leave and join them wherever and whenever you like. This provides the cyclist with many options.
A loop between the town centres of Belconnen, Gungahlin and Mitchell.
Combine the CBR Cycle Routes C7, C1 and C11 together, and we have now two loops that form a network. Networks allow the CBR Cycle Routes to be used in many ways. This allows the consideration of a cycling network between town centres.
The Gungahlin loop starts and ends in Kaleen. The route is flat and not very long (15.6 km, 100 m climb, and a maximum gradient of 6%). The image below shows the route in Komoot. The GPX file for cycling navigation can be downloaded.
The Active Travel Infrastructure Practitioner Tool shows the CBR Cycle Routes in the north. The loop between Belconnen, Mitchell and Gungahlin is mostly along two CBR Cycle Routes.
- CBR Cycle Route C1 City – Gungahlin to the West
- CBR Cycle Route C7 Belconnen – Gungahlin to the East
Gungahlin, Mitchell, Belconnen: the line-of-sight distance is short
Travel by bicycle between town centres Gungahlin, Mitchell, Dickson and Belconnen is shown by combining parts of the CBR Cycle Routes C7, C1 and C11. The cycle routes to town centres are not as direct as the line-of-sight route (see the orange line) due to the rather convoluted spatial planning in the ACT. Particularly, travel between Belconnen and Mitchell or Dickson is made difficult through the lack of direct corridors and infrastructure. Ironically, the road network can be more direct, which prioritises the modes of transport that are least efficient over those that are most efficient. Nature reserves and grasslands, space out the suburbs, making the population less dense and the distances greater than they would otherwise need to be. Major arterials carve up the city with few places for pedestrians and cyclist to cross, making the city much less permeable than it should be.
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