PTCS Committee: cycle infrastructure and maintenance

The ACT Legislative Assembly has a number of standing committees that investigate (inquiry), record (transcript of evidence) and report (report). One annual inquiry is the Estimates. The Standing Committee On Planning, Transport And City Services (PTCS Committee) is one such committee. Here are the sections from their report relating to cycle infrastructure and maintenance.

2012 Guidelines for community path repairs and maintenance

The standards for the maintenance of ACT community paths is famously documented in the Guidelines for community path repairs and maintenance at 30 June 2012. Even without getting off your bike, as cyclist, it is clear to observe that the criteria for intervention is often exceeded.

Maintenance on bike paths lacking – still!

Back to bike path maintenance. Over the last 20 years, path maintenance has been a weak spot in the ACT. TCCS is responsible for “presentation” which includes lawn mowing and maintenance of public space. The bike paths struggle to get the most basic attention. Here are recent photos from 2022.

Fix My Street repair delays: 52 days on average

The average wait time for an issue to be resolved was 52.20 days. This is considerably longer than the answer provided before the PTCS Committee. What we should learn from this is we need to request data to monitor the quality of services. Opinions do not count.

Fix My Street to be fixed

Fix My Street has the reputation of being the black hole of ACT Government. When we want a problem fixed close to our home, TCCS tells us to log the problem in Fix My Street. Many have done this and complained of the lack of transparency how the issues are addressed. Did they hear me at all? Will anything be fixed?

TCCS maintenance targets compared

There are maintenance targets for roads and maintenance targets for paths. How do they compare? We need to distinguish between filling potholes and resurfacing. Resurfacing is better. Similarly, community paths can be repaired superficially, or resurfaced for replaced. Unlike roads, paths are quite thin and replacement and resurfacing are quite similar processes.

Section 4.8 Measuring cycling safety

More needs to be done about cycling safety, and it starts with reporting accidents. For road cyclists, this is how.

Aranda CBR Cycle Route C5: falling short of expectations

The ongoing saga of Aranda bike path. Maintenance is sorely needed but despite the newest promises nothing had been done. ACT Labor’s cycling ambition is underwhelming which leaves them on the back foot and it takes years to organise routine maintenance. Here is an example.