Bendigo bike infrastructure in demand

Strategy manager Trevor Budge said council was investigating options for designated bike lanes in the Bendigo central business district, which would place a physical barrier between cyclists and motor vehicles.

Meanwhile, council’s engineering and public space manager, Brett Martini, said several off-road bike trail projects were slated for completion before the end of the financial year. 

Work on a shared path section between Mundy Street and the McIvor Highway started in March and will finish this month. 

Construction of a McIvor Highway underpass linking the current works with the Bendigo Creek trail will follow. 

The project received $100,000 from the Transport Accident Commission and is due for completion in May.

Council is working with Strathfieldsaye and Districts Community Enterprise on a jointly-funded bike trail linking Junortoun and Strathfieldsaye.  

“That would be an off-road shared path through the forest, and we’re currently working through those approvals in regards to cultural management,” he said.

He expects work to start this financial year. 

Mr Martini said the off-road projects would not only encourage more people to walk and cycle, but could be used as commuter routes.

“Particularly for people who are either taking up cycling for the first time or getting back into cycling,” he said.

He said the bike trails would also be safe alternatives for children to use to cycle to school, improving accessibility to Strathfieldsaye Primary School, St Francis of the Fields primary school and ‘many schools that are either right on or close to the Bendigo Creek Linear Trail.’

“The better we can connect up the other paths to that trail, it will improve access for many to those primary and secondary schools,” he said.

Earlier this month, The Bendigo Advertiser readers raised concerns about cyclists and motorists sharing the region’s roads. 

Their feedback ranged from the behaviour of road users to the infrastructure and rules in place. 

An Eppalock mother, who requested anonymity for professional reasons, said she would only let her two young children ride part of the way to school because she was concerned about the area’s roads. 

“They aren’t wide enough or safe enough,” she said.

Part of her concern was having bicycles share the same roads as motor vehicles travelling at 100 kilometres an hour.

Motorists were worried about packs of cyclists taking up more than the allocated space on the roads and turning without notice. 

“It’s happened too many times lately,” Strathdale resident Glen Brown said.

He said he and his father feared they were about to witness an accident early one morning when more than a dozen cyclists were riding at Kangaroo Flat. 

Mr Brown said motorists struggled to overtake the group safely and had to slam on the breaks when the cyclists decided to turn. 

“I still, to this day, don’t understand how no-one was actually hit,” he said.