The Bicycle Network reached out for my views on cycling and how I would support improving access to and within the Burnie City Council area.
These are the questions the posed:
Do you support your council’s bike plan?
If elected, which projects will you prioritise to make it easier for more people to ride more often?
Would you support bike lanes if it meant moving and/or reducing some on-street car parking?
My Response:
I support the Burnie Active Transport Strategy and its focus on making active transport safer. However, the real standout for our region is our off-road network. The Coastal Pathway has received widespread community support because it provides a safe environment for cyclists between Burnie, Somerset, and Wynyard.
If elected, my priority will be safe, separated infrastructure. Burnie is located at the start of Tasmania’s primary freight corridor. Our roads are simply too narrow, and our highways carry too many heavy vehicles to make dedicated on-street bike lanes safe. The Coastal Pathway is the safest option for now. To keep people safe, I will be looking to extend this pathway east of Burnie to link up with the Central Coast Council. The CBD also has a number of bike racks, which are only a short detour off the Coastal Pathway.
Because of these safety and space issues, I do not support reducing on-street car parking to build bike lanes. Burnie is a highly car-dependent community. Taking away on-street parking will hurt our local businesses. Council is currently focused on actively managing our parking supply to reduce congestion, not removing it. So, we will continue to build off-road shared pathways that keep riders safe without sacrificing the parking our local economy relies on.
After all, we are one Council and one community, and our paths need to safely connect us.