Postby Red Rider » Wed Jun 27, 2018 9:52 pm

BACKGROUND

The Bayswater to Morley Bike Boulevard project is an important strategic cycling connection for the City of Bayswater and supports the City's transport goals.

The project is part of a larger Safe Active Streets (SAS) program being rolled out across Perth, led by DoT.

The aim of the boulevard is to provide more options for people to travel safely for local and commute trips, prioritising active travel by creating a safe, comfortable, convenient riding environment for bike riders with all levels of experience.

The planned route connects Riverside Gardens to the Morley City Centre. Connecting four schools being Bayswater Primary, St Columba's Primary, Chisholm Catholic College and John Forrest College. Construction of Stage 1 of the route along Leake Street and May Street was

completed in September 2017. Stage 2 has now undergone two phases of community consultation, of which are summarised in this report.

CONCLUSION

As detailed in the consultation report there is a strong level of opposition to Stage 2 of the Bike Boulevard from residents with properties on the route. Notwithstanding this there is a higher level of support with the responses from the wider community. In this regards it is interesting to note that some of the residents on the route verbally indicated that they would support the project if it was on another street. The difficulty for Council in this case, as in the case in many instances, is in balancing the wishes of a particular section of the community against those of the wider community. The Bike Boulevard is an aspirational project aimed at promoting cycling in a safe

environment and it is acknowledged that it will take time for the true benefits of such a project to be adequately assessed. When adopting a project like this there are risks associated with being an 'early adopter', however this risk needs to be addressed against the potential benefits that can come from being an innovator and 'leader of the pack'.

It is recommended that the council continues to support the implementation of the bike boulevard and accordingly Option 1 is recommended.

REASON FOR CHANGE

The Committee changed the officer's recommendation as it was of the opinion that there had been some issues with traffic caused by Stage 1 of the Bike Boulevard and the Committee was not satisfied that there would not be similar issues with traffic with Stage

2 of the plan.

At the 17 April council meeting it was decided by a vote of 5-4 to not approve Stage 2 of the Bayswater Bike Boulevard, with traffic issues being cited as the reason.The result was against the recommendations of the technical officer. The officer's report concludes:This is an interesting reason given that I could not find any traffic issues with Stage 1 in the report. There were however some concerns for Stage 2 which the Transport Impact Statement confirmed it was unlikely to have any significant impact on congestion and parking.I've heard that at last night's (26 June) meeting some residents supportive of Stage 2 talked to the council and were told that they would look at it again. I'm not sure of the specifics of what is happening but this is hopeful news.A petition can be signed at https://www.change.org/p/city-of-bayswa ... -boulevard