The City of Greater Bendigo's draft Walk, Cycle Greater Bendigo Strategy that outlines a range of initiatives and projects to make it easier for people of all ages and abilities to walk and cycle more often, is now available for community review and comment.
City of Greater Bendigo Mayor Cr. Margaret O'Rourke said residents are now invited to view and make comment on the draft strategy which can be viewed online at www.bendigo.vic.gov.au or at City of Greater Bendigo offices in Bendigo and Heathcote until Friday May 17, 2019.
"The draft strategy has been developed with significant input from the community. The City had a great response to the community engagement for the strategy with over 700 face to face interactions with residents, over 511 surveys completed, school visits and more than 20 submissions received.
"This is an important strategy for Greater Bendigo because we want to undertake projects and initiatives that will make it safer and easier for our residents to cycle and walk for everyday travel and recreation," Cr O'Rourke said.
"The great response we had to the community consultation and the survey shows how passionate our residents are about walking and cycling in Greater Bendigo and the feedback they provided has helped us to better understand the issues, challenges, needs, aspirations and priorities of residents for walking and cycling across the municipality."
"Residents told us that they want to be separated from cars when riding a bicycle, more support for more organised walking groups, Bendigo's trail networks to be connected and activated and more maps and directional information on our walking and cycling network. Officers have used that feedback to develop a draft strategy that we hope can deliver a network that works for everyone."
It also sets out a range of key actions including:
- Establishing an ongoing Walking and Cycling Community Reference Group.
- Implementing a new walking and cycling infrastructure hierarchy and decision-making framework.
- Developing a standard walking and cycling infrastructure design manual linked to the hierarchy and decision-making framework.
- Developing walking and cycling activation and communications plans
- Developing walking and cycling plans for small townships.
- Developing sustainable plans for significant regional trails.
- Seeking support and funding from the State Government to implement key projects.
The draft strategy identifies a range of key infrastructure projects for progression and/or further investigation including:
- Implementing the university to city centre walking and cycling route.
- Linking towns to Bendigo (Huntly, Eaglehawk, Maiden Gully).
- Developing a Regional City Trail - linking seven existing urban trails to complete a continuous 22km trail loop around Bendigo's middle suburbs, comparable to Melbourne's Capital City Trail.
- Developing the Bendigo Creek Low-line trail.
- Developing a protected cycleway minimum grid for the city centre.
- Developing the Ewing Park Walking and Cycling Activation Hub.
- Improving trail crossings and priority road crossings.
