State election: Bike routes improvement top priority for Greens

Improving western suburbs’ bike routes is the Greens top priority in the west, Western Metropolitan MP Colleen Hartland says.

The Greens have released the results of an independent survey in which cyclists cited the Dynon Road-Barkly Street link at Footscray as the No. 1 bike black spot.

The  completion of Federation Trail was identified as cyclists’ second-highest priority.

The survey by ASDF Research was based on interviews with 200 western suburbs’ residents.

Ms Hartland said fixing the Hopkins Street-Dynon Road bike route had emerged as the top priority project, and the 750-metre gap in the Principle Bicycle Network path (from Napier Street, Footscray, to the recently upgraded Shepherd Bridge) attracted the most safety concerns.

“The bike riding community has spoken and these infrastructure projects will be my top priority in the new parliament, should I be re-elected,” she said.

“Completing the Federation Trail is an ongoing sore spot. The project remains incomplete after years of snail pace movement – the previous Labor government promised to complete the trail years ago, and Liberals have only inched forward in their four years.”

The survey found 76 per cent of people rode their bike to get to work but 55 per cent were deterred by the lack of quality bike infrastructure.

Almost all respondents from the inner west region rated the Dynon Road initiative as very or quite important (94 per cent), while those from the south west region rated the Kororoit Creek path (91 per cent) and Federation Trail (86 per cent) as very or quite important.