Cyclists are backing a campaign by a western suburbs MP to fill in the missing links on inner west bike paths.
Greens MP Colleen Hartland said the inner west lagged woefully behind the inner northern and eastern suburbs for bike infrastructure.
“The west has been neglected … despite many people riding or wanting to ride and the added safety risks of several thousand container truck movements on local roads every day,” Ms Hartland said.
“The west doesn’t even have a patchwork of bike lanes; it’s more like a few loose strings floating on a sea of massive trucks and traffic.”
Crash statistics show Maribyrnong recorded 137 injuries involving bikes between 2009-13 with a further 117 recorded in Hobsons Bay.
A plan for filling in key missing bike links across the Maribyrnong, Hobson Bay and Moonee Valley municipalities has been outlined in a Greens’ Getting the West on Track campaign.
The campaign is pushing for urgent works to complete the final off-road Federation Trail link to the Hyde Street path at Yarraville, open up a north-south link between Footscray and Highpoint shopping precincts, and connect the Dynon Road bike path to the Hopkins Street bike lanes in Footscray to create a second major city-bound commuting route.
Jonathon Marsden, a Williamstown cyclist and Greens candidate for Gellibrand, said joining up these missing links could be done cheaply and would make riding safer and more enjoyable for everyone.
“It’s really a question of asking the regular users what they need and where the gaps are,” he said.
Mr Marsden said more also needed to be done to tap into the potential of “tactical urbanism”, drawing on people’s knowledge to better drive existing projects.
Getting the West on Track will be launched on Monday, 6.30-7.30pm, at the Louis Joel Arts and Community Centre, 5 Sargood Street, Altona.
