For all those anticipating the great cycleways planned for Albany Highway (see here, construction to start next year), we have sourced some of the project visualisations at much better quality than available directly.
Image 01 – Typical Side Street (click through twice to enlarge) – This shows how the cycling facilities “split” at side roads. In the far rear, a cyclist would still be off-road, on a cycle-only path (to the left of the two furthest-away pedestrians who are on a pedestrian-only path).
He/she can then either go straight, dropping back on-road to continue across the side road – with priority over cars entering or exiting (green cycle lane), or divert along the shared path (darker concrete, where the two mid-distance pedestrians are) and cross on the raised table (where the closest pedestrian is). This will allow you to chose to cross depending on traffic or preference.
Image 02 – Typical Side Street (click through twice to enlarge) – This shows how the cycling facilities “rejoin” after side roads like Image 01. Depending on where you crossed, you either go onto the cycle-only path from the road, or from the shared path section.
Note that the pedestrian that seems to be using the cycle path incorrectly is actually crossing at the signalised traffic lights… also, if you are dead-set about staying on-road, we understand that nothing will prevent you from doing so, despite the “use ramp” signs. But we hope that the wide majority of users won’t feel the need to, with the cycle-only paths.
Image 03 – Mid-Block And Signals Replacing Roundabouts (click through twice to enlarge) – This shows another mid-block section, and one of the traffic signals that will replace the roundabouts (that change alone will be a great benefit for cyclists, as large roundabouts are pretty grim).
If you look closely at the more distant parts of the image, you can also see how the cycle paths go around the rear of the bus stop waiting areas. This will help to reduce the likelihood of pedestrian / cyclist conflict if cyclists were to go past the front of the stop, especially when a bus had just arrived – though you will still need to ride carefully. On this image, there’s actually already a few pedestrians who got lost and DO stand on the cycle path. But we are sure people will learn and get along well – having good provision for both types of users will help.
