Hi Fellow Bicyclistas,
For the past year BISA has been negotiating with a Transport department design team on a replacement structure for the dilapidated and dangerous Bakewell Bridge on the Western perimeter of Adelaide’s City Centre. This has resulted in a grand underpass (that is, the main arterial road will pass under a rail track and a secondary arterial roadway) with 2 traffic lanes and a wide cycling lane in each direction. It all looks fine until you realise that there is only provision for off-road walking and cycling on one side to the South.

I realise that most of the cyclists on this list are confident on the road and might not feel the absence of bi-lateral off-road paths. This is I suspect the thinking of the design team

• They justify this approach by referring to the single shared path as catering for ‘recreational cyclists’ and to a second shared pathway to the North as being of ‘minor benefit’ only. However consider this:

• The arterial road in question is the main connector between Adelaide’s city centre and the Western suburbs (the city’s fastest growing area of urban regeneration)

• The bridge is currently used by at least 300 cyclists per day (600 trips) and this is likely to gow to at least 1500 (3000 daily crossings) over the next few years (this reflects the Government’s own objective anyway)

• This single-sided shared path design (ie; no off-road cycling or pedestrian underpass access to the North going into the City) means that anyone:

• with a disability or on a tricycle who approaches the underpass from the Northern side heading into the City and does not feel comfortable using the Northern-side cycle lane
• who is on a ‘Gopher’ (electric mobility aid)
• who is walking with a pram or shopping cart (many walk into the Central Market from the West)
• who is on skates etc…

…MUST somehow cross the road to use the Southern path.

This road crossing will require that such users either:

• walk several hundred meters in either direction to a light-controlled pedestrian crossing

• climb and descend at least 2 flights of stairs and walk across the overhead bridge to get to the Southern pathway (4 flights if they actually wish to continue walking or riding on the Northern side of the underpass & on into town)

• dash across 4 lanes of traffic.

There is no way that this requirement would meet the Disability Access standards let alone any critical audit of longer-term cycling and walking functionality!

If you are an Adelaide cyclist or resident who has viewed the nice on-line drawings of the proposed underpass (see Transport SA: Bakewell Bridge pdf and Bakewell Underpass Project) with any sense of satisfaction (or perhaps complacency or resignation) I ask you to have another look and think more critically about the project’s impact on everyday cycling generally! If you have concerns please voice them!

You can contact the project team at: bakewell.bridge@transport.sa.gov.au
You can email Patrick Conlon, the Minister for Transport at: minister.conlon@saugov.sa.gov.au

This underpass is the first of several planned for Adelaide’s arterial road system (there are several more planned for South Road - the main North-South arterial). Inadequate provision for the community’s current and future cycling, walking and general Active Transport needs on this project will set an extremely negative precedent for those to come. I ask that all interested in cycling in SA please make your voices heard.

Many thanks,
Sam Powrie,
Chair, Bicycle Institute of South Australia

Email: kabir@chariot.net.au