Stage one of an 11.6 kilometre cycleway in Lismore is under construction and expected to be completed by May next year.
Stage one, which is costing $1.1 million, is part of a three-stage project that will run from Richmond Hill Road right down to the central business district.
The project will include a mix of widened footpaths to accommodate cyclists as well as new off-road and on-road cycleways.
It would connect the elevated suburbs of Richmond Hill, Goonellabah and Lismore Heights to Lismore’s CBD and provide missing links and new connections to a number of locations including Southern Cross University, TAFE, schools, commercial/retail areas, aged care facilities and recreational facilities.
The final destination of the shared path and cycleway is the Lismore Transit Centre, which is the main hub of public transportation in Lismore.
The Lismore Transit Centre includes showers, public toilets and lockers and would be a place where cyclists can safely store and lock their bicycles.
Lismore City Council’s assets engineer Anthony Magarry said the $1.1million funding from the state government was ‘fantastic news’.
The money will be used to construct stage one, which will run from Ross Street in Lismore Heights to the Lismore Transit Centre. The other two stages are yet to be funded.
‘The program aims to provide more convenient and safer infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians,’ Mr Magarry said.
‘This funding will support the growing number of people who are walking and cycling.
‘This initiative promotes a more sustainable transport option for the community and encourages active lifestyle choices.’
Work on the project began in October.
The council hopes to complete Stage 1 of the project by May 2017.
It’s so good to see our neighbouring shires get it together for the Green cycling revolution.
Go Lismore Shire
Go Ballina Shire (you should see East Ballina’s cycle-way under construction)
Go Tweed Shire
But where is poor Byron Shire on this?
Left behind, as The Byron Line looks for a billionaire to fund a track based commercial venture on our derelict corridor. That’s where…!!!
And we have a cycle-way of all cycle-ways, just itching for poor Byron Shire’s councilors to get behind a rail trail, and do something REALLY GREEN.
Much cheaper and more practical than the ridiculous multimillion per km bike path that has been proposed on top of the rail corridor. Imagine if the money was instead spent on rail services for the line and connecting the suburbs with proper bike paths like this… Now that would be a public transport system that people can use!
Angie Correct me if I have it wrong, but I understood the rail trail is projected to cost $75m for its 130kms- less than a million per km – not multi-million per kms. There is a feasibility study that shows the solid benefits of the spend and I have yet to see any serious objection to its findings. As such I do not know why the spend would be subject to ridicule. It is easy enough to imagine the money being spent on reintroducing the rail service; it is more difficult to imagine why anyone would want to re-establish a service that would cost so much in recurrent costs, let alone the restoration costs. Would it not seem ridiculous to do so when for less ongoing recurrent costs you could provide a comprehensive bus-based public transport to all the main areas of population, not just the minority along the rail line, including for disabled people, and particularly for the growing number of elderly along the Tweed and Ballina coasts. But you are correct that people should be able to connect to transport routes with cycle paths. A read of the NR Transport Plan shows the great majority of residents are a short drive or an easy cycle of the main transport routes, including along the Lismore – Byron Bay route, but also routes like Ballina – Lismore or Tweed Coast – Gold Coast that do not lie on the rail line, and carry even more people wanting to access health and education services and work opportunities. Now that could be a public transport system that all people can use!.
Finally a real cycleway for this area. I look forward to being able to ride safely from Richmond Hill right down to the Transit Centre. This is much better than any rail trail as Angie has pointed out. This is more usable, practical and feasible than that rail trail ever will be.
Now they need to get a Casino – Lismore rail service going and extend this cycleway across the bridge to the railway station where it can connect to services there.
Comparing the rail trail and this type of infrastructure is like comparing apples and potatoes – they are two different things aimed primarily at different cyclists. On P16 of the Ballina cycling plan thee is a good outline of the different types of cyclists and their needs. The rail trail is aimed at recreational and touring cyclists, many from outside the region – it is a tourism spend. The proposed Lismore cycleways are aimed at transport. Both need to be publicly funded because it is difficult to recover cycle infrastructure the costs directly. The benefits of the rail trail flow to the users who may be from around Australia, and to the community by their $200 day spending. The benefits of commuter infrastructure like this are manifold and Angie is right to praise it. They include reduced public spending on car based infrastructure, reduced visual and air pollution, public and private health benefits, including the mental health benefits of reduced isolation of people who do not drive, private financial benefits in reduced transport costs, and the development of community and public safety that flows from having people on the streets. The costs of accessing the paths is as low as a second hand bike, preferably with gears in Lismore, so those benefits, Joe Monks, do not need to flow only to middle class people (as if middle class people are an elite in Australia). As is noted it will extend to Goonellabah, so in due course anyone who who lives there will be able to enjoy those benefits too. Plainly a transport spend like this has nothing to do with housing, but I will say that in that most middle class of cities, people like me who used Canberra’s cycle paths over the years, have saved our fellow ratepayers and ourselves a lot of money, and those private savings have helped make the high cost of housing in Canberra more affordable.
A typical middle class elitist project.
The refugees from Redfern and Moree living in Goonellabah will be excited!
Richmond Hill is occupied by silver tails who would generally struggle to climb onto a bike or be too busy paying off the credit card.
Wouldn’t the money be better spent creating housing for the needy?