Completed – the last section of the OHG through Bowden.

The recent completion of the Outer Harbor Greenway after 14 years of planning & construction signals a ‘turning point’ in the development of the Port Adelaide/Enfield Bicycle Network!

We celebrated this completion with a BikeFest gathering on the Greenway & by screening the fabulous and inspiring MOTHERLOAD cargo bike movie. However this celebration also signals a step forward into a new era of bicycle planning in the north-west of the city!

Yes – there are still major bikeway projects to be realised, notably the Port Expressway Bikeway and the Gawler Greenway. But these are already funded, planned & ‘in the pipeline’.

What we now need to do is step beyond these projects & engage with a new level of Active Transport planning & network building that:

• focusses much more on local destinations – schools, shops, services or employment – where people need to travel to
• effectively connects local networks to major bikeways & public transport facilities
• provides a finer-grained level of ‘cycle space’ & ‘connectivity’
• addresses need for transport equity, particularly for children, older folk & those contending with disabilities or financial hardship.

Our world today is characterised by increasingly levels of social and economic inequity which promise to fracture our community & put our children’s futures at risk. Our transport systems are also fatally dependent on fossil-fuels, a vulnerability which we need to recognise & step back from. Provision of both sustainable & equitable transport access is essential for Adelaide’s future yet this seems poorly understood at all levels of Government!

PA/E’s Satyen Gandhi

So what to do? Residents of the Port Adelaide/Enfield Council Area will shortly have a fantastic opportunity to address these issues as the council commences development of a new 5-year Active Transport Plan. This AT Plan will be part of a broader Integrated Transport Plan that will seek to balance all elements in our passenger & freight transport systems & network. PortBUG has met with Satyen Gandhi, PA/E’s newly appointed Team Leader-Transport. Satyen will be overseeing the development of the new Bike Plan & the Integrated Transport Plan & anticipates a number of opportunities for input from both your BUG & the broader community, commencing before June 2020. So stay tuned & we’ll keep you posted as the process develops.

Tall-Bike Stan on his ‘lamp lighter’ bike at BikeFest 2019. Pic: Peter Good.