Readers have divergent views on the Adelaide City Council’s plans to remove a lane of traffic from Frome Street to make way for a Copenhagen-style bikeway.
ANNIKE STENNERT: What a shame that even you, my favourite Adelaide newspaper, opened the reporting on the Frome Street bike lane with the fact that a lane of traffic will be ‘lost’. I hope one day articles like this will be titled “Frome Street bike lane will put more people on bikes and out of cars” or “Frome Street cyclists finally have room to move”. Is the car lobby really this big in Adelaide?
TOM MELVILLE: Fantastic idea! While I drive quite a bit, I would like to ride more. These initiatives help. Adelaide is still too car-centric. Anyone that travels to Europe knows this.
ANGELIQUE IVANICA: Thanks for another great read! I cannot believe this. Frome Street is already a problem in peak hour and a nightmare over Clipsal. And as for further parking reductions? There aren’t enough car parks to sustain the current traffic now.
Continuing down the path of discouraging cars in the city will do nothing more than discourage visitors to the city. My office is in Pirie Street. Just where does the council expect business and their customers to park?
KENNETH ABRAHAM: Being Danish (married to an Australian) moving here permanently 3.5 years ago, I am very passionate about better bicycling conditions (and I don’t mean hi-vis, lycra, helmet camera, clipless pedals and Star Wars gear as most people here wear). In that sense, I’m happy with the project.
What really annoys me about this project is another ‘well we can’t afford the real thing so we’ll do a half arsed attempt again and pat ourselves on the shoulder and pretend everything is fine’ approach. Don’t get me wrong – the initiative IS an improvement but is NOT following best practices and I get really cranky when the planners are saying it cannot be used as a template “since every street is different”. One of the most important things with bicycle infrastructure (next after following best practices) is consistency, which works as a guidance for bicyclists and motorist as further development take place. Who said that that if things are worth doing they are worth doing right?
DAMIAN PAPPS: This new bikeway will add further congestion to the eastern side of the city. Pirie Street is now a gridlock at all hours of the working day and combined with bus lanes in Grenfell St has pushed an enormous amount of traffic into Flinders Street. Trying to get out through North Terrace, Rundle Street or Bartels Road during peak hour has become a lengthy process. This discrimination against cars ignores the requirements of families with children and is creating enormous frustration for commuters heading in from the east.
I am all for progress but this blind commitment to bike lanes replacing car lanes is ridiculous and creates congested traffic and enormous frustration.
Perhaps the Lord Mayor, Councillors and staff should get in a car at rush hour and try entering the city from Payneham Road and seek to move south. Grenfell is horrific as is Pulteney, and now Frome will be one less option.
ANJA RICHARDS: Following the great response to the RAH site development challenge I would like to propose another challenge. Instead of locating bikeways on parts of existing roads with riders forced to travel alongside dangerous traffic and exhaust fumes, the challenge is to come up with bikeway designs that are located within the various parks and green areas.
Locations away from traffic and fumes with the opportunity for shade in the heat of summer not only provides much improved bikeways for existing users but also opens up greater opportunity for younger riders.
EDWARD BURGESS: The idea of even more bikeways in Adelaide is ridiculous. This is yet another anti-car proposal from this current Adelaide City Council. How about spending some money on synchronising the traffic lights in Adelaide? This would have a far greater effect on motor car congestion.
RICHARD ABBOTT: I motor through the city and bemusedly chuckle at the kilometres of vacant bike lanes, then pull up a the traffic lights and watch cyclists arrogantly ride against red lights. I later walked down a footpath by my city home to be nearly hit by silent cyclists riding the footpath instead of their empty bike lane, but metres away. Then there are the cyclist wired up for ear music, oblivious to traffic movement noise and horns.
It is a pity the pro-cyclist lobby are not as enthusiastic about insisting cyclists wear high viz vests, as many cyclists simply merge into the bitumen when seen through the rear-vision mirro.
EDWARD STRATTON-SMITH: I’m not sure I agree that Frome Street is to “lose” under the plan. It is a massive win. The city will only benefit from this. Roll on similar treatments on other streets so that we finally get the sort of infrastructure that makes Denmark and the Netherlands the leading cycling nations in the world.
Remember, when Frome Street begins at the junction with Carrington Street, it comes from a road with only one lane each way. For no apparent reason, Frome Street is then two lanes each side until just past Victoria Drive near the zoo. It doesn’t help with traffic flow – it just creates a bottleneck.
This is a good plan for Adelaide.
MICHAEL BLIGHT: Did this mob learn nothing from the waste of $0.5 million in Sturt Street (300k to install + 200K to remove). Ms Bacic says over time people will adjust to the changes such as the buslanes and bikeways. I’m happy to say that I have already adjusted. I don’t go to or through the city any more.
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