City ride ideas

By Geelong Story Updates
On your bike. That’s set to be the message from Geelong’s council to motorists sick of parking shortages and traffic snarls in the central city area.
Council is shaking up its bicycling strategy in a bid to draw more cyclists into the city.
A draft plan set to go before council will call for a restructure of cycling paths as well development of other facilities such as bicycle storage spaces in a bid to put more bums on bike seats.
Cyclists have shunned existing paths into central Geelong, with many citing safety concerns as reasons for staying out of the city area. Bike onroad paths along major city routes such as Malop Street remain empty most weekdays.
Cr John Mitchell said the draft plan would seek to improve the existing bike network.
Easing the parking squeeze and traffic congestion in the central city area was one of the goals, he said.
“If more people cycled into work it would definitely ease the parking and traffic problems – it would benefit their health, too,” Cr Mitchell said.
“There’s an opportunity here to better use the roads we have instead of having paths all over the place that don’t lead anywhere.
“There will be a restructuring of paths to try making it more efficient so people wanting to get from point A to point B will use them.”
Cr Mitchell used cycling from Leopold into the city as an example of how the strategy could encourage cyclists.
“It’s only an idea but maybe they could ride along the rail trail until they get to South Geelong Railway Station. Then they might ride up Yarra Street until they get to the city.”
Cr Mitchell was aware of cyclists’ concerns about sharing roadways with motorists in central Geelong.
He urged riders and motorists to observe traffic rules when sharing roads with cycling paths.
“Cyclists and vehicle traffic use the same carriageway, so everyone has a responsibility to look out for each other,” Cr Mitchell said.
“We will try to keep cyclists away from traffic as much as we can but we can’t reinforce enough that all road users will be sharing the roads together.”
Meanwhile, another council strategy to ease parking and traffic congestion in Geelong is struggling.
Cr Mitchell said a new parkandride service from Belmont into central Geelong “hasn’t been a great success yet,” he said.
“We hope the numbers (of users) will continue to grow, that’s all we can do,” he said.
“We’ll give it a good trial.”
The service from Belmont Island gives users free allday parking for a $1.80 oneway fare to or from central Geelong.
Cr Mitchell said a similar service from Eastern Park was “working well”.