Cycling and cycling infrastructure in the City of Maribyrnong requires an action plan. The current bicycle strategy is not only out of date (2014) in terms of its publication date, it is also decades out of date in term so its thinking. Cities all around the world from Addis Ababa to Auckland, from Bogota to Berlin now realise the importance of promoting cycling as a way to make their cities healthier, wealthier, cleaner and more equitable.
The purpose of this report is to document the overwhelming evidence to support the promotion of cycling through infrastructure provision and incentives and to provide ideas of how this can be done in the City of Maribyrnong. This runs counter to the approach taken in the City of Maribyrnong and Australia in general for the past few decades. However, this approach has left our city incredibly car dependent with the inevitable negative consequences this brings: fewer and fewer children cycling to school, adults not getting enough physical activity, increased pollution, a poorer city due to the expensive upkeep of roads rapidly worn out by increasing volumes of traffic and the tragic deaths of people on bikes as the infrastructure is simply not safe enough.
This report describes the current cycling environment in the City of Maribyrnong and draws upon evidence from around the world to establish the health, financial and pollution benefits of promoting cycling as a means of everyday transport as well giving guidance as to how cycle promotion might be achieved.
Read the full report here: http://bikewest.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Maribyrnong-Bike-Action-Plan-20190318.pdf