This site is a read-only archived copy of the site KissYourPathGoodbye.com from September 2018, prior to the domain name expiring.
On 1 May 2018, the Roads and Maritime Services released an updated design for the Rankin Park to Jesmond bypass, and it is good news for cyclists and pedestrians!
The Jesmond cycleway is to be retained as a grade separated path with a combination of a bridge over the entry/exit lanes and a short tunnel under the bypass.
More details are in the April 2018 project update from the RMS.
In 2020, Transport for NSW released an update which made further improvements to the design of the shared path. Now instead of going through a tunnel under the north-south roadway, it goes under the bridge. This is much better for visibility and safety as the path is now entirely in the open air.
Graphic of the proposed shared path bridge/tunnel at the northern interchange, from the RMS April 2018 update. [Superseded by an amended design in 2020]
Hi Lachlan, thanks for your work on this I made a submission to the RMS today raising concerns.
Cheers Nick
Thanks for drawing this issue to my attention. I have made a submission.
There is a recent Lancet article which addresses the importance of considering pedestrians and cyclists in city planning.
Below is my submission to the EIS
I have looked at the plan and note there is no underpass for the existing Jesmond park cycleway to Victory Parade or to Illoura Street.
This will force cyclists including lots of school children down to the main road crossing and have to negotiate dangerous crossings.
Children may not wait for the green crossing with disastrous results.
My wife and I have nearly been hit numerous times on pedestrian / cycle crossings by drivers that do not stop.
One occasion a car was undertaking the stopped cars on the far lane on the gutter at around 70 km/h and missed us by a few CM.
Another the driver just seemed to ignore the red light and came flying through it behind us just as we made it to the gutter.
There is also new cycle path that goes along Victory Parade into the brickworks park that would no longer link to the Jesmond park one.
Maybe RMS should have consulted this heatmap to see just how much this path is used and how much traffic will be slowed by repeated crossing activations.
They even have a tool that can be used by planners.
http://metro.strava.com/
Note: that data only shows the strava users and does not account for the much higher number of non strava users IE: lots families with small children use that path as well as quite a lot of elderly walkers.
Please consider making it safe for the large amount of cyclists and pedestrians I see passing through there every day.
As a local I welcome the change of the bypass as I might actually be able to get out of Steel Street on to Newcastle road in my car during peak times.
I don’t want to have to wait in my car at the poorly designed intersection for pedestrians and cyclists pushing the 3 crossing buttons.
Looking at the design of the intersection it appears if someone exits the bypass on the wrong exit they can’t get back onto it as all of the lanes from the offramps are left or right turn only they do not appear to allow you to get back onto the bypass.