One less bike path

With the announcement that the Adelaide City Council will be removing the Sturt street segregated bike lane, this will come as a blow to improving infrastructure for cyclists.

ABC online Reports: residents and business owners in Sturt Street in Adelaide say they are happy to see workers removing a controversial city cycling lane.

The separated lane with concrete edging cost Adelaide City Council $400,000 to build and is now costing another $100,000 to remove.There had been many complaints that it had removed city parking and that cyclists avoided using it anyway.
As a supporter of this type of infrastructure this is certainly a disappointment, this will make the case harder in the future for segregated facilities in Adelaide if this is the example used.
So what went wrong I wonder?  The loss of parking is always a juggling act when installing such facilities. Australia is a car culture that won't change its ways overnight. So if you can keep as much car parking in the early stages as possible the better it will be received.



This was how the Street looked before the cycle track. The road is certainly wide enough to accommodate such a lane. The road could easily accommodate two way traffic, parking on both sides and a cycletracks (Copenhagen style lanes).

Source: City of Portland, http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=46784&a=190086

But having said that, is this the road for such a facility , does it have high traffic volumes? is it's speed limit 60 km/h and above, what is the cycle lane connecting to ? .All these questions should have been asked at the planning stage. This road connects to the main arterial road the West Terrace, which is five lanes on each side in some parts. I would be putting the Copenhagen style lanes there before Sturt street.