The strategy to develop Melbourne’s recreational bike paths is in limbo, with Victoria’s leading bicycle agency claiming the Baillieu government has abandoned it.
The Metropolitan Bike Trail received no new funding in last month’s budget, which slashed the number of cycling projects across the state to a historic low.
The trail is a network of recreational and mostly off-road bike routes across the city that VicRoads hails as being useful for inexperienced riders and commuters alike.
But Bicycle Network Victoria told The Age the trail, which stretches from Werribee to Portsea, needs massive improvements to improve safety and travel times.
Spokesman Jason den Hollander said among the most badly needed improvements were the remaining section of the Darebin Creek Trail between Kew and Alphington and the Bay Trail between Mentone and Mordialloc.
Mr den Hollander said the entire network could be upgraded for about $50 million but the government’s refusal to act on it was discouraging people from cycling.
”They have commissioned no new [Metropolitan Trail Network programs] since they were elected,” he said.
”They don’t have a strategy, they haven’t allocated the same amount of money for the program as we’ve had for the last 10 years this year or last year.
”The frustration for us is … this program has effectively sat idle for the last two years … effectively it’s dead.
A spokeswoman for Transport Minister Terry Mulder did not address the claim there was no new money for the trail in the budget and instead listed other cycling projects the government is pushing ahead with.
A Department of Sustainability and Environment spokeswoman said Parks Victoria continued to fund local government to help construct new sections of the network but that there would be no new grants for this. She did not respond to claims that this money was left over from the Brumby government nor say how much money had been given and provide examples.
Mr den Hollander said the only work the Baillieu government had funded on the trail was an off-road shared-use path as part of the Dingley bypass project and a shared-use path as part of the Springvale Road project separating trains and cars.
But he said those upgrades were proceeding only as an add-on to larger road projects with VicRoads funding, meaning the only funding the state’s off-road trail was receiving was a byproduct of VicRoads investment.
Mr Mulder’s spokeswoman said the government would release a cycling strategy this year that would deal with the future of recreational cycling in Victoria ”as affordable and sustainable transport”.
