Walking and Bike Riding Strategic Plan 2012 2016 Easy English Summary Introduction: Wellington Shire Council wants to help people walk and ride bikes. Wellington Shire Council asked people to help make a plan. This plan is called the Walking and Cycling Strategic Plan. The reason for this plan is to make it easier for everyone to walk and ride a bike in Wellington Shire. What does walking and bike riding mean? Some people walk. Other people use mobility scooters, wheelchairs, skateboards, foot scooters and rollerblades to move around. Some people ride bikes. Some bikes have small motors. People of all ages and abilities want to walk and ride a bike. Wellington Shire Council wants to make it better for all these people to travel around the Shire. Why is walking and bike riding important? Walking and bike riding are very popular. Walking and bike riding are good ways to stay fit and healthy. Walking and bike riding does not cost very much. 1
Walking and bike riding are good ways to travel. They are also good ways to relax, have fun and be with other people. Wellington Shire will be a better place to live, work and visit if walking and bike riding are safe and easy. What does Wellington Shire want to do to help walking and bike riding? It wants more people of all ages and abilities to walk and ride a bike. It wants to make walking and bike riding safer. 2
Objectives: These are the things that Wellington Shire wants to see happen when the plan is finished: 1. There will be walking and bike paths and other things built that can help people walk and bike ride. 2. There will be a list of places people can walk and ride a bike to. 3. It will be easier for people to walk and bike ride for fun, fitness and travel. 4. Walking and bike paths will always be included when new houses, shops, schools and roads are built 5. There will be a list of things that must be provided to help people walk and ride a bike. 6. People in Wellington Shire will be told why walking and bike riding is good for them. Town maps: The plan has maps of Sale, Stratford, Maffra, Heyfield, Rosedale and Yarram. These maps show how far a person can walk or ride a bike in half an hour. There are also maps that show how long it will take for a person to walk or ride a bike between these towns. 3
Chapter 2 Policy Context Government and Council support for the Plan The Australian and Victorian Government and Wellington Shire Council all think that walking and bike riding are important. Community groups would like to make their towns easy to walk and ride bikes around. Paths for walking and bike riding are included when Council makes town plans. Many of the ideas from all these groups are part of the Plan. 4
Chapter 3: Existing Infrastructure What walking and bike riding paths are there in Wellington Shire? The plan lists the walking and bike paths that are already in Wellington Shire. Sale is the main town. There are many footpaths in Sale but there are still some gaps. There are on road bike paths and some shared paths where people can walk or ride a bike. People in Wurruk and Longford travel to Sale alot. The paths from Longford and Wurruk to Sale have missing sections. The bigger towns such as Maffra have both on road and off road walking and bike paths. Some of these paths link together and some do not. There are some special walking and bike riding trails in Wellington Shire such as Gippsland Plains Rail Trail and Blores Hill Mountain Bike track. There are National Parks in Wellington Shire that have walking tracks. 5
Chapter 4: Consultation What do people think about walking and bike riding? People were asked what they thought about walking and bike riding in Wellington Shire. People filled in a survey or they could also go to a town meeting. The survey showed that people walk and ride to the shops, other places people want to go, which paths and trails need to be fixed and why they want to walk and bike ride. Some people went to town meetings. Schools were asked about how to get more students walking or riding to school. There is a group of people from the community, organisations and the Council that meet to talk about how to get more people to walk and ride a bike more often. The people in this group gave lots of information about walking and bike riding. This information helped to work out ways to make it easier to walk or ride a bike in Wellington Shire. 6
Chapter 5: Planning for Walking and Cycling The plan has a list of things that will help people walk and ride a bike. These things are: 1. Have paths that connect to most of the places people want to go to. 2. Have good quality paths. 3. Council will keep improving paths so that people can walk and ride a bike for enjoyment and to travel to places. 4. Walking and bike riding paths will be checked regularly and kept in good condition. 5. The Council will tell people about how they can join in with bike riding and walking. 6. The Council will ask people and organisations for ideas and advice about walking and bike riding in the Shire. The plan suggests things the Council could do to make the things in this list happen. Making walking and bike riding paths Paths need to get people to the places they want to go to, such as shops, schools, parks and the railway station. Paths should be useful and safe for people of all ages and abilities. Paths should make it easy and safe to cross 7
roads and railway crossings. Paths should go all the way to places most people want to go to. New paths will be made where there are a lot of people that could use them. New paths will also be made when it would make the trip safer. There is a list that says how important paths are. This list is called the Path Hierarchy. Footpaths Footpaths are for walking. Children under 12 can ride a bike on footpaths. Footpaths will be built to make walking safer, especially for children and people who are old or have a disability. The footpaths will link the main places in towns. Shared Path Network These are paths on which people can walk or ride a bike. There are more footpaths than shared paths. Shared paths are used for leisure as well as for travelling to places. On-Road Bike Paths These are bike lanes that are on the roads. These are good for people who want to ride fast and for a longer distance. On road bike paths are not as safe 8
because bike riders are close to the traffic. There are ways that on road paths that are used a lot can be made safer. The Path Hierarchy The Path Hierarchy is a list that says how important different paths are. The importance of a path depends on things like why people use the path, how often the path is used, the sorts of people who use it and what the nearby traffic is like. This plan lists four types of paths. 1. Type one paths are joined to the centre of town and to public transport. These are the busiest paths. They are used by lots of different types of people, including the elderly, people with disabilities and children. 2. Type two paths go to places that people go to a lot, such as schools, leisure centres and hospitals. These paths are also busy and used by lots of different sorts of people. 3. Type three paths go to places where people live. They also go to places where people like to relax, such as parks and sport fields. These paths are not as busy. 4. Type four paths are not used by many people. 9
Standards Treatments: This plan has a list that tells Council how a path should be built. This includes things like how smooth and how wide it is. The plan also says what other sorts of things should be provided, such as signs, markings, lighting and safe road crossings. There are also government standards that the Shire has to follow. Planning for new housing estates When groups of new housing areas are built, walking and bike riding paths should be built at the same time. End of trip facilities Bathroom, showers and places to park a bike at the end of a trip will help more people to travel by walking or riding a bike. Bike parking People need places to park their bikes at the end of their trip. Bike parking allows bikes to be locked safely. There should be bike parking in the popular places. Any new groups of buildings should include bike parking. 10
Signs There should be signs to show people how to get to places when they are walking and riding a bike. The signs should be easy to read and show the shortest way to go. What else needs to be done? Paths need to be checked regularly so that any paths that are broken can be fixed. How to decide which paths are the most important to make or fix first. The Council has a Path Priority Matrix. This is a list of 5 things the Council will think about when deciding which paths will be made first. These are: 1. How many places are connected by the path? 2. The Path Hierarchy number. 3. What paths are already there? 4. How many people have said they want the path? 5. How much traffic uses the road beside the path and how safe is the path. 11
Chapter 6 Recommended Projects What paths and road crossings will the Council work on? The Plan has a list of walking and bike riding paths that could be built or improved in each of the main towns in Wellington Shire. The Council asked people about this at meetings and with surveys. Not everything that was asked for is listed in the Plan. Only paths and improvements that fit the objectives of this plan are listed. These objectives are on page 3. Paths to be built or improved are called a project. The five things in the Path Priority Matrix were used to work out how important each project is. The Path Priority Matrix is on page 12. An approximate cost of each project has also been worked out. Money for these projects will need to come from different organisations, such as Vic Roads and other government organisations. It is important that the Council keeps providing money to look after these paths. In the future it may cost more money to keep the paths at a good standard. There is a list of towns in the plan with the suggested path projects for each town. The list says if the project is very important, important or not so important. The Plan includes maps of some of the towns, such as Sale and Heyfield, showing where the projects are within the towns. This list should be looked at each year to keep it up to date. 12
Chapter 7: Community Involvement in Walking and Cycling It s important to have walking and bike riding paths in Wellington Shire. People should feel that walking and riding a bike is easy and safe. There are some things that Wellington Shire Council, other organisations and community groups can do to make walking and bike riding easy and safe. Some of these things are: Tell people about walking and bike riding, such as why it s good for you and where you can walk and ride a bike in Wellington Shire. People can be told in different ways, such as brochures, newspapers and on the internet. Help people learn more about walking and bike riding, like how they can help people get fitter and meet new people. People can also be helped to learn more about bikes, such as how to ride a bike and how to fix a bike. Schools and workplaces can help people learn more about walking and bike riding. Help people think more about walking and bike riding by having community events, such as National Ride2School and Ride to Work Days. Have meetings with people and groups who are interested in walking and bike riding. There are lots of these groups in Wellington Shire, such as GippSport and Rail Trail users. The group called the Walking and Cycling Working Group should keep having meetings. It can make sure the Council 13
takes notice of the new Walking and Bike Riding Plan. It can make sure the Council does the things that the Plan says should be done. The Council will keep having meetings with many of these groups. This will help more people of all ages and abilities to walk and bike ride more often. There is a long list of things that the Council will do in the next three years. Some of these things are: Put information about walking tracks and bike riding paths in local newspapers Make spoken information about bike riding and walking so that some people can choose to listen to it, instead of reading it Tell people how they can start a bike riding group Tell people about special days for walking and riding to school and work Tell people about Lap the Lakes Keep having the meetings for people who are interested in walking and bike riding Find out where bike paths need to be improved Find out where signs need to be improved 14
Chapter 8: Evaluation This chapter is about ways to find out if the plan is helping more people walk and ride a bike in Wellington Shire. The Council will measure if more or less people are walking or riding a bike since this plan was introduced. Some of the things the Council will think about are whether the paths go to the places most people want to go. It will find out where paths need to connect if there are gaps in the paths. It will also find out the number of children who are walking and riding to school. 15