Cycle Facility Treatments - (continued)

Treatment 6.

This treatment is to be used for any location where a separated cycle path is constructed parallel with, but separate from, the freeway. Typically the sound barrier for the freeway would be on the freeway-side providing several advantages for cyclists, such as reduced noise, reduced pollution, improve amenity and most importantly it allows for regular connections to local cycle paths.

This treatment should be designed for speeds of 30km/hr although on downhill runs cyclists may easily exceed this speed. The design criteria for this speed should follow Austroads 14 in terms of curve radius, gradient, path banking and sight lines.

Some particular points to note are that all bridges must be aligned with the path to avoid unnecessary corners. Although this will make the bridges longer and more expensive, this is an unavoidable and extremely desirable design feature in this type of cycle path. We should note that this is the design most often used on road bridges for the same reasons. We are requesting that cyclists be considered in the same way as motorists in alignment of bridges.

Austroads 14 recommend a maximum of 5% gradient for downhill safety and this should be the design target for treatment 6. The cycle path should not just follow the contours on the land in the area where treatment 6 is used. In many places the land has been filled or excavated and further works should be undertaken to keep the gradient to the minimum.

When designing the cycle path in the area of the Gore Hill Freeway we would expect that extra design and construction works would be implemented to keep the cycle path relatively level rather than follow the contours of the land closely.

Sight distances are particularly difficult on this type of pathway. One critical aspect is to reduce the height of vegetation plantings adjacent to the path. Certainly no planting that will exceed 1m high should be grown within a distance of 1m back from the path at all times.

On the inside of curves the lateral clearance should be determined from figure 6.5 in Austroads 14 with a design speed of 30km/hr. The calculated area for low vegetation can be quite large. For example for a 5% downhill section where 40km/hr would be expected the minimum radius turn is 50m (Austroads 14, table 6-1). At that speed and gradient the stopping distance is just under 60m. Combined together these require a corner sight line cleared more than 8m back from the cycle path right around the curve.

At the edge of the cycle path no loose material should be used that can fall, roll or wash onto the cycle path. Acceptable material at the edge of a cycle path would be grass. Unacceptable material includes bark chips, mulch, sand and loose soil.

There should be frequent connections to local bike paths to allow for access to the facilities. These intersections should be clearly marked when approaching from all directions and provide clear sight lines at the intersection. Vegetation must be kept low on all these intersections as well.