Mt Lofty Bollards - Clever or Death Trap
I rode the Mt Lofty Bollards on Sunday (the first time in months) and notice they have extended the walking path by shrinking the bike track, obviously this has been done to make it safer for the odd walker but decending is now clearly a death trap.
Countless rocks, twigs, mud puddles and even weeds growing up to 50cm in the middle of the path all at 40k/mh+.
I stopped and watched cyclists for a while and out of the 12 cyclists who decended, not one of them stayed in the down track, so how can this improvemnt be considered safe if everyone now decends in the up track?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by heather on -
Andrew, the second photo of track portion does not show bicycle or pedestrian symbols (nor direction arrows) which I would expect in that length. The first photo does not show symbols or arrows either, and the broken line remains the same, so I will accept your assessment. Provide more info on location, like suburb and name of path, and I will report from Adelaide BUG.
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Permalink Reply by MarkK on -
the photo was actually the show the plant growing in the middle of the track, there are painted symbols are at regular intervals along the track.
The solid white line definately indicates the walking track, which is ironic because on the entire climb there isnt a walking track ( lack of room ) so how a walker got to the last 2kms without sharing the track is beon me.
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Permalink Reply by heather on
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Andrew, I have typed a draft report. Can you provide more info on the location which the authority will require? For year-to-date, I have reported 155 cycling hazards. I keep my own records, e.g. determined that bollards I reported in Aug-2011 not fixed in Jun-2012. I usually start records with city, suburb and street, for sorting and keeping track, e.g. Adelaide, Adelaide, Flinders Street with bicycle lanes, and Frome Street.
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Permalink Reply by heather on
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Thanks. Added link to your photos so DPTI will see this.
Crafers Bikeway, near Princess Highway and South Eastern Freeway,
Near Hawk Hill Road and Hillcrest Road in Crafers West.
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Permalink Reply by Dahondude on -
Andrew phone DTEI (Heather can provide the number) and ask them to go clean it up. I phoned a few months back and asked them if they could send one of those mini-street-sweepers down the bike path to clean up all the leaves/twigs/branches. Not sure if they did or not but there is at least someone you can send your request to.
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Permalink Reply by MarkK on
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I understand cleaning it is a good start but cyclists will still have to decend an extremely steep part of the decent on a very narrow path which might be ok for a single cyclist but what happens if your following someone, you cant stagger your line because theres no room.
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Permalink Reply by Don (Who's lost?) Nairn on -
If riding in a group is not safe should you leave some distance?
Being steep you are likely to be travelling at speed so if you fall the chance if getting hurt are high.
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Permalink Reply by Don (Who's lost?) Nairn on
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Risk taking by others is something you have no control of just like with cars on the road.
If others are stupid or have a death wish all you can really do is try not to get tangled up in their antics.
Ideally the path should be wider but having seen some cyclists treat this as a race track I am uncertain at what stage should people just be expected to ride sensibly?
Is driving on the wrong side of the road being sensible?
Then equally is riding on the wrong side of the track being sensible?
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Permalink Reply by MarkK on
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I think you might be missing the point, the track has been reduced to size that is unrealistic for the conditions. Even if you decended and 10km/h you would have to have the brakes on so hard that the bike becomes unmanagable.
Forget the dirt on the track - there will always be rocks and stuff on the road.
Forget the walkers - they will always be there
Its 50cm isnt wide enough for a 10+ gradient both UP and Down
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Permalink Reply by heather on
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Andrew, are you sure it is 50cm or 500mm? MY handlebar width is 610mm the bicycle operating envelope provided by Austroads is 1.2m. If you measure the width of lanes, then I will locate my data for the Brisbane Bicentennial Bikeway, and seek Austroads data, to compare figures.
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