Budget submission to Whitehorse Council

We have put in a submission to Whitehorse Council for the 2019-20 budget, seeking adequate investment in cycling infrastructure. Our covering email stated:-

“Attached herewith is a list of 14 projects for improved cycling infrastructure that MeBUG requests be considered for funding in the coming Council budget. This list is a subset of a list submitted a year ago for the previous budget. Not one of those suggested projects received funding. The revised list has fewer projects with those clearly rejected by Council, having been removed. 

In putting forward this list, we remind Council that: 

• In the 2018-19 budget, not a single metre of new bicycle path was budgeted nor built. This is, even for Whitehorse, a low water mark in cycling investment.
• The 2016 Cycling Strategy records that community consultation placed ‘Build more off-road paths’ as the top priority.
• The strategy also notes that ‘Interested but Concerned’ cohort, representing 60% of the community,  ‘Find situations in which they have to negotiate with traffic streams uncomfortable but respond well to stand alone paths and streets with little and slow traffic’.

We are fully aware of the Easy Ride Routes project and welcome any investment to encourage cycling. However we remain to be persuaded that this project will have a significant impact in encouraging the non cycling community members to take up cycling, with the attendant benefits in health and reduced traffic congestion.

We ask you to make every effort to include at least some of the projects in the list attached, in the coming budget.”