Geraldton Cycle Plan

What it's all about?

The Mid West Sports Federation has a rich history of providing incubator services to foster events, programs, infrastructure supply and human resources to enhance sport and recreation throughout the Mid West region.

MWSF were allocated funding through the State Government’s Local Project Local Jobs (LPLJ) program to deliver a holistic “Cycle Plan” for Geraldton. The guiding principles of this funding allocation were to improve:

• Cycling Participation
• Cycling linkages
• Safe Cycling

In consultation with stakeholders and key community representatives, The Geraldton Cycle Plan leverages off the outcomes of the Geraldton 2050 Cycling Strategy, and complements the efforts by the City of Greater Geraldton to develop an integrated cycling network. The Plan includes collaborative approaches that consider education, cycling culture, perceptions and respect, sustainability, safety, capacity building, marketing, community engagement, tourism / events, participation and coordination / implementation.

The Vision...

For Geraldton to become recognised as a bike friendly city - a place where bike riding is a legitimate mode of transport and an everyday way of life.

The process...

The MWSF engaged Colin Brown Consultancy to undertake the project. Colin was also instrumental in the establishment of WestCycle as the peak body for all cycling activity in WA.

A range of community groups and agencies were engaged, including the following:

• City of Greater Geraldton
• Department of Education
• WA Country Health Service, Midwest
• Department of Local Government
• Sport and Cultural Industries
• Geraldton PCYC
• ATLAS (Access to Leisure and Sport)
• SPOKES Cycle Club
• Geraldton Mountain Bike Club
• Geraldton Bike Shop
• Revolutions Bike Shop
• WestCycle
• Department of Transport

The process utilised:

• Individual stakeholder interviews;
• Facilitated planning session; and
• Feedback session on the draft plan.

Critical to the process was the linkage to ‘Our Bike Path’ (strategic framework for cycling in WA) and existing Regional Bike Strategies (particularly ‘Cycle City Albany’).

So, what did we find?

Through this process, the following areas of focus emerged as priorities:

1. INFRASTRUCTURE (The Cycle Network)
To create and maintain a safe, direct comfortable and integrated network of cycling infrastructure, which connects people to activity centres and key attractions and facilitates bike riding for transport recreation and tourism purposes.

2. PARTICIPATION
To be a city where bike riding is as inviting and as easy as possible for people to get involved and then support them along the whole of the participation and performance pathway for as long as they want it to take them.

3. A BIKE CULTURE (Safety and respect for all)
To develop Geraldton into a place where bike riding is widely supported, encouraged and celebrated; where bike riding is seen as a legitimate and normal use of the road, with mutual respect between all users.

4. MANAGEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION
To develop management mechanisms to support and guide the implementation of the Geraldton Cycle Plan (2020-2030).