Erskine park link road:the shared path that goes nowhere

[xavdav]

Got excited last Friday, there was a pamphlet in the mail box saying that the Erskine park link Road was now opened.It was also saying that there was a shared pathway for pedestrians and cyclists. Finally I am going to be able to bypass the M4 and go to the M7 on a shared pathway almost from my front door . So here I am, on my bike, went for the maiden ride on that new cycle way. Not to bad to start but as you arrive about 1.5 km from the M7 the pathway ends without much warning, as you can see on the pic bellow.I wonder what went wrong as there is still a strip of land on the left hand side of the road all the way to the M7 and Wallgrove road. Anyway I was there so I thought I might as well ride the rest of the road sharing it with friendly car and truck drivers For 1.5 km I was passed by mostly trucks-since it is a road that links two industrial areas- and the shoulder is not suitable for a road bike so I had to get in the way of those friendly truck drivers who were so happy to see me there, that they were honking and gesticulating much like spectators on the side of the road of the Tour de France . On the way back it is even worse and there is no facility to merge from the left hand side of the road to the right , where the shared pathway is
I thought the aim of the pathway was to connect a group of suburbs to a cycle way network, not lure keen cyclists onto a road where they are not welcome and are likely to be killed. The M4 portion that I was looking at bypassing(5 km) is still safer (even at night) than this 1.5 km of road that you need to ride to access the M7.

[g-boaf]

Oh, that's par for the course in Sydney. Don't link them together or they might encourage people to ride their bikes.

Will it be fixed? No. Very doubtful. And some bike riders don't even support these as they see these cycleways as removing their right to ride on the road.

Try to get your local media to take up the issue.

Otherwise - we all need to stick together and bombard our councils with petitions and complaints.

[xavdav]

reported on Go!fix, but god knows what will happen next... and he did not tell me

[wombatK]

Allegedly, there is a project to upgrade the existing Old Wallgrove Rd "in planning".

If you notice that someone appears to have started on civil works for that some years
ago, you'd be right. A developer possibly agreed to do so, but decided "down, down, tools
are down" when other property development applications across the road were
successful.

In the meantime, the other major supermarket chain felt it wasn't fair that its
trucks from warehouses in Erskine Park had to take the long way round the
M4 to get to the M7. So they convinced the state government to proceed
with constructing the link road long before the connecting road was
upgraded.

The orginally agreed plan for the upgrade of Old Wallgrove Rd was a four lane
road with shared cycleway similar to what has been provided on the Link Rd.

In this case, it's not just cyclists that have been dudded. The motorists
using Old Wallgrove Rd are now suffering traffic loads that are well beyond
the pavements safe carrying capacity, and well over the design
capability of the Wallgrove Rd/Old Wallgrove Rd intersection.

There is a serious overload of traffic in both directions, quite a lot of it
being heavy B-double transports, and operating around the clock,
seven days a week. On-coming traffic makes it difficult for motorists
and trucks to pass slow moving cyclists.

The risk of coming a cropper on one of the many potholes and falling
into the path of a truck is very real and very scary. I'm pretty
comfortable in traffic - but it's well over my risk threshold.
Stopped me from riding it to work over a year ago - and
it is only going to be far worse as the Erskine Park traffic
builds over the next weeks.

[find_bruce]

I'm betting that your picture is taken at the corner of Old Walgrove Rd & Roberts Rd. If you look at the community update from 2010, you will see that is where it was intended the bike path would come to a sudden stop. Anything after that is not part of the link road project, because it is only roads that have to be linked apparently, not bike paths.

Details of the project WombatK refers to can be found here Apparently you can contact Matty Mathivanar, the Project Development Manager, Old Wallgrove Road upgrade by email on Matty.Mathivanar@rms.nsw.gov.au. Maybe he can tell you when this is going to happen

[bigfriendlyvegan]

They did a similar thing on the Parramatta Valley Cycleway. They put a nice new path in along the river and the it just stopped. It was like that for a long time, I never bothered to ride it since it was useless, but I saw the other day in the local rag that the connecting part has now been done and you can get from Putney to Westmead pretty much off road now.

I'm sure it will happen. It's a shame the elections is so close - you could have pressurised a polly into doing something. I don't think they'd care at the moment since it won't be done in time for them to have photos taken.

[HLC]

Drove down this on the way home from Dunc Gray on Friday as I am at Erskine Park.

I was excited because I now had this massive big space to ride laps just near my front door... didn't even think about extending to the M7 ha but after all this reading, probably still won't. I might give it a crack early on a Saturday or Sunday morning... but that would be the only time I attempt to ride from the end point to the M7 until it joins up.. or I move (probably will happen before the path is extended).

At least they are trying (sort of).

[bollo]

well we can all dream i guess, until something is down i'll just keep doing laps around St Clair & going up & down the M4 & so on

[xavdav]

Laps around St Clair= 11 roundabouts per lap ! is it really safer?

[bollo]

Laps around St Clair= 11 roundabouts per lap ! is it really safer?

no i don't think it is but i feel safe enough & until day light savings come back in thats all i can do well unless they build a decent bike path to ride on lol

[Arty]

Just a heads up for you guys,.. When you first come onto Old Wallgrove road there is enough of a shoulder to let the traffic come past. Once clear you can jump in the lane and get up to Southridge St (1st street on the left) easily enough, you can then turn into Southridge, down to the roundabout & turn right into Capicure Drive, up to a T intersection & turn right into Roberts Rd, follow this around & turn left back onto Old Wallgrove Rd.
Brings you out just at the start of the Link Rd & whilst not ideal, gets you of the no shoulder madness of Old Wallgrove rd, backstreets are all smooth and nice & wide..

[bollo]

lets get all the local St Clair / Erskine Park riders together for a ride then & find out who's keen ?

[HLC]

Just a heads up for you guys,.. When you first come onto Old Wallgrove road there is enough of a shoulder to let the traffic come past. Once clear you can jump in the lane and get up to Southridge St (1st street on the left) easily enough, you can then turn into Southridge, down to the roundabout & turn right into Capicure Drive, up to a T intersection & turn right into Roberts Rd, follow this around & turn left back onto Old Wallgrove Rd.
Brings you out just at the start of the Link Rd & whilst not ideal, gets you of the no shoulder madness of Old Wallgrove rd, backstreets are all smooth and nice & wide..

Yeah sussed out that section again and I was scared so didn't ride it.

Might drive this on the way home from Dunc Gray tonight unless I go for a feed.