A new 10-year walking and cycling plan for Woollahra

Active transport – our collective term for walking and cycling – is a central feature of healthy, happy and connected communities everywhere. Our new Draft Active Transport Plan affirms Woollahra Council’s commitment to making active transport a safe, easy and enjoyable option for as many people as possible, while also helping us meet our emission reduction targets.

This draft plan was written using the input of our residents, community groups and partner organisations. We invited community feedback on our draft plan in 2022. The plan was adopted by Council on 16 November 2023.

Click here to read the full Draft Active Transport Plan

The goal of this 10-year plan is to create a high quality connected walking and cycling network that enables more people to get to and from the places we live, work, shop and play. The plan includes an action list with 10 priority projects that will help take us there. Of course, creating great walking and cycling infrastructure takes careful planning, ongoing conversations and investment over time. There will be further community engagement before we go ahead with any major project.

What we heard

We consulted widely with a range of community groups throughout 2021 and 2022 to understand your priorities for walking and cycling, and how Council can help. We ran a survey on Your Say, held four pop-up engagement events throughout the LGA, and spoke to local walking and cycling groups, schools and transport agencies, hearing from well over 300 people in the process.

Across all of these, we heard that you love travelling around Woollahra’s tree-lined streets, parks and harbour foreshore, which make journeys pleasant and enjoyable. However, many things could be improved when it comes to both:

Walking - better shade and shelter and more places to sit, safer crossings to protect pedestrians from fast-moving car traffic, maintenance and upgrades to narrow or uneven footpaths, more separation between pedestrians and cyclists.

Cycling - safer, more continuous routes for cycling, wider cycleways for comfortable riding around traffic and pedestrians, reducing high vehicle speeds, improved maintenance of existing infrastructure.

What’s in the ATP

• Council’s plan for walking - how we will design our centres, residential streets, recreational routes and school zones for walking, and make walking safe and accessible for all ages and abilities. Priority walking projects for the future include:
  • Rose Bay Centre 30 or 40km/h High Pedestrian Activity Area (currently 50km/h)
  • Queen Street 30 or 40km/h High Pedestrian Activity Area (currently 50km/h)
  • Paddington 30 or retain 40km/h High Pedestrian Activity Area and 10km/h Shared Zone
  • Watsons Bay 30 or retain 40km/h High Pedestrian Activity Area and 10km/h Shared Zone
  • Schools Zone Design Improvements (varies 40/50/60km/h zones)

Given the key issues identified from the initial community survey, Council sought your views on the proposed speed environment for the priority walking projects. 30 km/h speed zones are used in busy pedestrian areas throughout the world, but until recently, NSW was an outlier with 40 km/h the only option in High Pedestrian Activity Areas. That changed recently, when Transport for NSW introduced the first 30 km/h speed limits in Liverpool and Manly. 30 km/h speed limits have clear safety benefits: pedestrians have a 40 per cent risk of dying in a crash with an impact speed of 40 km/h, but this falls to 10 per cent when the impact speed is 30 km/h.

We asked whether you supported the introduction of a 30km/h High Pedestrian Activity Area or 40km/h High Pedestrian Activity Area for either all or some of the above listed priority walking projects.

• Council’s plan for cycling - how we will design a network that makes cycling a convenient, comfortable and safe choice for all residents, not just experienced cyclists, focussing on separation between cyclists, pedestrians and cars. Priority cycling projects for the future include:
  • Rushcutters Bay to Edgecliff Station Interchange
  • Edgecliff Station Interchange to Double Bay
  • Edgecliff Road (Edgecliff to Queen Street)
  • Birriga Road
  • O’Sullivan Road
  • Oxford Street Junction Improvement Scheme

Have your say

We invited the community to provide feedback via a short survey or make a submission via email or letter between 7 November and 16 December 2022.

As part of this, we asked asked for your feedback on the key questions relating to the introduction of a 30km/h High Pedestrian Activity Area or 40km/h High Pedestrian Activity Area for any of the above listed priority walking projects.

Review of feedback

Following the public exhibition period, Council officers reviewed all submissions, updated the Draft Active Transport Plan, and prepared a report with recommendations to Council. Council then adopted the Draft Active Transport Plan as its plan for walking and cycling for the next 10-15 years in November 2023.

Next steps

Now that the plan has been adopted, Council will review the plan after 5 years to report on progress in delivering our priority projects, and to check whether we are on track to meet our targets.

Share your feedback on the Draft Active Transport Plan

CLOSED: This survey has concluded.