Lake Wendouree tram track rider woes

By Kim Stephens
Updated November 2 2012 - 3:55pm, first published March 18 2011 - 1:34pm
Lake Wendouree tram track rider woes
Lake Wendouree tram track rider woes

LAKE Wendouree’s tiny stretch of tram tracks is causing Ballarat City Council a giant headache.Council has spent $15,000 in the past five years trying to fix one small section of the tracks renowned among the city’s growing cycling community as a notorious collision blackspot.But it continues to seriously injure an average of one rider every three weeks, according to Ballarat Bicycle Users Group chairman John Barnes.Last week a Ballarat GP was hospitalised with concussion and facial injuries after coming off his bike in the early morning, three weeks after a 17-year-old St Patrick’s College student was treated in an emergency department for a broken tooth, dislocated thumb and facial injuries when he fell in the same spot.Mr Barnes said the problem area was a small section where the bike path crosses the tracks as they curve across Wendouree Parade towards the tram terminus area.City of Ballarat development and infrastructure director Eric Braslis said a number of measures had been tried to prevent riders falling but all to no avail.“Council has attempted a number of improvements to reduce risk to bicycle riders, including line marking, asphalt repairs, sandblasting of the tracks, line marking and signage,” he said.“Although this appears to have improved safety for riders, unfortunately it has not eliminated the problem.”Mr Barnes said the line curvature in combination with the thin, high pressure tyres favoured by racing and fitness enthusiasts was continuing to catch cyclists off guard.“Solving it is incredibly difficult because of the curvature in the tram tracks,” he said.“It is one of our most popular cycling routes for training riders and it is cyclists of all kinds who have come off, not just the inexperienced.”Mr Barnes said the latest attempt to solve the problem by council had been a consultation with a German engineering company but Mr Braslis would not confirm that yesterday.“Council will continue to work on possible treatments for the crossing,” he said.Mr Braslis said Ballarat’s only set of tram tracks presented a unique problem seemingly not experienced elsewhere.“Even though Melbourne has an extensive tram network, advice to council is that a configuration like that at Wendouree Parade does not exist in that city,” he said.“In most cases, where bike lanes in Melbourne cross tram tracks, they cross at right angles.”

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