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Discourse around bicycle planning has focused on the role played by the grey network of road infrastructure. As this is the network that takes drivers and bus riders to work, school and shops, it is naturally the one people first think of in the context of transport.

 

However, as Kullmann (2012, pg.38) has argued, post-industrial cities (such as Launceston) “are laced with ready-made spaces in the form of webs of linear voids that often result from industrial era infrastructure."

 

Kullmann is less concerned with the active transport potential of these networks of voids, at one point lauding greenways filled with so many gardens and tennis courts that through-passage is totally blocked. He describes this as a relief from the “mono-culture” of bike use on other greenways. For Kullman, the grey network is for transport. Greenways are an escape.

 

While Kullmann makes a valuable contribution to thinking about greenways, as sites for placemaking with activities for multiple users, he overlooks the importance of greenways for cyclists, whose needs are habitually ignored by politicians and planners who continue to design the road network for cars. Greenways give bicycle transport a foothold in cities with no political will to re-engineer the grey network for cycling. They also have the potential to unlock underutilised industrial land flanking waterways and rail routes, for active transport oriented redevelopment while reaping environmental and social benefits. (Nicholls and Cromptom, 2005, pg.321)

 

This research aims to fill in the gap with references to literature on greenways and economics to create a series of speculations for brownfield sites around Launceston. There are currently no studies with economic data trends showing increase of land value with successful conversion of industrial brownfield sites with greenways. This research leverages on studies of quantifiable data in Austin and the benefits that greenways bring to brownfield sites to come up with speculations on estimated land value increase for suitable areas surrounding Launceston.

FROM BROWNFIELDS TO BIKEFIELDS

launceston greenway
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