Adelaide City Council has voted unanimously to recommence planning the east–west bikeway across the city centre, after rejected the proposed Franklin Street–Wakefield Street route and shelving the project five years ago.
The motion to reintroduce discussions about the bikeway was moved by Cr Eleanor Freeman at a council meeting in late January 2026.
In 2021, after four years of debate, Adelaide City Council voted against installing a separated east–west bikeway across the city centre along Franklin Street, Gawler Place and Wakefield Street, linking with the north–south bikeway on Frome Street, the shared path on West Terrace and the Park Lands Trail and shared paths.
There had been opposition from local businesses and communities concerned about losing parking spaces.
That decision cost the council $3 million in state government funding towards the $5.8 million project.
Now, the east–west bikeway is back on the cards.
Cr Freeman told ABC Radio Adelaide: “We made a commitment to have a safe, separated east–west route in the city and that remains in our strategic documents that we’ve adopted.
“We need to have a look at where might that go, what design options are there of what it might look like and how do we get there and when?
‘We are definitely not ruling any routes out, but I would be confident that the opposition along Franklin from last time would still be there and it’s certainly not our intent to revisit anything that’s just not going to have support.”
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