SEPARATED cycling paths are planned for parts of Newcastle's city centre but a continuous east-west link remains a dream.
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City of Newcastle is planning to build a separated bi-directional cycleway from Wickham Park to Union Street along Hunter Street.
However, under the current plans, once it reaches Union Street it will end.
The renders released earlier this year for consultation show a cyclist-friendly west end and the concept has been well received by the cycling community.
There are also plans for a bi-directional path in Hunter Street mall from Perkins Street to Newcomen Street.
But how the west end cycleway will link to the city's east end is still up in the air.
Newcastle Cycleways Movement president Sam Reich said extending the path to Worth Place, and crossing to Civic Lane onto an off-road path in the old rail corridor was the best option, but the opportunity had been lost due to development east of Museum Park.
He said the city had been dealt a double blow by the state government missing a "golden opportunity" to plan an active transport route in the heavy rail corridor and the council green-lighting corridor developments without provision for one.
Mr Reich said there were now limited options for an east-west cycling route, with Hunter Street also hampered by smart-poles, trees and other infrastructure on the edge of its footpaths.
"Both the state and council are responsible," he said.
"We're left with a blockage and no easy way to get around it."
A City of Newcastle spokesperson said council was "incorporating cycleways" into public domain plans "where practical" to achieve an "integrated approach".
The strategy is "largely guided" by the Newcastle City Centre Cycleway Network Strategy released by the NSW govenment in 2017.
The spokesperson said it was the council's "intention" to extend the future mall cycleway to Pacific Park and Newcastle beach.
"We are also proposing to provide an additional cycleway along Wharf Road, connecting from Civic to Nobbys beach and Bathers Way," the spokesperson said.
"As a part of these projects we will also assess options to provide links through the city. The goal is to achieve multiple routes that link with the key destination points."
The state's plan proposed a separated bi-directional path on King Street from Devonshire Street to Perkins Street.
The plan was designed to show council how cycleways could run around the light rail line, but it was criticised for carrying no funding.
King Street is promoted in council's existing cycleways map as an on-road path, but it is rated "high-difficulty".
It involves a mix of riding in a metre-wide marked lane between parked cars and traffic, and in the traffic lane.
It runs from an off-road path at Hamilton to Auckland Street, but Mr Reich said the route was a "meat-grinder" for cyclists and he avoided it.
The existing Honeysuckle Drive and Wharf Road on-road cycleway is described as "medium-difficulty".
It is considered by cyclists as less than ideal, as like King Street, they are at risk of being hit by a car pulling out of a park or by an opening car door.
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