Campaigning ahead of the September 9 poll, candidates Cath Blakey and Mithra Cox said there was a need for a cycle link between Squires Way and Montague Street.

Ms Cox – the Greens’ mayoral candidate – said this short pathway, which she said would cost roughly $380,000, should be a “symbolic first step” to building better bike access throughout the city.

“We’ve got some pretty good cycling paths that go north to south, there’s hardly any that go east-west,” she said. “If you’re stuck on the other side of the train line, or the other side of the highway, you can’t get from the eastern side or western side.”

She said the proposed North Wollongong link would help connect the university, CBD and coastal bike path.

“This is sort of like a symbolic first step, because we would like to see Wollongong’s bike plan, that the council released in 2014 but never funded fully, come into action,” she said. “This link would cost about $380,000, which is about the cost of a set of traffic lights.”

Ms Cox said improving bike and footpaths was one of her core reasons for running for council, saying she would like to see a shift away from having a city designed for cars.

“It’s hard in Australia for people to concede that a different type of city is possible, but we just need to think about urban planning differently,” she said. “It means that, in every decision you make in planning, you need to prioristise pedestrians and cyclists above cars.”