The forum's convener, Leon Arundell, said residents in older suburbs such as Campbell had been waiting 40 years for a footpath in their street.

Mr Arundell said his own street in Downer was wide enough for almost three lanes of traffic but had no footpath. ''For a lot of people in Canberra, they end up having to walk on the road,'' he said.

Mr Arundell is critical that a review of the ACT's cycling and pedestrian network, done as part of the Sustainable Transport Action Plan 2010-2016, looks only at town centres and commercial areas rather than footpath needs in the suburbs.

''From a pedestrian point of view, I think footpaths should really go from your front gate to the school or to the bus stop or to the shops and that's the part of the network that is not included in this review,'' he said.

Because the report would prioritise capital works until 2016, it might be residents' last chance for seven years to ask the Government for a footpath in their street.

However, Roads ACT director Tony Gill said that wasn't the case because Territory and Municipal Services had a separate, ongoing program of footpath construction and maintenance to which residents could always make a request.The review was about looking at networks between and within town centres and job centres. This year's ACT budget allocated $4million for new footpaths and $2million to maintain existing footpaths.

''Anyone with a request for a footpath can have it assessed by the department,'' he said.

Mr Gill said Mr Arundell was ''quite right'' to suggest the ACT had 600km of suburban roads without footpaths, especially in older suburbs.

''When those suburbs were built, the planning view at the time was that footpaths were only provided on the main road that went through those suburbs, the view being on low-volume roads, people could basically walk on the road pavement,'' he said.