Melbourne Bicycle User Group

The current state government has finally, after five years (permission was refused by the previous government), granted permission to the City of Melbourne to introduce 40km/h speed limits in the CBD. If you ride in the CBD, you will notice the speed limit progressively being rolled out. For details of the roll-out see the City of Melbourne website.

This is a positive first step. The difference between 50km/h and 40km/h speeds, in terms of the likelihood of fatality or injury for bike riders and pedestrians hit by a car, is significant. Those that drive in the CBD, especially at night, will know that it was a myth that 50km/h was only an aspirational speed and was never actually reached. Even on weekdays, cars can reach 50km/h in parts of the CBD.

The evidence-based speed limit for areas where cars, bikes and pedestrians mix is 30km/h, as we have written about before. This speed will need to be achieved both through speed limits and traffic calming. This is the direction governments should be headed in:

And from the Monash University Accident Research Centre:

Vision Zero – An ethical approach to safety and mobility

See also the UK campaign "Twenty's Plenty" (20mph = 30km/h).

The next twelve months will see some major projects in the City of Melbourne. This article summarises these projects and their benefits. This year will see more improvements than the last several years added together. This is happening because City Councillors backed Melbourne BUG's call for a budget of $5 million for bike projects, and the City's engineers came up with an excellent capital works program to make the best use of the funds.

Most exciting of all is the prospect of increasing the number of people using bikes to get around the City as a result of these works. If you are reading this you probably already ride, but isn't it great to think that more people can share the benefits that you already know about? So, what are these projects that are going to get more bike trips and improve things for us all?

Princes Bridge and St Kilda Road

The flagship project is Princes Bridge and St Kilda Road. Bikes are already about 40% of vehicles on Princes Bridge during peak hour. The City plans to make one car lane in each direction into a physically separated bike lane on the bridge. Outbound, the separated lane will go as far as South Bank Boulevard. Inbound, alongside the Art Gallery and Arts Centre, no physical separation, so the design of this stretch still needs to be watched. (We wrote about this in our "media watch" section recently). This part of St Kilda Road has been identified as a "bike black spot" for several years, and at last big steps are planned to fix it. Another benefit is the restoration of wide footpaths on both sides of the bridge to pedestrians – we won't need the segregated footpath and it will be removed. South of South Bank Boulevard needs separated lanes as well, and we eagerly await completion of the St Kilda Road master plan, currently being worked on by the City.

La Trobe Street

The other big project is La Trobe Street – physically separated lanes along the entire street from Spencer Street to Spring Street. So many connections are made that we can start to see the beginnings of a connected network – where you can travel on good facilities all the way. At the western end, La Trobe Street crosses down to Docklands over the bridge. Other connections include the William St bike lanes, Swanston Street, Rathdowne Street and proposed part time (peak hour) clearway lanes in Exhibition Street (that's another project this year). There will eventually be a connection east to the Albert Street lanes, but this is pending a few other issues including sorting out the bus route, so we hope this connection can be made in the following year's projects. The BUG believes that no solution will be found to the lack of a route down Nicholson Street and instead a bike path should go through the Carlton Gardens from the corner of La Trobe, Spring and Victoria Streets, up the center to the big fountain, around the front of the Exhibition Buildings (this area is used by motor vehicles already) and then up to Canning Street. Council is still holding the line against bikes in the Gardens, but we don't see any better solution. We are also proposing to connect La Trobe Street to Albert Street via the top part of Spring Street and to complete the Albert Street lanes through to Spring Street.

Exhibition Street

Mentioned above are the part-time (peak hour) bike lanes for Exhibition Street. These are still being designed, so watch this space for details as the proposal is developed. It will be critical to stop cars from parking in the bike lanes if they are to work safely. Coming in from (e.g.) Rathdowne Street or from the Yarra River via the toll bridge, you will be able to use the peak hour bike lane to get into the City. 

Elizabeth Street

Another important project is in Elizabeth Street between the Haymarket roundabout and Victoria Street. This is the wide part of Elizabeth Street which can well afford space for good quality bike lanes. The outbound lanes (up the hill) will be physically separated, kerbside lanes (excellent) but the current proposal for inbound lanes is on the dangerous side of the parked cars. The issue seems to be that Council is not willing to use a red arrow to regulate left-turning cars at Queensberry Street and Victoria Street to allow bikes to go straight ahead with safety. You can see a partial example of this "red arrow on left" already in action if you travel south down Elizabeth Street and watch at the corner with Victoria Street. Council just needs to extend this idea to protect cyclists and pedestrians from turning traffic, leaving plenty of time for left turns to happen during the period when the reverse direction (right turn into Elizabeth Street) is controlled by green arrows.

Other projects

Other projects include improvements in Clarendon Street East Melbourne (to the existing bike lanes); along the Yarra downstream of Web Bridge towards Fishermen's Bend; connecting the separated lanes in Cecil St South Melbourne across the tram lines to join the existing shared path that follows the Port Melbourne tram line and improvements to the connection between St Kilda Road and the Yarra (southbank) path behind the boat sheds area.

So these are very good projects and will be money well spent. Hopefully the resulting increase in cycling numbers will encourage the City and importantly the State Government to join up more gaps in the network. Roads like Flemington Road, Royal Parade, Grattan Street, Flinders Street, Spencer Street and the Clarendon Street bridge all need to be brought into the safe bike network. Have we missed any in that list? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

The state seat of Melbourne is vacant following the resignation of the sitting member.  The seat of Melbourne covers approximately the same area as the City of Melbourne. The by-election will be held on Saturday 21 July 2012. 

About the Melbourne BUG bike survey

Melbourne BUG has tested by-election candidates on their commitment to a range of bike transport proposals to make cycling safer and easier, and encourage more people to get on their bike. These include setting the bike budget at 2-3% of road spending (around $40 million), building separated bike lanes in St Kilda and Flemington roads, fixing Shepherd Bridge and Dynon Road, introducing 30 km/h speed limits and exempting the Melbourne Bike Share from mandatory helmet laws. The full list of questions is below, and a summary table is available here .

Analysis of responses

A summary talbe can be viewed here .Of the main contenders, only Greens candidate Cathy Oke answered the survey questions. Labor candidate Jennifer Kanis declined to respond to the questions, stating that the proposals would be better considered as part of the 2014 state election.

Cathy Oke supported all initiatives except the helmet law exemption for Melbourne Bike Share. Ms Oke also highlighted her achievements as a Melbourne City Councillor, including removing cars from Swanston Street and securing $5.6 million dollars for bikes in the City of Melbourne's 2012-13 budget. As part of Ms Oke's by-election campaign, the Greens committed to matching the City of Melbourne's bike funding for the electorate of Melbourne and to introducing a vulnerable road user law. The Greens do not however have a fully developed state bicycle plan.

Labor candidate Jennifer Kanis acknowledged that the proposals were 'important and good practical ideas' but said they were better considered in the 2014 state election, when Labor will have developed a state bicycle policy. Labor has not made any bike-related commitments or released any bike transport policies during the by-election campaign. Ms Kanis outlined the previous Labor Government's cycling achievements, including its record investment in bike infrastructure and the introduction of guidelines requiring that cycling be considered as part of new roads and public transport projects.

Independent candidate Stephen Mayne responded too late to include in our media release but has been included on our summary page.  Of the other independents, Adrian Whitehead demonstrated the best understanding of cycling issues, and Berhan Ahmed also responded thoughtfully. John Perkins supported most of the proposals but did not give further details. Australian Christian Party candidate Maria Bengtsson expressed an interest in proposals but did not offer an informed response. David Nolte did not respond to the survey but published a policy on his own website. While not hostile to encouraging cycling for transport he showed a lack of knowledge of the issues.  Fiona Patten also lacked knowledge of most of the issues but supported some proposals. The remainder of the candidates have not responded.

The proposals

MBUG asked candidates to indicate support, non support or partial support for the following proposals, with provision for comments:

1. Annual bike spending of 2-3% of road spending (or about 40 million)

2. A physically separated bike lane on St Kilda Rd from Southbank Boulevard to St Kilda Junction

3. A physically separated bike lane along Flinders Street from Spring to Spencer Streets. 

4. A physically separated two-way bicycle route along the western side of Clarendon Street, the Clarendon Street Bridge over the Yarra river and along Spencer Street to LaTrobe Street

5. A physically separated bike lane along Flemington Road from Alexander Road to the Haymarket Roundabout

6. An upgrade of Dynon Road to fix safety issues for cyclists and create a high quality route to the north and west of the City from the West

7. A redesign of Shepherd's Bridge over the Maribyrnong River at the western end of the Footscray Road path

8.  Rebuild Haymarket Roundabout for safety.  

9. 30km/h speed limits: 

• In the CBD
• Around schools, residential areas and shopping zones

10. Exemption to mandatory helmet law for the Melbourne Bike Share.

More detail on the proposals, and candidate's full answers, with comments

You can view each individual survey on the survey page.