Cycling plan for CBD and surrounds: have your say!
Submissions for the City of Melbourne’s Draft Bicycle Plan close on Monday 2 July and we encourage you to make your own submission before then. It doesn’t have to be detailed, just let them know the main thoughts you have about your trips around the city.
You can make a submission by
- Completing an online submission form
- Emailing a submission: bicycle.plan@melbourne.vic.gov.au
- Mailing a submission: Engineering Services, City of Melbourne, GPO Box 1603, Melbourne VIC 3001
- Phoning the council: 03 9658 9658
What we’re thinking so far
The draft bike plan includes some excellent projects, including separated bike lanes on Latrobe Street from Victoria Street to Adderley Street, separated bike lanes along Princes Bridge, bike lanes to close the gap between the Royal Parade/Flemington Road, a separated bike route southbound on St Kilda Road to Southbank Boulevard, and a peak hour bike route in some parts of Exhibition Street. There are also commitments to work with Vicroads on bike lanes in the Principal Bike Network, including on St Kilda Road south of Southbank Boulevard, Flemington Road and Royal Parade, although, as you probably know, the state government hasn’t provided any funding for these this year.
Of course, there are plenty of opportunities for improvement in the bike plan which is why we encourage you to let them know. We’re still finalising our submission (due to being busy with the rally last week!), but here are some points we’re going to raise in case you’re looking for ideas:
- There’s no plan for Clarendon Bridge, which is currently pretty horrific for cyclists and connects to two high-quality routes that bring bikes to the city
- The plan commits to an investigation into the ‘smaller streets’ but with no detail (timeframe, actions involved, specific streets involved) We’d like to see the plan include a commitment to a feasibility study for converting one or more of the Little Streets to spaces for non-motorised transport – by removing parking, restricting throughfare traffic, reducing speed limits to 20km/h, and making it a shared space for bikes and peds
- Lack of connections from Canning Street onto Nicholson/Spring Street. We’d like to see two priority routes for bikes through the Carlton Gardens
- The peak hour bike lane on Exhibition Street is a good start, but we’d like it to be a full-time bike lane – peak hour is not the only time cyclists travel
- There are a number of hairy intersections in Elgin Street that need to be fixed (Nicholson, Brunswick, Lygon)
- The plan includes very little about the Melbourne Bikeshare, which is languishing. Melbourne BUG would like to see a number of improvements to this, including a helmet-law exemption for riders using the Bikeshare.
- The plan includes a list of investigations with no timeframe or actions specified. For many of these, it is not clear why they have been classified as investigations rather than commitments. One example of this is Grattan Street, where we believe there’s room for a separated bike lane, but the plan only commits to engaging with stakeholders about a bike/bus route
- The various investigations into East-West links in the plan include an investigation into a bike lane on Flinders Street, a Yarra River Corridor study, and an investigation into the Little Streets, but there’s no detail about how these studies will be coordinated to ensure a sensible outcome
- We’d like to see more detail on integration of bike routes with public transport, with actions included to improve cycling routes to railway stations and between railway stations
- The plan should include more action items for the installation of bike hoops and corrals. The council’s Transport Strategy made some firm commitments about this but they are not included in the bike plan
- We’d like to see the council commit to achieving 30km/h speeds through speed limits and traffic calming, which is the rate at which the chance of deaths and injuries rapidly declines
- The plan should include a detailed set of actions to ensure that cyclists are looked after during temporary works
OK, nowit’s your turn to make a submission!