Detailed recommendations are on the Streets People Love website.
The two Lord Mayor teams most likely to win are both wanting to walk back progress on bike lanes, and both teams agree on banning hire scooters in the CBD. Reece recently shut down the scooter hire scheme in the entire City of Melbourne area, and Wood proposed banning scooters in the CBD. The scooters cross-subsidise the rental bikes, so we predict the bikes will disappear as well.
This means that the other part of the election, for 9 councillors, is critically important. While powerful, the LM and depLM are only two votes out of eleven on council. Voting above the line for the election of 9 councillors you choose just one box, preferences are then allocated according to that group’s ticket, so our guide takes those preferences into account as they will help to shape the whole council. We recommend choosing one of these:
- Greens
- Team Hakim
- Innovate Melbourne
- Labor for Melbourne
- Team Participate
- Animal Justice Party
Lord Mayor and Deputy Lord Mayor
There are perhaps four teams that have a chance of winning these two full-time paid positions – Lord Mayor and Deputy Lord Mayor, elected as a team.
Team Reece published a policy quite late in the campaign which includes:
- Maintaining the budget of $5M a year for bicycle infrastructure.
- “This funding will be focused outside the Hoddle Grid” i.e. no more CBD protected lanes. This reverses years of planning for bike lanes in Flinders St and Bourke St.
- “investing in reducing blackspots to keep cyclists safe”
- “fix the bottlenecks in the road network where the current interface between bike and vehicle lanes are not working well, increasing travel times and adding to frustration for traders and residents alike” we aren’t sure whether this means removing protected bike lanes.
This is a policy which promises all things to all people. Somehow it is going to get safer to ride in the CBD (with no additions to the protected bike lane network) while making it more attractive to drive into the City “More Victorians are driving into the city”.
It’s also worth remembering that over the last four years, Cr Reece and Cr Campbell (standing with him for Deputy Lord Mayor) have been on the same team, but Cr Campbell has consistently voted against protected bike lanes and has voted against her own team on other issues as well. We find it hard to see how governance will operate if the Lord Mayor and his deputy have such diametrically opposed views and values.
You can read the whole policy here: https://www.nickformelbourne.com.au/news/bottlenecks-and-blackspots-the-focus-for-a-commonsense-transport-system-for-melbourne
Voting for 9 councillors is separate from voting for Lord and Deputy Lord Mayor, our guide is above. Team Reece is directing preferences first to “Liberals for Melbourne City” whose policy is “promising to get more cars into the CBD by ripping up the city’s bike lanes”, quoted in https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/rip-up-the-bike-lanes-liberals-launch-melbourne-mayoral-bid-20240827-p5k5tr.html saying “The removal of bike lanes will happen…”.
Next in the Reece Team’s preferences is Rafael Camillo, who is funded by the Chief NIMBY of East Melbourne, Gary Morgan. Rafael is a resident of the CBD who won’t be good for bikes or scooters if elected.
So we strongly suggest you don’t put a “1” in the Team Reece box in the election of 9 councillors.
Also late in the campaign a transport policy from Team Wood:
It would appear the Exhibition St bike lanes are to go, with a bat-shit crazy proposal to put a paint-only bike lane in the centre of the road. Like Team Reece, more lanes for cars are promised for Exhibition St. If you ride a bike, you know that curbside bikelanes give access to your destinations. It would appear this knowledge is unavailable to Team Wood.
Also in Exhibition St, protected intersections are proposed, at Flinders, Bourke and LaTrobe sts. Protected intersections are great, but require protected bike lanes on all four legs. Team Wood is unlikely to build these in Flinders and Bourke St, roads which appear on the City’s Bicycle Plan but not in Wood’s (nor Reece’s) policies. Protected intersections also take space, either from pedestrians or from car lanes, so this idea will be quietly dropped after the election.
It’s notable that one of the few streets in the CBD that has protected bike lanes is the focus of so much attention, rather than saying anything about making cycling safer or more attractive where existing roads are dangerous and unpleasant.
Another protected bike lane to get under the microscope is Queens Bridge, where it’s promised to “restore traffic flow”. This clearly means removing the protected bike lanes, but isn’t brave enough to be honest about it.
You can read the entire statement here: https://www.teamwood.com.au/post/team-wood-to-get-melbourne-moving-again.
Greens
The outstanding team both for policy and for track-record for safe streets are The Greens. The Greens & Team Hakim are the only groups committed to continuing the roll-out of protected bike lanes agreed to by Council in April of this year. Over the last decade, Greens councillors have worked to ensure the City has forward planning (strategies) for transport and for bikes that are now being implemented.
Team Hakim
Team Hakim are in with a chance to win, and we’ve given them 4 (out of 5) ticks on our score card. Jamal Hakim has a track record on council these last four years supporting the bike lane roll-out, and his deputy Lord Mayor candidate Esther Anatolitis is an advocate for bikes. You can read their Active Transport policy here: https://www.teamhakim.au/active_transport_and_congestion_busting_policy
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Our assessments are based wherever possible on each candidate’s track record, both on council and as advocates. We are not aligned with any political party. See a summary on https://streetspeoplelove.org/melbourne.