Feb 202012
 

Sick of bike routes that don’t connect up? Inconsistent treatments for bike lanes and intersections? Bike lanes that disappear unexpectedly leaving you stranded and vulnerable? A lack of maps and signs?

This is the Nicholson/Victoria St intersection.

Canning Street, Napier Street, and Albert Street are well frequented and relatively safe bike routes. But when cyclists get to this intersection they are left stranded. Cyclists travelling along the Albert Street lane are similarly abandoned when it ends prematurely. Similarly, the ‘bike lane’ on Spring Street disappears at several points.

We’re asking the state government work with local governments to lead the coordination of a network of safe bike routes that connect up, with no gaps.

If you have any other examples of routes that don’t connect up, please tweet them to us @bikemelbourne.

 Posted by at 11:36 am

  11 Responses to “Our second demand: lead coordination of a network of safe bike routes across all Melbourne’s local council areas”

  1. Another one I rode yesterday, cyclists coming from East Melb can cross train lines near MCG on the footbridge and then you come out at Swan St and are stuck using pedestrian crossing and very narrow footpath on Swan St bridge to get to Yarra bike path and to keep going south.

    Joining the cars (if you are brave enough) isn’t really an option either as it puts you on the wrong side of the road to access Yarra bike path after you have crossed bridge.

  2. […] Ideally, Sally wouldn’t have to make this call, because there would be more safe bike lanes forming a coordinated network across the city. […]

  3. The lack of a usable east-west route in the CBD springs to mind.

    Also bike lanes getting squeezed out when the road narrows at safety zone tram stops (e.g. Racecourse Rd Flemington).

  4. Sadly, anywhere south of Melbourne lacks a decent bike route. The bay trail is not suited to bike commuting. St Kilda Rd is a killing field for cyclists.

    • Here Here! The best cycle ways would be both coordinated and also separate from drivers where-ever possible – and that does not mean pushing cyclists onto the pavement with constant on-off road crossing and pumbs all over the place.. cycling is not walking, its fast (close to the average speed of a car in the city) and it’s not good to mix cars and cyclists on the same road… you wouldn’t ask pedestrians to walk directly beside moving cars would you? why is it different with cyclists.. because we have 10kg of metal frame, rubber and wires between our legs?

  5. 1. Shepherd’s bridge in Footscray is not a bike path. They claim it to be one, but it isn’t. Fix it.
    2. Latrobe st. either make it bike lanes all the way up and down with no parking (clearway) BOTH ways during peak hour. There is no clear direct route for bikes from Docklands to north of the city.

  6. Off the top of my head for unconnected bike routes…
    Would be nice to have something for the ‘preferred back street routes’ when they hit major roads at a place with no lights and sometimes a kind of actual barrier in the middle. Suchas where Napier St meets Vic Pde with no easy way to get to Albert St or where Faraday St meets Nicholson and I want to cross to Bell St to continue West – East into Fitzroy.
    Also it would be great to have more signage to help cyclists navigate through back street routes, such as the great signs that take you from Carlton to Coburg. For example when riding around back street routes in South Yarra and Prahran (which are nice and quiet) I’m always taking a wrong turning and ending up in a dead end or going the wrong way down a one way street.

  7. Love the sentiment.
    These lanes are not good enough!
    As implemented on-road lanes in Melbourne are dangerous. They are shoehorned into spaces that are too small, out of the way and include hazards like opening car doors, ending abruptly at busy intersections or being too narrow. Have you noticed the clever narrowing of bike lanes to the left of left turning cars? The law as it stands says we have to give way to left turning cars. It is madness and shows the government does not care about cyclist safety.
    Check out my web-site for a partial solution to some of these problems

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