Melbourne Bicycle User Group

Update November 1st

Of our new eleven Councillors, ten responded to the BUGs questionnaire summarised below.  Of those ten, five committed to maintaining or increasing this year's budget for bicycle infrastructure ($5M) and to the broad vision for the BUG's proposed works program during the term of the new Council. The remaining five councillors are the Doyle team. So watch this space and be ready to join in and help persuade the City of Melbourne to keep up the momentum for getting more people onto bikes!

Original post October 4th

Melbourne BUG brings you the candidates' views on cycling in the City of Melbourne. Thanks to all the candidates who put in time to answer our questions and best of luck – we look forward to working with all of you in the new Council.

We have summarised each ticket below, starting with the best. You can read the detailed responses as we received them via the link after each summary. The level of support for increasing cycling in the municipality is very high, with most candidates committing to expenditure and progress exceeding that achieved in the current term of Council.

The BUG's suggested projects for the next term are listed at the end of this article. These were used as a guide to candidates, without asking them to endorse the specific roads/routes/treatments as listed but to illustrate the scope of what needs to be achieved. Only major projects have been listed. Candidates were asked if they supported this level of progress.

The Greens

Greens' councillor Cathy Oke has an excellent track record of supporting and seeing through bicycle initiatives in the City of Melbourne. The Greens are the only group with a comprehensive, well thought out policy and their answers to our questionnaire showed a high level of understanding and commitment to what it will take to get (many) more people using a bicycle for transport. The only answer letting The Greens down was their insistence on requiring helmet laws for Melbourne Bikeshare, which is a lost opportunity to get many more people cycling in the City. Read complete answers.

Shanahan-Chamberlin

Questionnaire answers show high level of understanding and commitment on all points, including clear opposition to building the East West tollway, and support for getting Melbourne Bike Share working by removing the helmet requirement. Read complete answers.

Community and Business Leadership

Good support for all our questions. Read complete answers.

Our Melbourne

Our Melbourne agree in general that council should fund and build a bike network along lines suggested by Melbourne BUG. They express qualified support for other objectives, such as speed limits, using some on-street parking space for bike facilities and reservations about the East West Tollway. Read complete answers.

Morgan-Elliot Team

Lead Councillor Jackie Watts supports at least maintaining current funding for bicycle projects and supports the level of progress suggested by Melbourne BUG. She gives qualified support for reallocation of space from cars to bikes, speed limit reductions, and making a better environment in the Little Streets. The East West tollway should only be considered after building the Doncaster rail and Melbourne Metro tunnel. Councillor Watts in her short time on Council has been supportive of bike projects. Read complete answers.

Gary Singer – John So Melbourne Living

Good support for the bike budget and qualified support for general level of progress. Good understanding of the potential of Melbourne's little streets. Support for building the East West tollway as a tunnel. Support for 40km/h speed limits in the CBD but not aware that 30km/h is the evidence-based speed for safety of vulnerable road users where cars, pedestrians and bicycles mix. Qualified support for a helmet law exemption for Melbourne Bike Share. Councillor Ong has had some queries about cyclists during his term on council but has nevertheless been prepared to support the budget and projects throughout and showed an admirable willingness to engage in a constructive dialogue, with good outcomes. Read complete answers.

Team Doyle

As Lord Mayor for the current council, Robert Doyle has been prepared to support the important projects and progress that have taken place over the last few years. In the context of a consensus council, in which no group had a majority, Doyle was prepared to listen and compromise, with good results, even where his own policy directions had to be put aside. Given this election policy and questionnaire responses, we hope for a similar scenario in the new council. This is the only response not to commit to maintaining this year's bike budget in the next term of council. Team Doyle cites the council's Bike Plan as policy, gives qualified support for transfer of road space to bicycles subject to the effect on "existing road users" and supports the East West tollway. Read complete answers.

No response

Of the Lord Mayor candidates, Forward Together and Put Public First did not respond to Melbourne BUG. Of the councillor-only tickets, no response was received from Stephen Mayne and Residents First. You can read candidates' statements at the Victorian Electoral Commission website.

Melbourne BUG's indicative works program

We didn't ask candidates to commit to exactly these projects, just the overall level of progress they represent. Actual routes and treatments need a careful design and consultation process. The important thing is to create a connected network of safe routes that can get you anywhere in the City.

Physically separated lanes

• St Kilda Rd all the way to St Kilda Junction
• Flemington Road
• Royal Parade
• Clarendon St north of Whiteman St, and Spencer St
• Flinders Street
• Albert St completed from Punt Rd to Spring St

On road lanes:

• Upgrades to Footscray Rd and Dynon Rd bike lanes, including better conditions on bridges at Maribyrnong River and Moonee Ponds Creek.
• Spring St or Exhibition St from Flinders to LaTrobe
• Bike lanes from the corner of Spring St and Latrobe St through Carlton Gardens to Canning St, alternatively a safe link from Canning Street to Albert St.
• William St permanent bike lanes
• Grattan St
• Connections from Brunswick St, Napier St, Smith St and Wellington St (Fitzroy & Collingwood) through to Albert St.
• Bike lanes in Wellington Parade (East Melbourne – probable loss of a travel lane both ways or some parking)

While it was a great shame not to have demerit points included, the increase in dooring penalties is an example of what people who care about bike riding, safety and liveable streets, can do when we unite as a group. The media coverage from the dooring inquiry was, in Melbourne at least, in itself a great awareness raising exercise. Thankyou to Greg Barber MLC for introducing the dooring bill that gave rise to the inquiry. Thanks also to everyone who wrote to politicians and papers, made submissions to the inquiry (there were 94!!), came to the Get Pushy rally and attended the hearings. 

The final parliamentary hearing into dooring was standing room only as bike groups like the Amy Gillett Foundation, Bicycle Victoria and community members such as the family of dooring victim James Cross, Andrew Tivendale, ordinary bike riders and friends came to speak and listen, support each other and make their voices heard. The presentation from James Cross' parents, Dr Michael Cross and Dr Nicola Martin, was especially impressive, and we've attached the link in case you want to have a read.

Every so often you get a great leader who makes positive change, but in many cases politicians, especially this government, won't take any action (like for example spending more than $0 on safe bike infrastructure!!) unless pushed. We've noticed bike riders are getting a bit more PUSHY as they see what's possible, and we encourage you to keep telling your stories to politicians, telling them about infrastructure that's unsafe or just ridiculous (get photos and videos), and uniting with bike-minded people and sympathetic friends where you can. Melbourne has the potential to become a real bike city, and if we work together, we can make it happen. It might be an uphill battle, but we're used to that 😉 

In the meantime, keep enjoying those beautiful bike rides.

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!

With its Zero Budget for bikes, the Baillieu Government has made it clear that if bike riders don’t get pushy, we’ll get nothing!

On Thursday 21 June from 7.30–8.30 am outside Victorian Parliament, riders will gather to rally for the state government to Bring Back the Bike Budget.

Background: The state government has allocated practically zero to bike infrastructure in its 2012-13 budget. This means serious safety issues will continue, and new riders continue to be discouraged by hostile conditions.

Why taking action might make a difference: There’s always more money if they’re pushed hard enough; it’s happened before. We also need to show them we won’t take this lying down so that bike riders don’t get burned in the next year’s budget too!

HELP BY PUTTING UP OUR CAMPAIGN POSTER: Download our campaign poster here (pictured below at bottom of this post). Print it off, and stick it up at your workplace, on your bike routes, at your school or uni, at cafes, wherever! You can also print off this leaflet to give out.

JOIN US ON A GROUP RIDE!

The Victorian Bicycle User Groups (and friends) are organising cyclists to ride in together in groups from all sides of the city. Meeting places so far are:

South Yarra: 7:00am Main Yarra Trail, Cnr Chapel Street & Alexandra Avenue—near the bus stop, Facebook invite here.

Richmond: 7:00am Elizabeth Street and Church Street—outside the commission flats, organised by Julez.

Brighton: 6:45am Corner of Bay Street and Nepean Highway, travelling along the Nepean Highway and St Kilda Road, organised by Richard Syme.

North Melbourne 7:00am North Melbourne pool, 1 Macaulay Rd. Coordinated by Melbourne Bicycle User Group.

Footscray Leaving at 7:00am, Opposite Footscray Police Station, 66 Hyde Street. Coordinated by Ant.

Coburg: 6:30am Coburg Railway Station. Coordinated by @DannoPants. Facebook event here.

East Brunswick: 7.00am, Outside Cafe L’Amour (next to Gelobar), 76 Lygon St (Cafe L’Amour will be open for coffee) – coordinated by Moreland Bicycle User Group. Facebook invite here.

Carlton: 7.00am Outside Dan O’Connell Hotel, Corner Princes and Canning Streets – coordinated by Yarra Bicycle Users Group. Facebook invite here.

Northcote 7.00am, Jika Jika Community Centre, Corner Plant and Union Streets – coordinated by Darebin Bicycle User Group

If you’re riding in from East or South and can help lead a group, please send us a message via the contact form (or on Facebook or Twitter). All we need is a place and a time and we will help promoting it.

HELP US PROMOTE THE RALLY  – some ideas 

1) Put up posters

Download a printable PDF copy of the poster pictured below here. Print it off and put it EVERYWHERE! Work bike cages, schools, poles on major bike route are a good place to start.

2) Tell your friends

Send around a group email (you can just copy and paste from this post) asking to your friends who care about cyclists’ safety, and ask them to forward it on too! Try and lock in one or two good friends to ride in with you.

On the morning of the rally, send a text message to your friends to remind them it’s on!

3) Tell your workmates, fellow students, etc 

See above!

Come to the final parliamentary hearing into the dooring bill.

Where: Parliament of Victoria, 1 Spring Street, Melbourne

When: Wednesday 23 May at 8.00pm, meeting at 7.30pm outside Parliament. If you get there late just go inside and report to the front desk – they’ll tell you where to go.

Speakers:  Bicycle Victoria, the Road Safety Action Group Inner Melbourne, Amy Gillett Foundation, Andrew Tivendale, the parents of James Cross, and Melbourne Bicycle User Group.

Parliamentary hearings can be a bit stuffy, but we’d like to have a presence there to demonstrate to politicians that the public’s concerned about this issue (if they haven’t already realised!!). It’s also worth hearing what bike advocacy groups, Andrew Tivendale, and James Cross’s parents, have to say about car dooring and cyclist safety.

More details of the hearing are at www.parliament.vic.gov.au/standing-committee-on-economy-and-infrastructure/legislation-committee/inquiries/article/1818