Crap cycle lanes of Melbourne

Articles from National Ride to Work Day in Melbourne

2011-10-10T10:24:00.000-07:00

Articles that are coming out around the National Ride to Work Day in Melbourne (Oct 11) illustrate the extent of our problems in this city. Journalists at The Age newspaper have written a few pieces that really question the International Cyclist's Union designation Melbourne as a world cycling city. Part of the problem is the infrastructure, creating safety risks. A second is the "driving culture".

Video, The Age, 5 Oct 2011.
http://media.theage.com.au/news/national-news/tessa-rides-to-work-why-2671490.html
Tessa decides it is worth cycling. to work. Mind you if she is going from St.Kilda to The Age offices way out on the way to the airport...
There are a series of articles and videos in the Age this week and last week. Some of them are a bit strange - eg focussing on how many accidents bike riders have in Melbourne, which will put people off (no car accident victims mentioned).
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/injuries-take-a-big-toll-on-cyclists-20111007-1ld54.html

A focus on driver education is welcome:
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/push-for-peace-as-rage-rises-between-drivers-cyclists-20111007-1lcpo.html

“Cycling safety campaigns usually focus on changing cyclists' behaviour, where the emphasis should be on changing driver behaviour,” Ms Johnson said. “If a driver cuts you off or opens their door in front of you, there's nothing you can do to change your behaviour in that situation. Those two examples and so many I see are about changing driver behaviour.”

And this is not encouraging

John Gould, a passionate safety advocate and bike shop owner, said Melbourne road users could learn tolerance from their overseas counterparts.“I've ridden in probably 20 countries and I find Melbourne the second-worst place I've ridden in [after Istanbul],” he said.“A lot of those countries don't have many cyclists but they're still a lot more considerate … I was probably on the only bike in Slovenia and holding up traffic going up hills. But no one tooted, everyone knew it was only 10 seconds of their lives. “Here there's lots of carry-on: 'Get out of my way'. The utes love to play chicken with you, I see lots of incidents. The road is a shared carriageway and we've got to share it.”

Migrants and refugees - scared to ride in Melbourne

2011-10-09T08:28:00.001-07:00

New study of migrants and refugees - scared to ride in Melbourne
http://www.vu.edu.au/news/migrants-refugees-scared-to-ride

Minneapolis

2011-10-09T07:48:00.000-07:00

An interesting article (The Age, 9 Oct.) on bike facilities and levels of cycling (at 4% of journeys, high for the US) in Minneapolis.

I have actually been there, but not cycled, in the depths of winter. At that time, cycling is possible with practice, but not accident-free. The cycle lanes help. Interesting that the modal share of cycling is over twice that of Melbourne.

The Melbourne bike hire scheme and helmets

2011-10-09T07:34:00.000-07:00

Melbourne introduced a bicycle hire scheme around the city centre in 2010, without repealing the compulsory helmet laws that make the scheme unworkable. Arriving in Melbourne as a tourist or visitor, or just needing to get somewhere, you can't just jump on a bike - you have to get hold of a helmet, or risk a $146 fine for not wearing one. Australia's helmet laws are some of the most restrictive in the world. Many, myself included, think that compulsory helmet laws make any bike hire scheme unworkable. One of the world's top experts on risk, Prof John Adams, agrees. See Article in the Age and listen to ABC radio broadcast on helmet laws on 21 Sept '10.

There was a Protest from Melbourne Uni, 18 July 2010 http://www.situp-cycle.com/2010/07/18/riding-for-bike-share/. This protest was followed by an interesting presentation at the State of Design festival by

Mikael Colville-Andersen of Copenhagenize Consulting, called "Four Goals for Promoting Urban Cycling". His four goals included

Get for A-B quickly - bikes down side roads don't work, provide facilities on well used main routes
Market the bicycle effectively, not as a niche product for sport or recreation
Don't avoid the elephant in the room - you can't plan for bikes without doing something about cars (through high vehicle tax and speed limits in Denmark).
"the re-democratisation of the bicycle, re-humanising urban cycling, making it something for everyone, making it mainstream again".

He is opposed to labels like "cyclist", or seeing bikes as part of an environmental activist crusade of some sort. But Mikael forgot to mention the huge crusades by orginary Copenhageners that began Copenhagen's unique network of cycle lanes - collective action and protest got things started as a time when people were turning more and more to cars. I used to live in Copenhagen, and heard about these movements first-hand.

In a subsequent panel discussion Daniel Paez, (Manager Active Transport Policy, Department of Transport) and Anita Curnow (Director of Network Improvements at VicRoads) took a fair amount of flak from the pro-cycling audience. Anita mentioning that she wasn't much of a cyclist, which probably didn't help audience confidence in what her unit is up to (her portfolio is too big, as well). Daniel, despite being from Colombia where freedom usually rules on the roads, is a supporter of the helmet law. Garry Brennan from Bicycle Victoria did not have much to say, but this large cycling organisation also supports the helmet law and refuses to support members who oppose it, or to poll their members. I refuse to join.

Only 15% of cyclists use helmets in Denmark, with relatively low accident rates (c.50 fatalities a year, 2008). In VIC, Vicroads crashstats reports about 11 bike accidents in the same year, with a smaller number of fatalities. VIC and Denmark are about the same size at 5.5m. However the effects of not cycling and driving instead, on health and wellbeing, favour cycling. Exercise reduces obesity and heart attacks. Bike helmets are partly responsible for its unpopularity, especially with women, so they reduce health while reducing your risk of head injury slightly. This is controversial stuff though.

Mike Rubbo has a ramble about the helmet issues and the bike hire, here

Update, Oct '10. In response to extremely low take up of the bike hire scheme, the organisers have installed a helmet dispenser at Melbourne Uni and at Southern Cross Station. You can also get one from 7-Eleven stores. The Uni one is particularly silly since there is a bike store on the other side of the Student Union from one of the hire racks. John the owner will not be pleased! At $5 they are a bargain - elsewhere $12 is the lowest you will pay (on special at KMart). And "People can also return the helmets to 7-Eleven stores for recycling and receive $3 cash back"says ~~Roads~~ Transport Minister Tim Pallas.

All this is incredibly silly in my view. Somebody is subsidising all this, and somebody else will be profiting nicely. Nobody is going to saved from head injuries. User rates for the hires remain very low. All of this was predicted by seasoned cyclists like Mike Rubbo and myself, when the scheme was introduced. The scheme is a laughing stock. A helmet waiver law should be a major priority for the new State government.

Update, Dec '10. Still little takeup of the scheme. The Age 29 Nov '10. We now have a new Liberal party state government for the first time in over a decade. I wonder what they will do?

Update Oct '11. Riders now over 300 per day, which is still embarrassingly few. The Age Article of Oct 9 cites excuses. I am not buying any of them. It's the helmets. Dr Chris Rissell writing in The Conversation.

The Scandal of the Victoria Bicycle Strategy (2009)

2011-08-21T06:20:00.000-07:00

This article and this in The Age newspaper reveal that neither the present (Liberal) government in Victoria, Australia or the past (Labor) have acted on the state's Cycling Strategy, produced in 2009. The Strategy has now been evaluated by the Auditor General of Victoria, Dr Des Pearson, in Aug 2011 and he found little progress has been made on the key recommendations and actions over the last 2.5 years.

The particular issue of interest to readers is that little effort has been made since 2009 to address the complexities of road infrastructure - eg where councils and VicRoads have to be consulted, or where significant spending would be needed across councils and state bodies. This would be the case with terrible Canning Street/Princes Hill crossing discussed in this blog, and with the ever-increasing waits that we have to endure at more and more traffic lights - as around Carlton. The relevant section is this one -

3.6 Addressing stakeholder issues. The Department and VicRoads have not:

addressed conflicts and delays where cyclists cross road intersections and where cyclists and pedestrians use shared paths

provided updated guidance on the construction, maintenance, auditing and retrofitting of shared bicycle paths

acted to improve policy and program coordination across government
adequately addressed the concerns of councils regarding how maintenance will be funded.

I am pleased that the truth is out - it was long suspected. The purpose of this blog was to show that cyclists in Melbourne have a very hard time on the roads, partly because of bad infrastructure, and that grand plans laid out in strategy documents result in very little concrete action. The current state government is worse than the last at fixing crap cycle lanes in Melbourne. The work has not been funded, there is very little data collected on cycling, and priorities for the major transport agencies clearly lie elsewhere. Here is a letter I sent to The Age, which was not printed.

Letter to The Age , sent Thursday, August 18, 2011

In “No way to spin it, the wheels are off” (18 Aug) we learn from an Auditor General’s report that the 2009 Victorian Cycling Strategy has been all but discarded by the present State government. This embarrassing news comes as Melbourne fêtes Cadel Evans, and Melbourne has been declared the world’s second “bicycle city” by the Union Cycliste Internationale.

If the Baillieu government was happy to embrace the award, then it actually needs to follow through on its own Cycling Strategy, as should our local governments who also produce such strategy documents. This means 1) spending real money on actually building missing links and addressing dangers in the cycle network 2) listening to regular cyclists when designing bike infrastructure, rather than relying on non-cycling transport planners 3) sorting out the complex governance of our roads - between Vic Roads, local councils, and private landowners such that facilities actually get built. Fourthly, as the article says, there has so far been no significant action to make “car travel less attractive” through congestion charging and similar measures in the inner city, as in London and other cities. Addressing these four points could result in creating a genuine ‘bicycle city’.

However several letters were published in response to the article, and an editorial was printed on Saturday 20 Aug 2011 blaming government failures. Also Alan Davies has an extended commentary on his blog. We will wait to see if there is any reaction from the government, but do not hold your breath. They are still basking in the glow of Cadel Evans winning the Tour, and the 'Bike City' designation for Melboune. The difficulty for me is that my letters and protests about crapness of bike infrastructure have probably been ignored, as have thousands of others I suspect.

The fact that cycling in inner Melbourne and the central business district has grown by about 50% during the last four years, as the Auditor's report says, and surely this must be worth something. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be worth actual investment, as opposed to lines in a Strategy document.

The struggle continues.

Compendium of bike lane videos

2011-08-08T05:45:00.000-07:00

http://wn.com/badly_designed_cycle_lane

Don't park in cycle lanes

2011-08-08T04:46:00.000-07:00

Staged, but good

Congratulations to Cadel Evans

2011-07-24T08:54:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Cadel Evans on winning the 2011 Tour de France. He attended school and has many years residence in the Melbourne suburbs, currently resides Barwon Heads down on the VIC coast.

I bet he wouldn't stand for any crap cycle lanes in Melbourne!

New Mike Rubbo video takes aim

2011-07-17T06:52:00.000-07:00

March 2011. He interviews Yarra City Councillor, Jackie Fristacky (Yarra) and Mike looks at the good and bad points of Yarra and City of Melbourne's bike infrastructure. Why you can't cycle through a park in the City has long puzzled visitors and commuters. And the good old Melbourne Bike Share scheme gets another serve - despite protestations by Bicycle Victoria and others, its the helmet laws that reduces usage, stupid..... (scroll to the second half)

Cycling thrives in Melbourne, Does Bike Share contribute? Video presentation to the Velo City Conference in Seville, Spain, March 25th. 2011. http://vimeo.com/21652428

Cycling thrives in Melbourne, Does Bike Share contribute? from mike rubbo on Vimeo.

Crap cycle lane policy in New York

2011-06-09T16:55:00.000-07:00

Crap cycle lane policy in New York. The lanes are fine but they are full of crap.

The YouTube video by Casey Neistat has gone viral - 418,340 views in three days.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2011/jun/09/casey-neistat-bike-lane

Danny MacAskill ignores a "Cyclists Dismount" sign

2011-01-12T18:25:00.000-08:00

And shows what to do when encountering a dangerous bridge!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj6ho1-G6tw

Darebin lack of cycling funding

2011-01-07T09:42:00.000-08:00

Suzanne Robson. 14 Dec 10. Darebin lack of cycling funding wheel setback. The Preston Leader.

Highlights a lack of funding for new cycle infrastructure in Darebin, northern suburbs of Melbourne. Darebin has made some uninspired decisions in recent years and there is a lot of lazy infrastructure planning - more white lines, rather than tackling dangerous spots and pinch points that are heavily used by cyclists. I have highlighted some of these on this site.

Update 2011 New Darebin cycling strategy being developed. Some community input. Let us hope it redresses the lethal spots like the High Street to Clifton Hill bridge over the Merri Creek.

New VIC state bike planning guidelines

2010-11-10T04:24:00.000-08:00

Apparently things are moving along.
http://www.bv.com.au/change-the-world/42133/

New state guidelines have been issued by the Dept. of Transport in Oct 2010. http://media.bv.com.au:8080/file/file/VTP%20Cycling%20Strategy_Guidelines.pdf

The document is aimed at the major culprits - road builders and managers - and argues for full consideration of bicycle facilities in future road planning and building. Even along major roads, like in Copenhagen.

I don't see anything here about fixing up the crap cycle lanes that are incomplete or dangerous, however. And builders can get out of building new facilities by claiming they are unecessary or unsuitable for the location. So the policy is welcome but needs to be tested.

contact: Department of Transport, Sustainable and Active Transport Policy, walkingandcycling "at" transport.vic.gov.au

BETS - Bicycle Emissions Trading Scheme

2010-08-23T21:49:00.000-07:00

Bicycle Based Emissions Trading proposal from Dr Paul Mulvaney, University of Melbourne.

Research corner

2010-08-21T00:20:00.000-07:00

Wearing A Helmet Puts Cyclists At Risk, Suggests Research ScienceDaily (Sep. 13, 2006). Dr Ian Walker's research in Bath, UK. Wear a helmet and drivers pass you closer. Are you listening, Bicycle Victoria?
- See also research on helmets collected here - an interesting range of studies
ABC radio broadcast on helmet laws on 21 Sept '10
A Virtuous Cycle: Safety In Numbers For Bicycle Riders ScienceDaily (Sep. 7, 2008) Dr Chris Rissel, Sydney Uni says "We should create a cycling friendly environment and accentuate cycling's positives rather than stress negatives with 'safety campaigns' that focus on cyclists without addressing drivers and road conditions. Reminding people of injury rates and risks, to wear helmets and reflective visible clothes has the unintended effect of reinforcing fears of cycling which discourages people from cycling." Motorists seem to change their behaviour and drive more safely when they see more cyclists and pedestrians around.
Major review article here Pucher J, J Dill and S Handy.2010. Infrastructure, Programs and Policies to Increase Bicycling: An International Review," Preventive Medicine, Vol. 50, No. S1, January 2010, pp S106-S125 Click here for PDF.
Cycle Resource Centre from the Australian National Cycling Strategy 2005-10, Australia

News from Waltham Forest

2010-08-15T08:37:00.001-07:00

Bad infrastructure in the London suburbs
http://crapwalthamforest.blogspot.com/2009/03/absolutely-fabulous.html

Rushall Station underpass, Rushall Bridge, Koonda Lat Bridge

2010-08-08T06:44:00.000-07:00

Local Council: City of Yarra, and Darebin Council on north side of Creek

The Rushall Bridge and station. My image, no copyright

Responsibility: VicTrack and Yarra Council. Possibly Vic Parks?
Contact: try MD at City of Yarra for update on progress, or

The Rushall Bridge looking north (BV image).

Northern suburbs residents will doubtless be familiar with the multi-decade old campaign to get decent cycle access under, and around, Rushall Station (see linked BV map). There is a lovely narrow bridge the crosses the Merri Creek from Westgarth to the north (postcode 3070) (see right), to Rushall Station, which is in North Fitzroy, after which you have multiple options to get the Melbourne City Centre - I tend to go straight on, on Falconer St. See Nearmap below for stunning images.
View Large Map

As hundreds of you will also be aware, this is a major commuter route with a bike passing every few seconds in the rush-hours (300 or so in the morning, BV says - in March 2010 the 2 hr morning peak had a count of 390).

The historic problems have been:

Convoluted narrow underpass under Rushall Station, shared with pedestrians. Lots of no-cycling signs, that are rightfully ignored because they are an excuse for planner inaction on cycle infrastructure. Occasional clashes with pedestrians, lots of 'excuse-me' in the underpass, and too much slowing down.

Rushall Station path showing lack of access to
T Kidney Reserve, over the fence (BV image)

No access (see right) to Thomas Kidney Reserve, to the north west side of the railway tracks, from the Station. People, their dogs, and children have to climb a steel fence to gain access from Rushall Station, and then walk along the top of a Creek-side cliff, to attain the grassland Reserve and the bike path through it (a path that looks old, and was never completed up to the Station-currently it ends in the Creek!).

There was some cause for hope in early 2010 that, finally, Rushall Station would be 'fixed' with a wider, or better, cycle access to cross the railway tracks (somehow). The Yarra Bicycle Strategy 2010-15 mentions on page 44 that money has now been allocated to improve access. It says:

3.2 Merri Creek Trail at Rushall Station. Construction of new path on the east of Rushall Station to ensure the Merri Creek Trail bypasses the station underpass. Project will link existing trail south of the station to Rushall Reserve and eventually, the new crossing identified in 3.1 above. Project is consistent with the Merri Creek Trail Review. Yarra City Council with funding support of Parks Victoria. 2010 $375k (split 50/50)

However in Dec 2010, there was still no sign of any works commencing (but I did see someone who might have been an engineer there in August), and things actually got worse. In addition, a sign went up on the Rushall Bridge saying 'cyclists dismount, narrow bridge'. This is new - you could always cycle over this bridge in the past and it is a great crossing away from cars - there aren't other crossing points close by. We all ignore the sign - it appears to have no statutory authority, and anyway this bridge is not narrow - two bikes or prams can pass easily, there is zero history of accidents, and the bridge is the same width as all the older sections of the Capital City Trail, which has no such 'dismount' signs along its length!

Koonda Lat Bridge, N Fitzroy/Merri (BV image)

In addition, temporary alert signs have been added around the local area, reminding cyclists that they could use an alternative route. This is the new Koonda Lat Bridge a few hundred meters to the west. The new bridge was announced by John Brumby a couple of years ago with a brief fanfare, and then built, with a combination of State and local funds, using an existing pipe bridge and in conjunction with Melbourne Water relaying the pipe.

The bridge is welcome, but if anybody thinks this new Bridge will get good cycle traffic they are dreaming:

The Koonda Lat Bridge is not easily accessed, and cyclists like to take a direct route, unless they are out for a weekend meander. If you live where I live, it takes you 500m out of your way, every day, day-in, day-out on the commute.
The Koonda Lat Bridge does not head towards the city - it is strongly angled away from it - if you are heading southbound, it angles east.
A major screwup is that if you approach the Koonda Lat Bridge from the east on Westgarth Street, you find yourself having to go cross-country to access it - there is no cycle path approaching it from the east! Bike planners in Darebin Council could have thought of this.From Darebin Council, Aug '10 - this is because of underground service cables etc.
Also the Bridge could be useful for the many St George's Rd cycle commuters coming from the north west and heading south, but only if they exit the obvious route into the city that they are on, to go out of their way to get to the Bridge in a big loop they takes an extra 5 minutes.

I conclude that the two recent signs on the Merri Bridge at Rushall Station exacerbate what is already a crap cycle lane as it goes under the Station. But this is an absolutely vital route. It has in no way be replaced by Koonda Lat - if you live in Darebin or beyond, this is an obvious crossing point. I worry that Councils are trying to pass the buck - to suggest to riders that it would be easier to cycle off 400 m to the west, and use another bridge, even if that one is poorly located. And to say that you should dismount on the Rushall Bridge is just cheeky. Nobody has dismounted to cross that one in decades (unless they have stopped to throw shopping trolleys in the Creek or feed the ducks!). Meanwhile, the 2 major constraints in and around Rushall Station remain unresolved.

Inaction on Rushall Station is already legendary. It is a classic case of Strategy Planning not resulting in anything for years at a time, because "complex partnerships" would be involved. Improvements have been mentioned in almost every transport plan and cycle strategy for years, in Yarra and sometimes in Merri Creek Management and City of Darebin documents. Bicycle Victoria have a whole web page on it. But nobody can actually get themselves to start work on the problem. If this was a road, it would have been fixed long ago. Let us see if the latest funding allocation mentioned in the Yarra Bicycle Strategy 2010-15 actually comes to anything, while I am still alive..... Watch this space. Update 20 Aug '10 - Darebin Sustainable Transport say they have no plans to do anything about the Bridge right now - and the sign stays up because the Bridge is 500mm too narrow to meet new codes. Strange how we (nearly 400 people a day) have been cycling over it all these years without problems then, and it still has a cyclist painted on it....

Traffic modelling

2010-08-03T19:34:00.000-07:00

Actually, traffic modelling is pretty boring for cyclists, since we generally breeze past traffic jams or avoid them. This posting from Youtube and showing www.bicyclecouncil.org (the Dutch Center of expertise on bicycle policy) models of the effects of 10% increases, and 10% decreases, in bike traffic in a city.
On the left, a 10% decline in cycling rates over the next 10 years vis-à-vis, on the right, a 10% increase in cycling.
Check it http://sexify.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/the-bicycle-as-cure-for-traffic/

Queen's Parade, Clifton Hill

2010-06-21T09:52:00.000-07:00

Location: Queen's Parade Clifton Hill, between Delbridge and Grant Streets.
Council: City of Yarra, although this may also involve VicRoads or Dept.Transport. Unsure.
Responsibility: There are a large number of possibilities. Try starting with MD
The Problem: There you are, slogging north-east uphill to escape the city fumes, on a nice wide Queen's Parade cycle lane, up to the the Clifton Hill shops. OK half of the lane becomes unrideable bluestone. Suddenly, the cycle lane disappears. No signage, no explanation. Traffic roars behind you, now with impunity. You can carry straight on, ignoring the bluestong gutter that tales up most of the lane and launching onto the unmarked tarmac ahead - unmarked except for the remnants of the old dashed cycle lane that was once there, that is. Most cyclists do this.
The others veer left onto the safer access lane, pictured. There, you trundle on, veer right again, until the lane starts up again, 60m further on.You need to do that to get to the traffic lights.
This an extraordinarily crap solution to road sharing.
Solution: All that bluestone gutting and grass could house a lane you could actually ride on. But that would cost more money. So let's just leave it to cyclist's intuition, shall we? How about some signage at least?
View Larger Map

Swanston Street/Faraday Street, Carlton

2010-06-21T09:28:00.000-07:00

Location: Corner of Faraday St and Swanston St, Carlton.
Responsibility:

Council: Melbourne City Council

Description: Approaching the busy Swanston Street near the University of Melbourne from the east, travelling down Faraday Street, you encounter this strange bit of green cycle lane just a few metres long. Nobody I know has any idea what you are supposed to do when you reach the end of it, and it seems to serve no purpose (I noticed the photo shows a sign, in the second photo-it has taken me 3 yrs to notice that!). There is a cycle lane on the road, which was painted in a bit later. Had you wanted to turn left, there is a clear marking on the road to do just that. Should you want to progress across Swanston Street to the University, on what is rather unfortunately called "Monash Road", there is a nice wide track to do that, after a large gap and a crossing. You might as well stay on the road to do that, too. So maybe there is a hyperdimensional portal at the end of the green lane. That would explain why you never see anybody using this crap cycle lane.They just disappear.
Solution: Why not just leave it there as a monument to Melburnian infrastructural puzzlement?

Gardiners Creek Trail between Glenferrie Rd and the Yarra Trail

2010-06-15T05:34:00.000-07:00

(incomplete - not ridden it)
Location: Gardiner's Creek Trail, Boroondara and Stonnington Council
Responsibility: VIC Roads and local councils
Problem: See here for the problem. http://boroondarabug.org/wiki/Gardiners_Creek_Trail_-_two_problems. In addition, this site has substantial information and sugegstions for further improvements along the longer trail length. The conclusion is that Boroondara council has done a far better job of making a sensible and useable trail than Stonnington.
Solution: see above site. "If only we could Boroondara-ise the whole trail…"

Gipps Street, Abbotsford

2010-06-15T05:15:00.000-07:00

Location: Gipps Street, Abbotsford

Responsibility: Yarra City Council

The Problem: Volumes have been written about the "Gipps Street Steps" on the Capital City Trail along the Yarra. Following the River path southward, it ends in steps before crossing the river east-west at Gipps Street. They are three flights of steps up that mar a pleasant commuter and leisure route (Bicycle Victoria image). They leave you winded and annoyed (on a bike or with a pram) or stranded (if you can't make it up or down).

The Solution: In 2009 it was reported that there is finally some action on a new bridge design, pushed by Bicycle Victoria. Then on 5 May 2010, BV reported that the state budget had allowed $2.5m for a complete redesign and solution, funded through the Parks Asset and Replacement Program (Parks Victoria).
The details are here. Nice one.
For the next few months, or maybe over a year, keep slogging...

Canning Street and Princes St, Carlton North

2010-06-14T04:34:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: TRAFFIC ENGINEERS SPOTTED 4 AUG 2010 ON SITE!!!!! WRITE TO COUNCILS AND VICROADS ASKING FOR AN UNDERPASS NOW! DECISIONS BEING MADE NOW

Location: Junction of Canning St and Princes St, North Carlton VIC 3053
Council: Yarra Council north side, City of Melbourne south side
Responsibility: Vic Roads, Yarra Council (N side), and City of Melbourne (S side). Try Anita.Curnow (Director of Network Improvements at VicRoads) "at" transport.vic.gov.au, for referral to correct person. Considerable interest from Yarra in the problem - see their Bike Advisory Committee minutes. Clr Jackie Fristacky lives on the street and cycles everywhere - watch the video which mentions the crossing!
The problem: This is probably one of the busiest cycling spots in the inner northern suburbs of Melbourne. The city centre is to the south, and lots of people live to the north. As any commuter from the area knows, there are no easy spots to cross Alexandra Parade/Princes St- it is a jammed, six lane inner city road that joins Melbourne from East to West. We desperately need north-south access that does not involve long waiting times and dangerous crossings. This means continuous cycling, i.e. underpasses and favourable through routes.
Canning Street runs north south and has long been a designated, pleasant cycle lane. In the morning you will see volumes of cyclists on it that are almost Copenhagen-like. An article in The Age in 2006 said "Many cyclists say that Canning Street provides optimum on-road conditions and VicRoads figures show that about 1600 cyclists use it every day. Yarra Council figures show that 527 cyclists rode through the Canning-Princes Street intersection in a two-hour morning peak period in 2006, compared with 289 in an equivalent period last year, an 82 per cent increase." By 2010 these figures were 2500 every day, 350 in the morning peak according to the new automatic monitor. A spot check in March 2010 revealed 923 cyclists passing in the 2 hr morning peak. It is designated an IMAP Priority Route because it "already has high bicycle usage". It is a beautiful ride.
The delight ceases when, travelling south or north, you get to the intersection with Princes Street. The Canning/Princes junction is a crap cycle lane. You are faced with a pelican crossing for bikes and peds - across three eastbound lanes, with a narrow central reserve just wide enough to take a bike, and then three more lanes. This can clearly be seen on the
map below.
View Larger Map
The problem is that the timing of the crossing in rush hour is completely biased toward the E-W highway traffic. Tens, sometimes up to a hundred, n-s bound cyclists sit there like morons waiting for the lights to change, breathing in fumes. It feels like a two minute wait. In the evening, the flow is reversed. You could almost dismount and down a beer at the Dan O'Connell pub, in the time it takes for the lights to change. In addition, prmary school students and parents crossing north clash with cyclists going south, prior to 9am. Let me stress again that this is affecting thousands of people every day, and being stranded on the tiny central island is pretty unsafe if that happens to you. The only action taken by Vic Roads has been to synchronise the traffic lights with Elgin Street to the south, but not to increase the timings of north-south priority.
View Larger Map

View Large Map

Solutions: My correspondence with Vic Transport about this one in Jan. '10 suggests there is no chance of the obvious solution being constructed - an underpass- anytime soon. I think it is viable - others do not. But this is clearly what is needed, as any bike planner from Denmark or the Netherlands would make clear. Some minor works are planned. The video above actually shows them being debated at the Bike Advisory Committee, Yarra. The Yarra Bicycle Strategy 2010-2015 mentions $20k allocated to "upgrade" the crossing, do linemarkings, etc. on the north side, but no action by Melbourne City Council or VicRoads, despite Councillor agitation from Yarra since 2000. This is not enough. If we don't get an underpass, then we at least need the timing of the crossing to be more favourable to n-s traffic and more space on the S side to beat the clash of peds/bikes in the morning. Making the e-w traffic wait a bit more, which means changing priories on all the close-by traffic lights, will send a message to motorists and avoid jaywalking (or jay-cycling) which is almost unavoidable at this immensely frustrating location. Again, if cycle priorities are the norm in Netherlands and Denmark, why not here?

Steep path at Hall Reserve, Capital City Trail

2010-05-30T04:07:00.000-07:00

Location: Merri Creek Trail/Capital City Trail, under Heidelberg Rd, Clifton Hill, Melbourne
Local Council: Yarra Council; Melbourne Water must be consulted about any works under the bridge.

Responsibility: Yarra Council. Try Mark Kulyk was the contact person for the Bike Strategy of the council, 2010, but has moved on. You might try MD who works on bike paths

Description: Merri Creek has a cycle path, installed over the last two decades. This section forms part of the Capital City Trail, which takes you to the CBD. Heading city-bound, you go under the Heidelberg Road bridge, round a blind corner, and are faced with a crap cycle lane of huge proportions - a steep incline often covered with debris, up to Hall Reserve, a nice bit of parkland between houses and Creek.
Only the fit and those with gears can make it up. For everybody else it is get off and walk. For those with toddlers or prams it is a nightmare. Wheelchair, no chance. Coming down, you need very good brakes.

If this has not been enough, in early 2010 Yarra Council made things considerably worse by re-routing the paths at the top of the hill in Halls Reserve, adding another half a meter to the distance you have to climb at the top of the hill (see last photo below). We understand what they were doing but this was tackling the wrong issue first. They were carrying out path realignments suggested in the the Merri Creek Trail Review of 2007 but have made things worse for cyclists going up and down the hill. That earlier document, by the way, makes no suggestions about fixing the steep slope, other than to suggest cyclists dismount going down, with signs to that effect (we all ignore them). It also recommended a barrier at the top to slow downward cyclists. That would be really great if you were struggling uphill, wouldn't it? (there used to be one-it was removed).

With Spensley Street Primary School kids and parents using this path as the major route from the northern part of their school catchment, the hill is an accident waiting to happen, as well as just intensely annoying. Every morning you will meet 6 year old kids pushing their bikes up, angry parents, and a range of other faster commuters. Near misses every week.
Solution: Simply telling people to dismount is sloppy bike planning. Regrade the path. No barriers. A switchback is one solution. Simply flattening the slope a bit, at the top, would do. Is this prioritised in the Yarra Bicycle Strategy 2010-2015? No. I am not convinced the author of that document ever rode this path, which is an essential city trail - hence its name. There are vague statements in the Strategy about the difficulties of fixing paths that are not up to code, but no plans to actually spend any money.
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Update, 1 June 2010. It gets worse. See photo. Council workmen came today to stop peds and cyclists taking a shortcut across the grass at the top of the slope, to reduce the uphill distance they travel. Incomprehensible wooden barriers have been installed (now tan barked as well). This builds on their spectacular effort to protect grass from being walked on, with a fence, April 2010. None of this is of any benefit to park users, whether pedestrians, dogs, cyclists, or anybody else. The workmen would not talk to me. Meanwhile the slope isn't getting any less steep. The photo shows it's base and the new, higher top. This would definitely make it into my top 50 Crap Cycles Lanes of Melbourne. Publishers for a book out there?