Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Princes Bridge Traffic Chaos.

Morning traffic on Sta Kilda Road and Princes Bridge was pure mayhem following the City of Melbourne decision to close down Princes Bridge to one lane. Traffic banked up St Kilda Road past the Art Galley back to Grant Street and beyond.

The City of Melbourne has placed its spin on the first day of lane closures on Princes Bridge with a false claim that the transition went well.  To the contrary...

An estimated 500 to 600 bikes travelled over Princes Bride in the morning and then dropped off with very few bikes counted in the mid afternoon.  The bike lane remaining void of bicycle traffic most of the time.

Cyclists safety was at risk at the North end of the Bridge where the lane narrows as cars enter the two lane queuing bay before Flinders Street with most cars turning right into Flinders Street.

The two lane holding bay was half empty, with only one lane of traffic feeding the turning bay it was unable to fill up before traffic was stopped by traffic lights. Either the City Council has not updated traffic signals or their modelling was seriously flawed.

The Melbourne Tourist bus reporting that it took twice as long to cross the bridge then normal.

Melbourne City Council Engineers were out and about monitoring the situation.

Engineering Services Manager Geoff Robinson look on and turned a blind eye to numerous cyclist crossing Swanston Street from Batman Av.Princes Walk to travelling north using the pedestrian crossing without first dismounting, placing pedestrian safety at risk.


 Traffic congestion in one lane whilst Bike lane remains free of bikes.
 Holding bay left half vacant as one lane is unable to fill it within the regulating traffic light cycle
 Police called by City Engineers, City of Melbourne misuse of CCTV












Police Van blocking Bike lane at point in the road where traffic enters the holding bay
Cyclist ignoring traffic signals
 City Engineers survey the situation
Cyclists illegal crossing at pedestrian lights 
 Pedestrians safety placed at risk
 Cyclist travelling at full speed at pedestrian crossing failed to dismount. Police turn a blind eye as do City Engineers
 Engineering Services Manager Geoff Robinson looks on
 Truck cuts into bike lane at Northern end of Princes Bridge where it enters the holding turning bay
 Holding turning bay left half vacant
 Taxis forced into road safety point where two lanes merge into one 




Midday traffic congestion. Bike lane void of bikes

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

who cares if cyclists ride across crossing - it's hard to agree this is a pressing road safety problem. in any case, they're coming off the shared path along the Yarra, not the new lane on Princess Bride.

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