Illustration: Matt Davidson.
Honestly, why doesn't Robert Doyle erect barricades, put up
signs and establish checkpoints around the city to reinforce the
obvious? If you're not on two legs, two wheels or public transport,
Melbourne doesn't want you any more. Our city no longer likes motorists
or their cars and it would be better for everyone if the lord mayor just
came out and said it.
He came close last year, when he wrote in the foreword to the Transport Plan for Melbourne: ''We are a walking and cycling city, and council provides infrastructure to improve the safety and convenience of cyclists and pedestrians.''
I'll try to remember that when next I'm forced to drive into town because the weather's foul or the train or tram systems fail me. Which is pretty often.
The latest salvo against drivers came last week when the council announced it would reduce northbound traffic lanes from two to one on the western side of Princes Bridge to make way for ''a wide green bicycle lane''.
He came close last year, when he wrote in the foreword to the Transport Plan for Melbourne: ''We are a walking and cycling city, and council provides infrastructure to improve the safety and convenience of cyclists and pedestrians.''
I'll try to remember that when next I'm forced to drive into town because the weather's foul or the train or tram systems fail me. Which is pretty often.
The latest salvo against drivers came last week when the council announced it would reduce northbound traffic lanes from two to one on the western side of Princes Bridge to make way for ''a wide green bicycle lane''.
It's supposed to be a three-month trial, with roadworks
beginning in June, but I'll bet the lord mayoral Lycra that we will
never get that second lane back. (Yes, he wears it on his bike rides;
sorry for that image.)
The council says the switch should improve safety by ''moving
cyclists from the footpath, which is often crowded, onto their own
larger, dedicated lane on the road''.
In a tortured attempt at minimising anger and frustration
among motorists forced to queue even longer on St Kilda Road approaches,
Doyle said it would affect only 22 cars. Strictly speaking, that's
probably true at any given time. But it will be happening over and over
again, a fact the lord mayor did not acknowledge.
Neither did the council press release, which said
disingenuously: ''There will be no significant impact to travel times
and, while queues will be longer, the same number of vehicles will be
able to pass through the [Flinders Street] intersection.'' Really? I
suspect it will take less time to crawl across the bridge on hands and
knees than it will be to drive.
I have no argument with separating cyclists and pedestrians,
but I'm not sure it should be at the expense of motorists. Besides, a
two-wheeled Fast & Furious plays out every night on the footpaths
immediately below Princes Bridge's south side, and nothing is done about
that.
Anyone who has walked along Yarra Promenade by Crown Casino
or Southbank Promenade's restaurant strip during the evening peak knows
they are at risk from commuting cyclists. The speed limit for bicycles
there is supposed to be 10km/h, but few take notice of it. A drugged-up
Lance Armstrong would have trouble keeping up with some of them.
Indeed, when I was editing the Herald Sun five years
ago, we hired a speed-gun expert to monitor bicycle traffic on the
promenades and found that many cyclists were travelling at twice the
speed limit and, in some cases, more. A recent walk there indicated
nothing's changed.
The council has done little or nothing to deal with that -
maybe it's because while they are happy to put limits on drivers, they
are disinclined to upset the cycling lobby.
The RACV was quick to condemn the council's Princes Bridge
plan, calling it ''yet another solution on the cheap'' that would do
little to improve congestion or safety. Their roads and traffic manager,
Dave Jones, said it proved the council had learnt nothing from the
problems it created through ill-considered changes to La Trobe Street
traffic flows. He might have also cited changes to Albert Street on the
eastern fringe of the city, where similar ''Copenhagen-style'' bicycle
lanes - wedged between parked cars and the footpath - continue to delay
and confound motorists and their passengers, who have to dodge cyclists
when they alight from vehicles.
The pain for motorists does not end there: on-street parking
fees are about to jump almost 40 per cent to $5.50 an hour, while rates
in council car parks can be double that. (Our private car parks are
already among the most expensive in the world.) All in the name of a
glossy Transport Plan. Forgive my scepticism, but it sounds like nothing
more than a grab for cash under the guise of greening the place. The
council is not the first enterprise to do that.
This undeclared war on motorists can't eliminate cars
entirely, though. If that was truly the goal, the council would get rid
of on-street parking and turn the space over to pedestrians and
cyclists, without penalising moving traffic. But it needs the revenue
from parking meters, not to mention fines: it expects to collect $40
million in infringements in the next financial year, aided by those
insidious sensors the Doyle administration has been installing in
spaces across the city. They mean you can be ticketed even though your
meter might show minutes remaining.
It's no wonder people are taking their business elsewhere.
Bruce Guthrie is a former editor of The Age and The Sunday Age.
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