Lord Mayor and Councillors
City of Melbourne
I am writing to request that the City of
Melbourne defer the development and construction of the proposed bike
lane in St Kilda Road and that the development be referred for
consideration at the next City of Melbourne Future Melbourne Committee.
The current City Council has not considered or approved the project other than approve the Council's Budget and 4 year plan.
There are a number of major issues of concern in relation to the proposed design that should be reviewed.
LATROBE STREET BIKE LANE
The Latrobe Street bike lane has been a complete disaster with growing concern about public safety and suitability of this design. The Lord Mayor himself on public radio has indicated as such and that the City of Melbourne needs to review the development and make a number of changes to the design including the removal of on street parking.
It would be prudent that such a review is completed prior to the commencement of construction of a similar bicycle lane in St Kilda Road.
PUBLIC SAFETY
The section of St Kilda Road between Princess Bridge and Linlithgow Avenue is widely used by bus operators and members of the public visiting with family and friends the Arts precinct and the neighboring Gardens.
The proposed development could be in breach of the Equal Opportunities Act in that it severely disadvantages disabled by denying them access to safe parking. Council needs to contact and have reviewed the proposed design by the Victorian Disabilities Advocate
The proposed lane design will force motorists to park on the outside of the bike lane three meters from the footpath creating a major risk to pedestrian and motorist safety.
Passengers
alighting from parked vehicles will have to negotiate a balancing act
on the one meter concrete strip and check for bicycles racing down the
bike lane whilst running to reach the footpath on the other side. The
design will place families with children and the elderly safety at
serious risk. Mums with prams or those with wheel chairs will not be
able to safely park their cars in the 3 hour parking zones. Bus drivers
and taxi operators will have similar safety concerns when dropping off
passengers.
The proposed "island of danger"
separation barrier will be installed in the south bound location
between Princes Bridge and Linlithgow Avenue south of the Floral Clock.
Beyond Linlithgow Avenue the bike lane will revert back into the
standard bike lane design adding to confusion and further road safety concerns.Drivers exiting a vehicle will be forced into opening car doors into congested on coming road traffic causing a further risk to motorist safety.
BUS PARKING - DROP OFF ZONE
The proposed design is a serious threat to the safety of passengers exiting the bus with passengers having step onto the one metre concrete separation barrier, then wait to ensure there are no bicycles bearing down on them before crossing the two metre bike path on to the adjacent footpath. The situation is made worst when there are 40 other passengers all wanting to exit the bus at the same time and even worst again in an emergency situation.
ALTERNATIVE DESIGNS
The City of Melbourne needs to reconsider alternative designs that addresses the above safety issues.
In discussion with Senior City of Melbourne Engineers I understand that there was a preferred alternative design similar to the design implemented in Claredon Street East Melbourne.
A better and much cheaper option is to widen the existing bike path and delineate it from parked cars by line marking as is the case in Clarendon Street East Melbourne. This would allow sufficient room for cyclists to pass without entering in to the parked car door zone and for the same cost could be extended past the Shine up to Domain Road and beyond. They could also apply the same treatment to the other side adjacent to the Art Gallery and Concert Hall giving ratepayers more value for their dollar.
The alternative design would be cheaper in cost to install and would allow the City of Melbourne to greater flexibility in implementing and changes that may be required.
The Claredon Street design solution addresses many of not all of the major concerns in relation to public safety without placing at risk commuter and pedestrian safety.
Further the Claredon St design solution is consistent with the other section of bicycle lane in St Kilda Road and Princes Bridge. The savings in cost would allow the city of Melbourne in conjunction with VicRoads to extend the alternative design bike path to include the entire stretch of St Kilda Road in both directions further adding to cyclist and pedestrian safety.
EMERGENCY ACCESS
St Kilda Road is a major access point for emergency vehicles from and to The Alfred Hospital in Commercial Rd
The construction of the separated bicycle lane barrier would limit movement and egress options for emergency vehicles.
As I understand Emergency services have not been
consulted on the proposed design and the alternative options. The
implementation of the Claredeon Street design solution would enable
greater flexibility and access for emergency vehicles.
.
.
REVIEW OF PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT
It is fundamental and prudent that the City of Melbourne that the Council undertake a comprehensive review of the Latrobe Street bike lane and the proposed design of the St Kilda Rd bicycle plan.
In light of the above issues of concern. Should any person be injured as a result of the proposed development Council would be held liable for any injury and the accident would not be covered by the Victorian Motor Accident Insurance Scheme if a vehicle is not involved.
I therefore request that the City of Melbourne as a
matter of urgency defer the construction of the proposed development and
refer the project for further consideration at a Future Melbourne
Committee and that members of the public and other stakeholders be
proposed the opportunity to make further submission on the impact of the
proposed design and the alternative options/
Should you require further information I can be contacted via return email
Yours faithfully
Anthony van der Craats
South Yarra
cc Victorian Minster for Roads, State Opposition Spokesperson for Roads, RACV, Members of Parliament and the Media
3 comments:
here's a simple solution... just get rid of the lane used for car parking.
you will eliminate the terrible terrible dangers to people exiting their vehicles. it will alleviate the congestion that might be caused the single lane. bingo.
yes that is one solution but it does not address the issue of cost and design
They could have achieved the same safety outcome by painting a wider lane as is the case in Claredon St East Melbourne
One aspect of good road design is consistency in the road conditions. For the cost of constructing the congestion barrier, which is a risk to other road users safety, they could have installed 4Km of delineated bike lane.
I would be in favour of closing down Princes bridge to non essential traffic but that requires an alternative access point. There i nothing to gain by displacing traffic that causes problems else where in the system. The City Council and Vicroads should look at proving upgraded access to Batman Ave/.Exhibtion Street
Geoff Robinson and the Council is not about saving money just awarding expensive contracts that engineer congestion.
the proposed design could be made simpler and more using 60degree parking, rather than wasting a whole metre strip of space with concrete, minimising the risk of cardooring cyclists. naturally, the speed limits would have to be reduced to 40kmh in the service lane along with traffic calming devices, but that might be compensated by removing the off-peak parking spaces from the centre lanes of st kilda road to improve traffic flow.
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