New bike lanes for Royal Parade and Flemington Rd

New bike lanes for Royal Parade and Flemington Rd
Ellen Sandell

For several years, I’ve been advocating loudly to the state government to fix the bike lanes on Royal Parade and Flemington Rd.

They’re some of the most unsafe bike routes in the inner city, with bikes squished between moving and parked cars, resulting in a high rate of injuries and accidents.

These are important routes for people getting from Kensington, Flemington, North Melbourne, Parkville, Carlton and further afield, to and from the CBD. We know that safer bike lanes mean less congestion on our roads making it easier for both cars and cyclists to navigate the roads. Cycling is also good for our health and environment.

In my past few meetings with the Treasurer and Transport Minister I have given them fully costed plans for proper separated bike lanes on these roads and asked that they be funded in the Budget. Therefore, I was so pleased to hear the state government recently announce these roads had been earmarked for pop-up bike lanes.

What does this mean, exactly? The Victorian Government has released a map where they propose to build “pop-up” bike lanes (which will hopefully become permanent). Royal Parade (south-bound only) and Flemington Rd in its entirety is earmarked for pop-up lanes. The map is not final and is open for community consultation before an ultimate decision is made. The government hasn’t yet decided what treatments will be will used to create the pop-up lanes. They may be just painted green or be built as proper safe separated bike lanes.

Credit also goes to the City of Melbourne, especially our Greens councillors Rohan Leppert, Olivia Ball, and previously Cr Cathy Oke, who have worked hard to advocate for this. The City of Melbourne will partially or fully fund many of these bike lanes, with a decent chunk of money hopefully provided by the state government.

To make these bike lanes a reality, we need your help.

Please go to vicroads.vic.gov.au/pop-up-bike-lanes and take part in the community consultation. Tell the state government we urgently need proper safe separated bike lanes on Royal Parade and Flemington Rd. Well done to everyone who has helped us get to this point. We’re hopefully on the final stretch now.

As always, if there’s anything I can help you with, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at [email protected]

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