Planning guidelines to improve cycling
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New suburbs and new buildings should be designed to meet objectives of the Melbourne 2030 strategy
Planning for more Bicycle Parking in the City of Yarra
Apr 07 Yarra City Council has increased the amount of bike parking that will be required in all new and renovated buildings.
The new planning amendment means that the requirements for bike parking spaces in the City of Yarra are well above the requirements of the current Victorian Planning Guidelines.
Amendment C 71 will also apply to all land in the municipality meaning bike parking requirements will now cover domestic as well as business and commercial properties.
The change seeks to provide for the establishment of bicycle parking and storage facilities in new and substantially renovated dwellings, residential buildings and other residential uses. It also seeks to provide for the establishment of 'end-of-trip' facilities such as showers and change rooms, as well as secure short and long term bicycle storage in retail, commercial and industrial developments.
For more information refer to the City of Yarra's website
For more information on Bicycle Victoria's bike parking products and installation refer to The Bicycle Parking Experts.
2005 - Bicycle Victoria has successfully campaigned for the creation of Planning Provisions (VPPs) for bicycle parking and end-of-trip facilities.
No more fat buildings
Provision of adequate end-of-trip facilities will assist in increasing the mode share of cycling. The Planning Provisions, along with an increase in government commitment to provide a network of places for cyclists to ride will help reduce car dependency.
Bicycle Victoria believes that provision of bicycle parking will not put an undue burden on new developments and will, in fact, reduce the transport infrastructure costs of new developments: parking for 10 bikes can be provided in the space for one standard car.
We are frustrated that there is great unmet demand for end-of-trip facilities. We get hundreds of calls each week from people asking how they can get a place to park their bike at work or at their new apartment. We are also frustrated that most bike parking in buildings is less than ideal as it has been provided as an after thought rather than planned in the original design.
The result is bike parking that is cramped into corners of carparks and storage areas. The VPPs will see an end to this and remove this impediment to getting more people cycling more often. See our submission at bottom of this page.
On 5 October 2005 the Minister for Planning, Ms Delahunty said, "Better facilities for cyclists is one of the initiatives of Melbourne 2030, the Governments plan to protect Melbourne's liveability now and for the future".
"Cycling currently accounts for around 2 per cent of all trips in Melbourne but its potential is enormous," she said.
Executive director of the Property Council of Australia (Victoria), Jennifer Cunich, said "The guidelines reflect the market reality. In every new building these days tenants are demanding these facilities. The provisions are a sensible response to market demand."
No more fat suburbs
Rescode (Clause 56 of the Victorian Planning Provisions) also needs to be revised so that new suburbs provide effective bicycle networks so that people can make meaningful trips by bike (and foot) instead of relying on the car.
Many new suburbs are being build with with only bike path running round the artificial lake and no connections to shops, schools or community facilties such as sportgrounds or activity centres. The result is a more inactive population, especially families and children.
Melbourne 2030 strategy
Feb 04 Bicycle Victoria's submission to the draft strategy and implementation plans 1-5 calls for more concrete actions for cycling.
The Melbourne 2030 strategy provides a welcome push to make Melbourne more liveable. Bicycle Victoria supports the general direction of the strategy. However from a cycling point of view there are a number of weaknesses.
In terms of cycling the strategy must:
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Require that all transport and land use proposals include good opportunities for cycling and wlaking.
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Require each agency and area of government to fulfil its share of the responsibility for enhancing cycling.
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Set a target for cycling of 10% of all trips in metropolitan Melbourne by 2020.
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Consider the major benefits and low costs of a shift to cycling compared with the benefits and costs of other policies
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Encourage the integration of cycling and public transport.
For us the key actions to achieve a 10% modal transport share for bicycle travel are:
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To revise the Victorian Planning Provision to offer bicycle facilities meeting the agreed guidelines in all new developments and activity centres
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To raise the priority and resourcing of the Principal Bicycle Network (including the Metro Trail Network) so as to complete it by 2030.
- To integrate cycling with other means of transport - especially with public transport - by providing cycling facilities in all projects.
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To provide incentives for local government to improve cycling at the local level.
Our submission to Implementation Plan 6 – Integrated Transport will deal with how best to make cycling improvements happen. We will post our submission on this page.