Bicycle Network Victoria: Better Transport

How to improve Swanston St for bike riders

We think that the street can be improved further. To do this we need your help.

Swanston Street has be transformed since 1992 when private motor vehicles were discouraged and the street set up for tram passengers, pedestrians and bike riders.

Those changes have been a success. Pedestrian numbers have more than doubled, rider numbers have gone up 7 times! The thousands of tram passengers are no longer held up by a few motor vehicles. Commercial businesses flourish on this traffic reduced street.

Yes, there are problems. We think that the street can be improved further. To do this we need your help.

Contact Bicycle Network Victoria

We have our people out on Swanston St speaking to riders - look out for the orange T-Shirts!

Action

There is no single magic bullet that will improve the route. We see the route running from College Crescent in the north to the Junction in the south. This includes the CBD zone restricted to motor vehicles.

Measures to improve the route include:

Priority initiatives
•    Remove the coaches
•    Ban commercial vehicle parking in peak hour
•    Further restrict private motor vehicle access times
•    Increase compliance to private motor vehicle bans
•    Restrict motor vehicles from the section past the City Baths and RMIT between LaTrobe Street and Flinders Street
•    Install a bike lane northbound with green paint and Vibraline from the departure side of Franklin to Victoria Parade.
•    Turn one of the southbound motor vehicle lanes on Princes Bridge into a bicycle lane.
•    Install a bike lane southbound with green paint and Vibraline from the pedestrian signals at the south end of Princes Bridge to the start of the bike lanes where the outer median separators begin.
•    Review the lane past the Arts Centre to Princes Bridge northbound, straighten, widen and use green paint where possible.
•    Realign the lane northbound at the north end of Princes Bridge so that it is continuous across the bridge and past the station.

In addition we:
•    Support the tram platform works between Victoria Parade and Grattan Street
•    Have requested that the bike speed bumps be removed from Swanston Street in particular the redundant speed bumps southbound past the City Square.
•    Support the investigation of rubber inserts in the low use tram tracks near the historic tram control shed opposite the City Baths where riders have to turn right across the tracks.
•    Asked for a study for the section above Grattan Street to College Crescent

Minister Pallas has agreed to commission a study on St Kilda Road to see if it would be possible to lay out the street in another way that makes it better for bike riders without hindering tram or motor vehicle movements. We support this study.

The Minister also agreed to have VicRoads install green paint in the bike lane at intersections along St Kilda Road.

Your support will make a difference

Help us push these and other measures forward in our work with the City of Melbourne, City of Port Philip and VicRoads.

We will keep everyone informed of our progress on our web site. Follow the campaign here.

When you register as a Friend – which doesn’t cost you any money – we will stay in touch with emails that include the Swanston Street St Kilda Road story. If we know you, we can ask you to write at key moments in the campaign.

When you become a member you give us more weight in our negotiations with the various government bodies. We will also send you our fortnightly In the Loop newsletter to keep you up to date with all the issues in your bike riding world.

Contact Bicycle Network Victoria

Mayoral elections 2008

We are troubled that two candidates in the Melbourne City Council elections 2008 are running on a platform to put private motor vehicles back into Swanston Street.

The road network around the city has changed in the last 15 years, adapting itself to Swanston Street.

To reopen the street to private motor vehicles now would wreck the benefits of all that investment and improvement and turn Swanston Street back into the infamous traffic sewer it once was.

It is time for riders to prepare to defend the Street.

You can follow our efforts on our web site.

When you register as a Friend we will stay in touch with emails and we can ask you to write at key moments in the campaign.

When you become a member, you give us more weight in our negotiations with the various government bodies. We will also send you our fortnightly update In the Loop to keep you up to date.

The struggle to improve Swanston Street

Bicycle Network Victoria has been a staunch supporter of the Street since it was upgraded in 1992.

We have many successes. You can see in the road surface the bolts where the flagpoles were removed. There were ill-thought out plans to extend the Lonsdale Street medians, have a Sunday market and put planter boxes on the street.

In 1997 we helped keep out night time traffic. You can read our flyer here.

The last challenge to the street was in the Melbourne City Council election of 2002. Riders may be interested to read what we wrote then.

Perhaps we should leave Jan Gehl with the last word. Jan is an internationally regarded city planner. At the moment he helping transform New York streets into "an environment that is enjoyable as well as functional" for pedestrians, cyclists and transit users.

He has been influential in the development of the Melbourne CBD with his Places for People reports in 1993 and 2005. In the latest report he said:

‘Of all the things a city can do to improve its environment, Melbourne has done almost everything: more residents and students, more people streets, squares, lanes and parks, wider sidewalks, quality materials, active shop frontages, fine furnishings, new street trees and public art programs. Many opportunities provide the invitation to walk and to linger. Meeting sustainability objectives such greening the city and upgrading the public transport systems and bicycle infrastructure have been systematically addressed.’

Let’s keep improving the street and resist those who want to turn back the clock.