By Joe leong
On behalf of Representatives of the Park Street Neighbourhood Group (PSNG) (Residents and Property Owners of Park Street, South Melbourne)

Park Street, South Melbourne is getting a Department of Transport pop-up bike lane between Kings Way and Moray Street, but you would be forgiven if you knew nothing about it.  This project is not listed on the Vic Roads pop-up bike lane program website  so there has not been the normal process for community consultation about the project.  

Rather, the pop-up bike lane has been embedded and well hidden within the Park Street ‘Streetscape Improvement project’ which according to Council of Port Phillip, aims to create a “safe, connected and refreshed streetscape” for those living on or nearby, travelling through and using Park Street.  Protected bike lanes are proposed between Moray Street and St Kilda Road with:

• permanent construction between Kings Way and St Kilda Road
• temporary provision between Moray Street and Kings Way.

The ‘temporary’ reference is the only clue you will find in the Streetscape plan to this section being part of the Department of Transport pop-up bike lane program.

Residents and the broader community were asked to have their say about the Park Street Streetscape Improvement project just before Christmas last year.  Despite being preoccupied with everything else that happens at that time of the year a number of Park Street residents raised concerns about elements of the proposal.  In particular, these concerns questioned the:

• The need for a protected bike lane as there is already one just one block away in Albert Road
• The need for ‘floating parking’ along Park Street between Kings Way and Moray Street so the bike lanes can be positioned between parked cars and the footpath, and
• The need to remove 12 parking bays between Moray Street and Kings Way

I will broadly go through the background and response we received to each of these key concerns.

Duplication of the bike path in Albert Road

Why is a second bike lane needed just one block away from a protected lane on Albert Rd, which connects the Domain to Moray St? This existing bike lane connects cyclist to local attractions like Albert Park Lake and the Aquatic Centre.  Council planners point to the findings of the Comparative Assessment of Park Street Bike Link Technical Note (sponsored by council) and prepared by CDM Research, which found that the Albert Road bike path was a poor alternative to the Park Street as it may add an extra 400m to a cyclist’s trip. For comparison, Council considers it reasonable for residents who will lose parking spaces due to the bike lane, to walk up to 400m from their property to where their car is parked. So, residents can be expected to walk 400m, but cyclists shouldn’t cycle that far!

It was also argued by Council planners that the Park Street bike lane would serve demand for, and provide a more direct link between, South Yarra and Port Melbourne, Docklands and ultimately Fisherman’s bend. On such a long route, an additional 400m seems insignificant and the question remains: why can’t the bike route go along the existing Albert Rd bike lane?

Finally, it was argued by Council planners that the Park Street bike lane was required to protect existing cyclists using Park Street as this area had been nominated as a road safety blackspot, with 20 crashes recorded in the past five years. This figure is at odds with the data presented in the Comparative Assessment of Park Street Bike Link Technical Note, which notes that 18 crashes involving cyclists were reported along Park Street between 2010-2020 with 12 occurring between Moray Street and St Kilda Road.  Most importantly, it is emphasised in this technical note that most of these accidents occurred at or near intersections and therefore the success of the bike lane in improving safety was much more dependent on intersection treatments than having a dedicated bike lane along Park Street.  

Floating Parking – where carparking is to be placed between the bike and traffic lanes

The bike lane design places it on the inside (i.e. kerbside) of parked vehicles so carparking spaces lie between the bike lane and the moving traffic lane. The critical concern about this placement, particularly amongst older residents and those with young children, is the requirement to have to cross the bike lane each time to access their vehicles. We have all seen how bike riders often travel at high speed along these dedicated bike lanes. This is an accident waiting to happen. Another concern was that this is inconsistent with the carparking along adjoining areas including Moray Street, which is positioned between the parking spots and traffic.   

Council’s solution to these concerns is to place a buffered zone up to 1.5m between the bike lane and parked cars in areas where there is adequate road width. We fail to understand how this mitigates the need to have to cross the bike lane every time you need to access your vehicle!

Loss of 12 parking bays to construct the bike lane

The proposed bike lane will have high impact on the ambience and amenity of this section of Park Street and will involve a loss of 12 car parking spaces.  As there are only 31 car park spaces in the area available to residents, this represents a significant 20% of loss of car park spaces. Council have offered to make available 4 Taxi Zone bays as a replacement for this loss. Raising concerns about the loss of this scarce resource has also not been without some baffling responses from Council planners. They argue that two of the proposed spaces to be removed are redundant childcare Permit Zone parking spaces and therefore should not be included in the tally of lost car parking spaces. But as the photo above (sourced from Google Maps archive) shows, only ever one bay was assigned for this permit zone.  

Examples like this leave the impression that the consultative process has been inadequate. It has not provided the community the opportunity to raise concerns compared with other Department of Transport bike path proposals.  

We are petitioning the Minister for Public Transport, Minister for Roads and Road Safety to rectify this by allowing the Park St proposal to be lodged on the Vic Roads pop-up bike lane program website and to then follow the same procedure as other pop-up bike lane proposals.

If you would like to sign the petition, please contact Joe Leong by email leong1309@gmail.com or call him on 0413 025 404. 

Written by Joe leong on behalf of Representatives of the Park Street Neighbourhood Group (PSNG) (Residents and Property Owners of Park Street, South Melbourne).