Bicycle NSW recently visited Melbourne for a long weekend and cycled far and wide across the city. It was fascinating to experience first-hand the different approaches to developing a bike network south of the border.
A very Melbourne intersection where the Napier Street route crosses busy Queens Parade in Fitzroy North (Bicycle NSW)
The Capital City Trail formed the basis for the explorations. This 29km shared use path circles the city centre and some inner eastern and northern suburbs of Melbourne. It links together sections of other trails, such as the Merri Creek Trail, Main Yarra Trail, Moonee Ponds Creek Trail and Inner Circle Rail Trail.
It’s a bit like a short version of the Great Sydney Bike Trail!
We also checked out the new bike lanes on St Kilda Road, some fantastic protected roundabouts in South Melbourne and two much-loved ‘quietway’ corridors in the Inner North before finding a semi-rural idyll along the Yarra Valley on the way to the Heide Art Gallery.
The bike infrastructure explored on the Bicycle NSW tour of Melbourne in October 2024 (Image: Google Maps / Bicycle NSW)
This is a two-part compilation of reflections from a couple of days in the saddle. Part Two is here. It is not a deeply researched study of Melbourne’s bicycle infrastructure treatments, although some links to more information are provided. Nor is it a comparison that pits one city against another.
It is also important to note the infrastructure in the very urban, inner metro area does not echo what is found across the sprawling suburbs, where disconnected shared paths are the norm.
However, there are definitely lessons for NSW!
One-way bike paths are very common
In fact, on-road bidirectional separated bicycle paths are almost non-existent! This was the most obvious and interesting difference between the bike infrastructure in Sydney and Melbourne.
One-way paths are located on each side of the road so riders can always travel in the same direction as adjacent vehicle traffic. This definitely helps create a coherent and legible network. Intersection treatments can be simpler and access to destination on both sides of the road is easier.
A one-way lane narrows at an intersection on William Street in the CBD, providing more space for vehicle turning lanes (top left). The William Street lanes are very flexible in width! They widen where possible but pinch points are frequent to accommodate car parking and other competing uses of the road space (top right). Victorian Government data shows the volume of bike riders on St Kilda Road has tripled since the fully separated bike lanes were installed, demonstrating that when people feel safe, trips by bike increase significantly (bottom left). On Rathdowne Street in Carlton, a wider buffer keeps bike riders away from opening car doors, but on the approach to an intersection, where there is no parking, a narrower separator creates more space for cyclists to wait at the lights (bottom right) (Images: Bicycle NSW)
City of Melbourne’s Bike Lane Design Guidelines don’t discuss two-way paths as an option for planners. And the NSW Cycleway Design Toolbox is clear that one-way lanes are the preferred treatment.
However, most of the separated cycleways built in the City of Sydney and other progressive council areas such as North Sydney, Randwick, Waverley, Inner West and Parramatta are bi-directional. New cycleways are being planned all over the state as two-way bicycle paths. Less space overall is needed, and it is cheaper and less disruptive to only build on one side of a road.
There are pros and cons of both approaches and Bicycle NSW will take a deep dive into this topic in a future article. Watch this space!
A ‘light touch’ approach is often deployed
Many of the city’s separated bicycle paths use simple, low-cost materials to reallocate road space for bicycles. This reduces the disruption of long construction periods. The kerbs are easily adjusted so the designs can be refined as usage grows.
The separated bicycle paths on Exhibition Street use Orca Civil modular separators (top left and right). Simple concrete separators at the eastern end of St Kilda Road (bottom left). Planter boxes and paint are used to repurpose car parking spaces on Little Collins Street for something better – bike parking, seating and landscaping! (Images: Bicycle NSW)
Modular bolt-down kerbs are seen all over the CBD. They are made out of recycled glass bottles by Victorian manufacturer Orca Civil. The Exhibition Street bike lanes apparently diverted 1.12million bottles from landfill!
There is a lot of paint as infrastructure
Here at Bicycle NSW, we generally agree with the mantra that ‘paint isn’t infrastructure’. So it is very interesting to see how Melbourne’s transport planners use the cheapest of materials to create safe and comfortable cycleways.
Painted bike lanes – both between the kerb and the parked cars and between the parked cars and moving vehicles. On Moray Street, South Melbourne (top left) a door lane bike lane is made safer with a ‘buffer’ strip. Heidelberg Road, Clifton Hill (top right) has stretches with no physical separators. Note the striped area on the road side of the parking bay to narrow the vehicle lanes and encourage drivers to give parked cars a width berth. William Street in the CBD (bottom left) has some bolt-down separators but also long sections of painted ‘chevron’ median. This is a budget-friendly compromise recommended by City of Melbourne’s Bike Lane Design Guidelines. Napier Street, Fitzroy (bottom right) has ‘advisory lanes’ (Images: Bicycle NSW)
Advisory bicycle lanes help driver and riders share the road and are a useful addition to the ‘toolkit’ when there is not enough space for two vehicle lanes plus two bicycle lanes. Vehicles stay in the centre. When faced with oncoming vehicle, drivers need to check for cyclists and pull over into bike lane to pass another vehicle. This Vic Roads video explains how it works.
Once common in the Netherlands, advisory bicycle lanes have fallen out of favour. In the US they are also known as ‘edge lane’ treatments – and they are somewhat controversial. They are definitely only suitable for low volume, low speed streets.
Temporary, pop-up interventions are extensive and bold
Flexible posts, bolt-down plastic separators and a lot of bright paint are everywhere, trialing different ways to reconfigure streets and intersections. These treatments were introduced as a response to Covid-19 to enable more people to ride safely.
Heidelberg Road is a particularly ambitious project. A full lane in each direction has been reallocated for bike and 6-lane arterial road now has four vehicle lanes. The tactical materials allowed planners evaluate and monitor how it works in practice and make tweaks and changes. Bike riders, drivers and residents are getting used to the new layout, but with 600,000 over the first two years, the bike lanes are here to stay.
It is inspiring to see a major road transformed in this way. Think of your local arterial in NSW and imagine the possibilities!
Paint and posts create a clear passage for bikes through the complex intersection of Napier Street and Queens Parade, Fitzroy (top left). Bolt-down concrete pads, posts and paint make simple kerb extensions to narrow the crossing distance for pedestrians and slow cars turning from Marine Parade, St Kilda (top right). A protected cycleway on arterial Heidelberg Road uses very minimal separators (bottom left). The line marking on Park Street, South Melbourne, has been painted white after community complaints about the original yellow lines (bottom right) (Images: Bicycle NSW).
The Department of Transport and Planning has published a fantastic document reflecting on the Pop-up Bike Lanes Program and the lessons learned. There are great images of several projects, and maps to show where interventions were trialled. Read it here.
Modal filters are used to great effect
Two well-loved cycling corridors through the Inner North demonstrate the power of model filters to create safe and comfortable streets for bike riding. A modal filter is a physical intervention that restricts the passage of vehicles but allows bikes through. It could be a simple bollard, a landscaped kerb extension or a leafy pocket park. Rat-running through traffic can no longer use the street.
Canning Street runs north south through Carlton North from Park Street to Alexandra Parade and forms one of Melbourne’s best known bike routes. Modal filters were built in two locations back in the 1970s. According to the BikeSpot 2023 survey, Canning Street is currently rated as the safest riding location in Melbourne.
Napier Street is lovely to cycle on. The modal filters work really well to reduce traffic volumes and the advisory bike lanes (discussed above) ensure that drivers proceed very carefully.
Both streets around 3km of stress-free cycling. Many improvements have been made over the years to iron out issues and keep bike riders as safe as possible.
Signage on Napier clearly indicates that bike have priority (top left), a modal filer mid-way down Canning Street (top right) and at the intersection with Princes St (bottom left). The bike lanes continue across the very busy Princes Street (bottom right) (Images: Bicycle NSW)
Our article Making Local Streets Safe for Bikes explores approaches reducing traffic volumes and speeds in different jurisdictions.
Several more topics are discussed in Part Two of Bicycle NSW’s Melbourne Reflections.
Before you head to Part Two ….
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