Balmain Street is an east-west street in Cremorne, running between Cremorne Street in the west and Church Street in the east. It links the busy Church Street to the quiet residential streets in Cremorne.

Image credit: Streets Alive Yarra and Apple Maps

Balmain Street hosts a mixture of commercial and residential properties, including the Cherry Tree hotel. A new 7-storey high-rise office development (Reece Plumbing) has been built between the Cherry Tree and the railway line.

Office building. Image credit: Developer.

Problems

Development in Cremorne will greatly increase the number of workers in the area, who will all need to commute to work each day, as well as wishing to access local shops and restaurants on Swan Street and Church Street. However, streets in Cremorne, including Balmain Street, are not able carry extra cars. In the evening peak hour, traffic is banked up on Balmain Street, from Church Street almost back to the underpass.

Suggested solutions

To enable all these new workers to move around Yarra, we need to encourage walking, cycling and transit. To support this, Balmain Street should have wider footpaths and protected bicycle lanes, forming part of a wider bicycle network. Parking should occur on side streets, and should be correctly priced to manage demand.

Protected bike lanes on Balmain Street. Image credit: Streets Alive Yarra and Streetmix.
The underpass can support protected bike lanes (at the same level as the footpaths) if the vehicle lanes are narrowed to 2.8 metres (trucks are 2.5 metres). Image credit: Streets Alive Yarra, background from Google Maps.

Expanded plaza outside the Cherry Tree Hotel

If the railway underpass on Balmain Street is closed to motor vehicle traffic (and kept open for walking and biking), then traffic will reduce enough to allow a larger plaza outside the Cherry Tree Hotel, by narrowing Balmain Street to one lane:

Concept for an expanded plaza outside the Cherry Tree Hotel. Image credit: Streets Alive Yarra, background from Nearmap.

Pedestrian crossing at the Cherry Tree Hotel

If Balmain Street is not narrowed, then a large pedestrian crossing should be added:

Image credit: Streets Alive Yarra, background from Nearmap

Pedestrian crossing at Cremorne Street

Cremorne Community Inc has proposed a pedestrian crossing on Balmain Street, at the intersection with Cremorne Street:

Video credit: Streets Alive Yarra.

How you can help

You can help by appearing on the Streets Alive Yarra website as a champion for your local street, neighbourhood, or school.

Let’s build a beautiful, liveable and accessible city