Coppin Street is a residential street that delivers an important north-south active transport route linking Richmond High School and the Citizens Park precinct (in the north) with Richmond Primary School and then on to the Main Yarra Trail (in the south). It’s part of the VicRoads Principal Bicycle Network and is an ideal location for a north-south bicycle boulevard. Unfortunately Coppin Street also experiences a high volume of vehicle traffic, most likely due to people avoiding congestion on the nearby VicRoads arterials of Church Street and Burnley Street. The challenge is to retain access to properties for people driving and parking, while also providing safe access for people biking north-south.
Problems
There are two main issues to consider:
- safety at intersections (e.g. at Swan Street or Bridge Road) for people biking, as the bike lane narrows
- safety along Coppin Street for people biking, as the narrow bicycle lane is in the dooring zone of the parked cars, which is a life-threatening hazard

Safety at intersections
To address the issue of safety at intersections, Council is trialling short sections of protected bike lanes at the intersections with Swan Street and Bridge Road. These provide a safe space for people biking to travel up to the intersection, and wait for the change of lights. The trial was approved as part of the Transport Action Plan which was adopted on 12 March 2024.


Temporary loss of turning lane
The design of the pop-up treatment on Coppin Street at the north side of Swan Street was restricted by the presence of a concrete median, which resulted in the loss of a vehicle turning lane for the duration of the trial. The turning lane was always intended to be brought back after the trial, by removing the concrete median, if Council determined that the protected bike lanes should remain permanently.



Pop-up lanes under threat
On 26 November 2024, as part of the notorious ‘omnibus bill’, the new Council voted to ask for an Officer Report with options and costs to ‘remove the bike-friendly pop-up barriers’. Such a change would severely compromise and degrade the safety, comfort, and attractiveness of the intersection for people biking.

Considering that the new Council summarily cancelled the Charlotte Street Park, and also placed the protected bike lanes on Elizabeth Street under threat, Yarra Bicycle User Group (Yarra BUG) have launched a petition to ask Council not to remove safe cycling lanes.

Safety along Coppin Street
To address the issue of safety along Coppin Street, our suggestion is to convert Coppin Street into a bicycle boulevard by adding ‘slow points’ to discourage through traffic, as described in the City of Yarra LAPM Policy 2017. A ‘slow point’ encourages drivers to reduce their speed, pause and give way at the constriction, taking turns to get through it. Local residents would retain access to their homes but through traffic would be encouraged to use the nearby VicRoads arterials, Church Street and Burnley Street.
Bicycle boulevards are streets with low motorised traffic volumes and speeds, designated and designed to give bicycle travel priority. Bicycle boulevards use signs, pavement markings, and speed and volume management measures to discourage through trips by motor vehicles and create safe, convenient bicycle crossings of busy arterial streets.
NACTO


Local champion
Your local champion for Coppin Street is Michael Bond – Yarra resident. View all of Streets Alive Yarra’s champions on our supporters page.

I fully support the idea of a bicycle boulevard for Coppin Street but its implementation needs careful planning to ensure residents are onside and property access is maintained. We need to be looking ahead to 2050 and what the city will look like then. Assuming Melbourne is headed to 8 million people, Yarra will be almost doubling its population in this time. Traffic is almost at gridlock now so we need to encourage transport modes other than vehicles. Coppin Street makes an ideal north-south boulevard as it can then connect the Yarra cycle path to Highett Street where there is existing cycling infrastructure. Vehicles can use the more “through” routes of Church Street and Burnley Street whilst creating a bicycle boulevard on Coppin Street. It will stop the peak hour “rat-running” and leave a street for residents to enjoy at a more leisurely pace. I believe a Bicycle Boulevard is the answer for Coppin Street.
Michael Bond