Cremorne Street is a north-south street in Cremorne, running between Swan Street in the north and the CityLink freeway in the south. It is a key access street between VicRoads’ arterials and quieter streets within Cremorne.

Cremorne Street location. Image credit: Streets Alive Yarra and Apple Maps.

Development

Cremorne Street hosts a mixture of commercial and residential properties, including apartment and office towers at the southern end of Cremorne Street, and the 9-storey office (SEEK) at 60 Cremorne Street.

High rise at the southern end of Cremorne Street. Image credit: Orbit Solutions.
9-storey office (SEEK) on Cremorne Street. Image credit: Hassel architects.

Problems

Problems on Cremorne Street include:

  • Severe congestion in the vehicle lane during the evening peak, with cars banked up more than 200 m
  • Severe congestion on footpaths in peak hours, as commuters walk between Richmond Train Station and the many offices
  • Severely pruned and stunted street trees, because they are planted under power lines
  • Unnecessarily long crossing distances, caused by wide corner radii

Video credit: Streets Alive Yarra

Both vehicle and pedestrian congestion will only get worse when planned development more than doubles the number of workers and residents in the area. Apart from getting to and from work, people wish to access local shops and restaurants on Swan Street and Church Street, send their children to Richmond Primary School on Mary Street, and frequent the Cherry Tree hotel on Balmain Street. Our streets are not able to carry double the number of cars.

Suggested solutions

Ratio Consultants have suggested creating a “loop” through Cremorne that is one-way for motor vehicles and two-way for bikes and e-scooters:

Conversation starter for access loop in Cremorne. Image credit: Ratio.

Alternatively, Cremorne Street should have wider footpaths, separated bike lanes and a row of tall trees on the eastern side (avoiding power lines on the western side). Parking should occur on side streets, or in off-street parking hosted by the new developments.

Cremorne Street with power lines on the west side and tall trees on the east side. Image credit: Streets Alive Yarra and StreetMix.

Intersection of Cremorne and Swan

Aligned with that proposal, at the intersection of Cremorne & Swan, the footpaths should be widened and the bicycle lane should continue right up to Swan Street:

Image credit: Nearmap and Streets Alive Yarra

Intersection of Cremorne and Stephenson

At the intersection of Cremorne Street and Stephenson Street, the corner radii should be reduced, to encourage drivers to slow down before turning and thereby increasing safety for people walking and cycling. Even better would be to add a raised threshold treatment (raised crossing), a pedestrian crossing, or a wombat crossing (a raised pedestrian crossing).

Image credit: Streets Alive Yarra

Intersection of Cremorne and Balmain

At the intersection of Cremorne Street and Balmain Street, pedestrian crossings should be added:

Image credit: Streets Alive Yarra, background from Nearmap

Cremorne Street south of Balmain

If the entry to CityLink is closed, this would reduce traffic volumes enough to enable the creation of a pedestrian plaza, supporting the residents of apartment towers on either side of Cremorne Street, by narrowing Cremorne Street to one lane:

Concept for a pedestrian plaza south of Balmain Street. Yellow indicates wider footpaths, maroon indicates a bi-directional single lane for motor vehicles, green circles indicate new trees. Image credit: Streets Alive Yarra, background from Nearmap.

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.

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