Elizabeth Street is an east-west street in North Richmond, between Hoddle Street and Church Street. To the west, over Hoddle Street, it links to Albert Street, which hosts separated and then protected bicycle lanes heading into the central business district.
Strategic Cycling Corridor
The bike lanes on Elizabeth Street form part of our Strategic Cycling Corridor network, which aims to offer best-practice high-quality routes between neighbourhoods:
Previous conditions
Previously, Elizabeth Street had painted bicycle lanes in the ‘dooring zone’ of the parked cars, which don’t comply with Austroads or VicRoads guidelines, and dissuade many people from cycling.
Trial infrastructure
On 3 December 2019 Council unanimously approved a trial of protected bicycle lanes using low-cost infrastructure:
Local families with children are now happy to cycle on Elizabeth Street, owing to the increased safety:
Consideration of bringing back parking
On 15 September 2020 Council considered the option of drastically narrowing the widths of the bike lanes and the buffers (to the doors of parked cars) to allow on-street parking to be returned to the north side of the street, and decided against:
Permanent infrastructure
On 18 April 2023 Council determined that the bike lanes will be permanent, and to seek funding for higher-cost, permanent treatment, with more trees:
Support from the RACV
During COVID the RACV called for more pop-up bike lanes, such as those on Elizabeth Street:
Metropolitan councils across Melbourne should follow the City of Melbourne’s lead to create pop-up bike lanes and wider footpaths as the city emerges from lockdown, says RACV.
RACV
In 2024, the RACV updated their report on cycling superhighways, reinforcing their support for high quality bike lanes on Elizabeth Street, which forms part of a route from Box Hill to the CBD:
Elizabeth Street bike 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 ‘modify’ the lanes, to enable on-street car parking to be brought back to the northern side of the street. Such a change would severely compromise and degrade the safety, comfort, and attractiveness of the protected bike lanes, requiring the width of both the bike lane and the buffer zone to be drastically reduced, and placing riders in the dooring zone of the parked cars.
Considering that the new Council summarily cancelled the Charlotte Street Park, and also placed the pop-up bike lanes on Coppin Street under threat, Yarra Bicycle User Group (Yarra BUG) have launched a petition to ask Council not to remove safe cycling lanes.
Join us
Your local champion for Elizabeth Street is Sarah Cather – Yarra resident. View all of Streets Alive Yarra’s champions on our supporters page.
Cycling was a lifeline to so many bike riders here in Yarra during our prolonged months of lockdown and with an ever-increasing popularity of pedal power in Melbourne, we need to continue advocating for improved bike infrastructure to accommodate the load. I love the invigorating buzz of people that cycling brings to our neighbourhood, as commuters, school children – mine included – business folk and a myriad of generations cross paths along their daily journey. My family have lived in Richmond since 2004 and have been using the bike paths to commute, shop, dash into the city and do longer rides back from Eltham as a great day out. We depend on progressive initiatives such as Streets Alive Yarra to keep our cogs spinning into the future and importantly, our streets safer.
Sarah Cather