7.1 Elizabeth Street Bike Lane Trial Update
Summary
Streets Alive Yarra supports the Officer Recommendation (Option 1) because this delivers a street that can be safely used by people of all ages and abilities, either walking, biking, or driving. In addition, we recommend that Councillors ask Officers to investigate the option of placing car parking on alternating sides of the street, as is planned for Collins Street in Hobart. This design would be a win-win which:
- retains the safe biking lanes
- offers parking on both sides of the street, close to the properties which most need it
- acts to further slow traffic, improving safety for everyone
Streets are for everyone
Elizabeth Street is for everyone, including people of all ages and abilities, who walk, bike, or drive. Since the trial infrastructure was installed, we’ve seen significant increases in the number of people biking, and the percentage of women biking, indicating that more people, and a wider range of people, now feel comfortable biking. These conditions need to be retained.
Elizabeth Street can be beautiful
The proposed permanent implementation, with a large number of mature trees, would greatly improve the beauty and amenity of the street. Note that the 1.2 metre wide buffer on the north side provides the space required for large trees. If the buffer is narrowed, it decreases the future beauty of the street.
Elizabeth Street is aligned with the upgraded sections of Albert Street
As the Officer Report points out, the recently widened protected bike lanes on the southern side of Albert Street in the City of Melbourne, between Hoddle Street and Simpson Street, which have a protected bike lane 2.0 metres wide and a buffer 0.9 metres wide, are a good example of infrastructure that Yarra should align with, because they comply with the City of Melbourne’s 2019 Bike Lane Design Guidelines. In contrast, the lanes on the northern side are older, don’t comply, and are planned to be widened.
Elizabeth Street does offer access to car parking
Elizabeth Street, and nearby streets, offer more than enough car parking for visitors who need to drive and park. For example, the Care Car Park on 35 Elizabeth Street offers over 100 parking spaces.
The municipal community
The Local Government Act states that the role of a Council is to provide good governance in its municipal district for the benefit and wellbeing of the municipal community. The definition of ‘municipal community’ includes people and bodies who conduct activities in the municipal district of the Council, which includes any person using the bike lanes.
For this issue the municipal community is not only the people who live or work on Elizabeth Street – it includes all the people who use the bike lanes to get to school, or to work in the city, or to travel east or west to visit friends.
Furthermore, the bike lanes on Elizabeth Street form a part of Melbourne’s Strategic Cycling Corridor network, which aims to provide safe access to all of Melbourne’s neighbourhoods. Just as residents of the City of Yarra use bike lanes in other municipalities, so do residents of other municipalities use ours, and for this issue are included in our municipal community.
Thus, council good governance for the benefit of the municipal community obliges Council to consider many more people than just those who live on Elizabeth Street, and indicates that the bike lanes should be retained without narrowing their widths.
Legal liability
As the Officer Report points out, Council could be seen as liable legally unless it can demonstrate that the installation of non-compliant infrastructure is justified. Councillors have a duty of care to follow such advice – they should not be voting for an outcome that a Safe System analysis has shown to be less safe for people biking or driving.
Elizabeth Street can be a win-win
Elizabeth Street can be a win-win, retaining the width of the bike lanes and also offering parking on the north side, close to the properties that most need it, by alternating groups of parking spaces across both sides. The idea comes from the City of Hobart’s design for their Collins Street, as reported by Hobart Streets. This concept would be a win-win because it:
- retains the safe biking lanes,
- retains the existing width of driving lanes,
- offers parking on both sides of the street, close to the properties which most need it,
- acts to further slow traffic, improving safety for everyone.
Conclusion
Streets Alive Yarra supports the Officer Recommendation (Option 1) because this delivers a street that can be safely used by people of all ages and abilities, either walking, biking, or driving. In addition, we recommend that Councillors ask Officers to investigate the option of placing car parking on alternating sides of the street, as is planned for Collins Street in Hobart.
Item 7.2 Coppin Street Cycling Corridor
Streets Alive Yarra supports the Officer Recommendation, to:
- retain the existing trial infrastructure at the intersections of Coppin Street with Bridge Road and Swan Street
- construct permanent treatments at those intersections, which will bring back the vehicle turning lane at Swan Street
- progress the corridor study to Stage 2
We feel that this approach will be a win-win, improving safety and amenity for people driving as well as for people biking.
Item 7.4 ERP Business Case
Streets Alive Yarra supports the Officer Recommendation to proceed with the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, for a budgeted cost of $32 million. We note that this is a similar cost to our entire annual budget for capital expenditure, and again suggest that it would now be a good time re-commit to the Financial Sustainability Strategy, and to consider opportunities to charge visitors (non-residents) to park in Yarra:
Item 7.5 Paid Parking Fees Implementation of Richmond Shopping Strip Parking Pilot Program
Streets Alive Yarra supports the Officer Recommendation, to:
- retain the existing parking arrangements, and
- prepare a Kerbside and Parking Strategy that considers all the options regarding the pricing of parking, and includes proper community engagement,
because that would align with Council’s own adopted Pricing Policy.
For Councillors who are interested in data and evidence, we refer you to the book The High Cost of Free Parking (read Chapter 1 for free, or Chapter 1 of Parking and the City). Suffice to say, the evidence is clearly against free parking.
Free parking on inner city shopping strips does not lead to increased business for traders because turnover of parking bays will decrease, which prevents new customers from accessing shops. Customers arriving by car need to be able to find a vacant parking bay, and pricing the bays encourages drivers to only stay for as long as they need, thus freeing up the bay for the next customer.
Imagine precious parking on Swan Street and Bridge Road being filled up on game days, with each driver getting one hour free, then driving off straight after the game. That’s not going to help local traders.
Or, imagine a bustling cafe that seats 40, with one on-street car park out front, that can bring two customers – the remaining 38 patrons clearly must have arrived by other means, such as walking, biking, public transport, or parking elsewhere. Offering 1 hour free parking for that one parking bay out front isn’t going to materially change the situation.
As we stated in our feedback to the 11 March 2025 Council Meeting:
- Yarra has many types of permits and parking restrictions, and they should be reviewed in a holistic manner, with careful consideration given to the state government’s housing targets, which will result in an 80% increase in Yarra’s population by 2050.
- There simply won’t be enough space for all these new residents to park out front of shops and duck in (for up to an hour). Instead, we should be designing our shopping streets to attract more people by walking, biking, or public transport.
In addition, Officers estimate that offering 1-hour free parking would reduce revenue by approximately $600k per year, which doesn’t seem financially viable when Council is challenged to pay $32 million for a new ERP system (Item 7.4 on the agenda).
Item 7.6 Property Strategy 2025-2030
Streets Alive Yarra supports the Officer Recommendation to adopt the Property Strategy 2025-2030, because it articulates a clear way to free up funding (via disposal of less important or under-utilised assets) for the acquisition of land for new green open space, or for capital expenditure on walking, biking, trees, and place making.
Ideally, we’d like Council to offer more data on its list of over 300 properties, such as:
- the approximate value of each,
- whether it could be considered for disposal, and
- whether the land could be used for housing.
Published 6 April 2025.