Lennox Street is a north-south street in Richmond, between Victoria Street and Swan Street. North of Victoria Street the name changes to Nicholson Street.

Lennox Street. Image credit: Apple Maps, Streets Alive Yarra.

Context

Lennox Street is home to Richmond West Primary School, the North Richmond Community Health Centre and the annual Richmond Moon Lantern Festival.

Image credit: Victoria Street Richmond on Facebook

Part of the bicycle network

Lennox Street forms part of the VicRoads Principal Bicycle Network and is also a Strategic Cycling Corridor. It’s intended as an important north-south cycling corridor, for example for high school students cycling from Cremorne north to the new Richmond High School.

Strategic Cycling Corridors in and around Yarra, with Lennox Street highlighted. Image credit: DoT, highlight from Streets Alive Yarra.

Problem

The problem is that Lennox Street is not safe for people cycling, especially not for people of all ages and abilities. The north-bound cycling lane is located next to parked cars, creating a life-threatening dooring hazard. If a driver opens their door suddenly, then the person cycling could be knocked off, under the wheels of a following car.

Video of dooring

The following video captures a dooring event, which thankfully did not result in death or serious injury, because the person cycling happened to be just far enough away from the car.

Solution

As described in the VicRoads Traffic Engineering Manual Guidance on Treating Bicycle Car Dooring Collisions, the solution is to relocate car parking to side streets, i.e. off the strategic cycling corridor.

Source: VicRoads TEM Vol 3 Part 216

Support from the RACV

The RACV have proposed a network of bicycle superhighways, including on Lennox Street and up Nicholson Street.

Image credit: RACV

Support from Infrastructure Australia

Infrastructure Australian have included RACV’s proposal for bicycle superhighways, in their 2020 Infrastructure Priority List:

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