North Carlton is designated as Council’s Local Area Place Making (LAPM) precinct #2, bounded by Park Street, Lygon Street, Princes Street and Nicholson Street.

Image credit: City of Yarra

Last LAPM review

North Carlton was last reviewed in 2020, and $1.9m worth of works have been endorsed.

Walkability

North Carlton has a Walk Score of 88, making it the 16th most walkable suburb in Melbourne. Of course, it can still be improved.

Schools

East Clifton Hill hosts Carlton North Primary School, attracting students from throughout the neighbourhood. Contact us if you’d like to be the Streets Alive Yarra champion for safe routes to Carlton North Primary School.

Problems

As with most local streets in Yarra, streets in North Carlton suffer from high volumes and speeds of traffic.

Solutions

One way to improve place making and active transport is to convert the whole area into a 30 km/h zone or superblock.

Image credit: City of Yarra

Canning Street

Canning Street runs north south through Carlton North from Park Street to Alexandra Parade and forms one of Melbourne’s best known and used cycling corridors. Even so, Canning Street still has many challenging intersections that prevent it being a safe route to school and exposes people walking and riding to errors made by people driving. The speed limit is above that considered appropriate for a cycling boulevard and given most people travel Canning Street on bicycle this should be addressed. If the priority is safe active travel then this could be emphasised more in the design of the street and further calming influences that are being adopted elsewhere in Yarra and surrounding councils. Learn more on our Canning Street page.

Canning St & Curtain Street. Image credit Marcus Coghlan.
Upgraded intersection at Canning and Richardson. Image credit: Marcus Coghlan.

Rathdowne Street

Rathdowne Street runs north-south and hosts a variety of shops. The primary hazard is car dooring. The solution is to move on-street parking away from the kerb, either to side streets or the centre median. Learn more on our Rathdowne Street page.

Rathdowne Street facing north. Image credit: Google Streetview.

Sight lines when crossing

The Capital City Trail runs along the top edge of the LAPM area. The problem is that people crossing from the Capital City Trail to streets such as Drummond, Rathdowne or Canning; have dangerously poor sight lines. The solution is to remove 2-3 car parks from Park Street at each T-intersection, replacing them with a kerb extension.

Poor sight lines when moving from the Capital CIty Trail to Drummond Street. Image credit: Streets Alive Yarra.

Submission

Feel free to download our read our proposals:

PDF (3 MB)

Or our feedback on the draft plan:

Local champion

Your local champion for North Carlton LAPM 2 is Marcus Coghlan. View all of Streets Alive Yarra’s champions on our supporters page.

I’ve enjoyed being a resident of Carlton North for over 25 years and live on the cycling super highway that is Canning Street. A great example that streets don’t always require expensive or complex infrastructure to be successful. The experience of place and community has continually improved in Carlton North as the emphasis has changed from how quickly you can move to how well you can move. Place making projects, traffic calming measures and an emphasis on people using active transport (walking, cycling and public transport) has positively shaped this vibrant community and enabled easier access to wonderful, local amenities. Streets Alive Yarra embodies all the good urban design I have admired in other communities and would like to see implemented here.

Marcus Coghlan