Shopping streets

Shopping streets are public places, the core of 20-minute neighbourhoods, where we as a community build wealth, access goods and services, meet and socialise. They also act as transport corridors, moving people between suburbs. Our challenge is to make our shopping streets better for business by attracting regular, repeat patronage from local residents.

Proposed design

We advocate for Yarra’s shopping streets to be upgraded with wider footpaths, bicycle lanes, level access tram stops and more trees. Cars share a lane with trams and shoppers park on side streets. For our 20 metre wide tram-based shopping streets, we call this the ‘Melbourne Shopping Street’ reference design.

Place making

The ‘Melbourne Shopping Street’ reference design delivers more place making than existing conditions, with wider footpaths and more trees.

Movement

The ‘Melbourne Shopping Street’ reference design offers more ‘movement’ capacity than existing conditions, because it prioritises the two modes with the highest people carrying capacity – trams and cycling. Other possible street layouts carry fewer people, because trams are slowed by cars and because a sub-standard bicycle lane won’t attract many people. Our better for trams page describes how trams can travel faster when cars can’t overtake, and the best-practice bicycle lane transports more people than either a parking lane or a peak-hour car lane.

Parking

The ‘Melbourne Shopping Street’ reference design offers more parking for shoppers than existing conditions, by using the first 5-10 bays on each side street (i.e. this is more metered parking for shoppers than was previously directly on the street). Combined with the improved place making, the outcome is better for business.

Safety

The ‘Melbourne Shopping Street’ reference design delivers a safer environment for all users, and aligns well with Safe System, as shown by Safe System assessments conducted by both VicRoads and Streets Alive Yarra.

Built form

The ‘Melbourne Shopping Street’ reference design aligns with the ‘Linear Barcelona Model’ as proposed in ‘Transforming Australian Cities’:

Dimensions

Cross-sectional dimensions of the ‘Melbourne Shopping Street’ reference design are shown below:

Guidance from Boroondara

The City of Boroondara is proposing to revitalise Glenferrie Road with wider footpaths, more trees, level access tram stops and protected bike lanes.

Guidance from Auckland

Auckland City Council’s Business Case for Walking showed a very similar design for a shopping street:

Detailed designs

The following pages describe specific streets in more detail:

• Bridge Road
• Brunswick Street
• Burnley Street
• Church Street
• Gertrude Street
• Gleadell Street
• Heidelberg Road
• Johnston Street
• Lygon Street
• Queens Parade
• Smith Street
• St Georges Road
• Swan Street
• Victoria Street