Installation of the first fast-tracked bike lanes commenced in late July on Drummond and Faraday Streets in Carlton and Albert Street in East Melbourne.

Five priority routes will then be the focus to better connect suburbs like Carlton, East Melbourne, North Melbourne, Brunswick and West Melbourne to the city.

The first five priority routes will be delivered between August and October 2020 and include:

• Swanston Street north around the University of Melbourne from Grattan Street to Cemetery Road (August – September)
• William Street – Dudley Street to Queens Bridge Street (August – September)
• Abbotsford Street - Flemington Road to Queensberry Street (September – October)
• Rathdowne Street – Victoria Street to Faraday Street (September – October)
• Exhibition Street – Flinders Street to Bourke Street (September – October)

Before the restrictions, nearly one million people travelled into the city each day, with most people travelling on public transport.

Because of social distancing requirements we’ve seen public transport patronage reduced by 85 per cent.

If everyone switches from public transport to driving as they return, the city will be at a standstill.

These bike lanes will help to reduce congestion by providing a safe alternative to move more people, in less space, while maintaining social distance.

With many of our footpaths less than two metres wide, we need to provide more space for pedestrians to pass safely.

We are looking at supporting the safe movement of people on our ‘Little Streets’ in the CBD including pedestrian and bike friendly treatments.

Upgrades to ‘Little Streets' will provide safe bicycle access throughout the city and will also improve safety for people walking.

This will include 20 kilometre per hour shared zones – where pedestrians are prioritised and cars and bike give way to people walking. This will make it safe for pedestrians to use the entire street and support social distancing.

As part of our Transport Strategy 2030, we identified that 89 per cent of trips within the Hoddle Grid are made on foot, but only 26 per cent of street space is allocated to footpaths.

Our community told us that the most common experience when walking in the city was ‘feeling overcrowded’. To get the city up and running again and support local business we need to provide more space for people to walk comfortably.

All of the works being undertaken are compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act.

Information about the works is being shared with Disability groups via City of Melbourne’s email networks.

Wayfinding signage and directional help for pedestrians will be provided where there are significant impacts.

We will relocate any existing disability parking as close by as possible.

We are seeking to deliver the fast-tracked bike lanes as soon as possible.

The bulk of the 40 kilometres of bike lanes and treatments will be installed before mid-next year.

The City of Melbourne is investing $10 million to deliver 40km of bike lanes this financial year. The permanent Exhibition street project has a budget of an additional $6 million.

These are bike lanes made with barriers that are relatively quick to produce and install.

They are made off-site at a local manufacturer in Geelong and are then lifted into place.

It takes about 10 minutes to manufacture each metre-long block and seven minutes for each to be installed on-site.

They will be functional for years to come and can be progressively replaced with fixed lanes over time as required.

The barriers are made using recycled glass diverted from landfill and locally sourced resin. Each block contains about 30 kilograms of recycled glass sourced locally from Victoria, including City of Melbourne. This equates to about 30 to 50 percent recycled material.

Recycled glass bottles and other glass are sourced from multiple sources which have been collected from Victoria, including the City of Melbourne. They are collected, washed with water only, dried and crushed to become a sand-like consistency.

The crushed glass is then mixed with resin to create a Polymer concrete, which is very strong. The product is fully recyclable at end of its life cycle – disused barriers can be recycled into road base.

This is first time in Australia that protected bike lanes are being created using polymer concrete barriers made with recycled materials.

As part of City of Melbourne’s initiative to fast-track 40 kilometres of bike lanes, some on street car parks will need to be removed, but overall the project will have a minimal impact on parking.

228 parking spaces will be permanently removed as part of the delivery of Round 1 comprising 20 kilometres of bike lanes

An additional 126 parking spaces will convert to ‘no stopping’ areas during the peak AM and PM periods to allow for increased vehicular traffic during these times and to assist in reducing traffic congestion.

There are still 217,000 private and public parking spaces in the municipality. This includes 193,500 off-street bays and 23,500 metred and un-metred parking spaces on streets.

No car parking spaces will be removed for works on Faraday, Drummond or Albert Streets.

The bike lanes identified for fast-tracking are part of our Transport Strategy 2030, which sets out a 10-year roadmap for Melbourne to become a premier cycling city.

Extensive consultation was undertaken on the Transport Strategy 2030 over a period of 18 months. We received the most responses we’ve ever had on a single topic. There were 26,000 visits to the Participate Melbourne page, 1300 formal submissions and a further 1500 social media comments captured.

EY Sweeney’s analysis of the community engagement reported that the transport experience of Melburnians included people feeling overcrowded on footpaths (54%), overcrowded on public transport (38%) and experiencing unsafe conditions for cyclists (39%).

Cycling received the most submissions (366) with 90 per cent supporting the suggestions in the cycling discussion paper including the need for physically separated cycle ways. The most common response about the experience of cycling in Melbourne was ‘unsafe and intimidating’.

Throughout the Transport Strategy 2030 consultation, we also held numerous briefings and workshops with State Government transport agencies and industry peak bodies.

We have continued this engagement since the adoption of the Transport Strategy 2030 in October last year, including pre-engagement with State Government and industry bodies on the fast-tracking of these bike lanes due to COVID-19.