Yarra City Council is taking steps to make our cycling network safe and accessible for people of all ages and abilities.
The New Deal for Cycling is a direct response to objectives in our Council Plan 2021-25 and Yarra’s Transport Strategy 2022-32 that aim to improve the safety, connectivity, and accessibility of our street and path network for people on bikes over the next ten years.
The New Deal for Cycling is a network of key local and regional bike routes across the City of Yarra. Each route is assessed for risk against a range of factors, including traffic volumes, speed limits and existing road conditions. Currently only 39% of the identified routes reach minimum safety compliance for cycling.
We will be running pilots to test new road layouts, additions of bike lanes, and upgrades to intersections that aim to make these routes safer and ensure they are compliant. These pilots will use temporary infrastructure to help us assess the effectiveness of the changes before they are made permanent.
Using pop-ups and pilots can allow projects to be delivered faster and in greater numbers than standard permanent delivery techniques. They also provide key feedback that can support a project design process where there is room for adjustments. In contrast, when we run testing after a project has been delivered, it can be difficult to make substantive changes.
We have run these pilots in the past and they have provided invaluable feedback to the development of our permanent cycling infrastructure. They have also seen improvements to previously non-compliant routes. For example:
- Data from the Elizabeth Street protected bike lanes trial shows that the number of women and children using the upgraded bike lanes has increased significantly. These groups are underrepresented as a proportion of all cyclists in Yarra.
Two intersection upgrade pilots are being tested right now and are available for community feedback.
- Intersection of Nicholson Street, Lennox Street and Victoria Street in North Richmond
- Intersection of Coppin Street with Swan Street and Bridge Road in Richmond
