The St Kilda Rd separated bike lanes project was originally announced to run from the City to Carlisle St, but during construction it was down-graded to stop at St Kilda junction. Earlier this year we found out from the office of Active Transport minister Gabrielle Williams that the project contractors have closed up their office, without passing on the design work on the remaining section.

The route over St Kilda hill is fraught with danger. Heading north, people on bikes have an unprotected on-road lane, with heavy trucks directly alongside-- heavy traffic from the Nepean Highway tends to turn off onto Queens Rd at the junction, so will be in the left-most lane. Heading south, there is a "door zone" on-road, unprotected lane. Cyclists travelling down the hill are travelling at speed, giving people opening car doors into the lane even less time to make a careful check.

MLC Katherine Copsey has raised this in Parliament.

This route is one of the main (C1) Strategic Cycling Corridors, connecting the city with Frankston. The improvements on the northern section have increased the number of users there up to 300%— which is great, but also means that more people will be using the unsatisfactory southern sections for access.

We are asking our local MPs, Nina Taylor (Albert Park) and Ryan Batchelor (Southern Metropolitan) to make funding and building this section a priority—- before some is injured or worse.

Help out: email your MPs. If you have photos, videos or a story about your experience on this section, please share it with us portphillipbug@gmail.com to add to our campaign.