Councillors ride March 2025: East St Kilda, Balaclava, Ripponlea, Elwood

On Tuesday the BUG took new councillors Libby Buckingham and Justin Halliday for a ride around their wards and surrounding suburbs.

From left: Julie (PPBUG); Cr Justin Halliday; Mya (PPBUG); Cr Libby Buckingham; Pierre (PPBUG and Back2bikes volunteer).

The route over St Kilda Hill is dangerous, with heavy trucks using the left-most lane alongside cyclists with only a line of paint separating the two. A door zone adds extra hazard. This is a State responsibility, but would benefit from Council support.

Over St Kilda Hill, cyclists are expected to ride alongside heavy traffic.

We also visited some excellent cycle infrastructure. Since the construction of these protected lanes on St Kilda Rd, rider numbers have increased by 200-300%.

However south of Wellington St, the protected lane ends and only a door-zone lane is provided.

We then went along Wellington St, a shimmy route— which means a bicycle route with little dedicated infrastructure, but some traffic calming and bike symbols painted on the road (sharrows).

Once in Alma Park, we rode one of the few off-road bicycle paths alongside the railway line. This is part of the proposed Green Line route.

We made our way down to Ripponlea along Williams St. At Ripponlea we discussed the possibility of reducing the speed limit to 30km/hr, as this is a high-pedestrian area, as well as a state Strategic Cycling Corridor. The only provision for cycling here is a narrow, door-zone lane. The lane also narrows rapidly after the railway crossing, creating another hazard.

We headed over to Elwood. Here we looked at the location for the long-promised signalised crossing of Glen Huntly Rd. We also looked at the road treatments at the Primary School, which includes a one-way road with drop-off zone on Poet’s Grove, and the closing of Mitford St (which has been incorporated into the primary school grounds). These are good models for the new primary school at Fishermans Bend.

Then up to Dickens St, where there is a very unsatisfactory crossing of Brighton Rd, to connect to the Primary School. Outside the primary school a new pocket park has been created, with space for kids to play and a well-used basketball hoop.

Thanks Crs Buckingham and Halliday! We wish you well in your term on Council.

Photo credit: Simon Kosmer.

Canal Ward update

Some good news:  Following our bike tour and Ed Cook's petition, Port Phillip Council has supported a crossing with signals on Glen Huntly Rd.    Moreover, they have contributed $50000 towards the cost.  The remaining cost will need to come from VicRoads, and council has written to the roads minister Luke Donnellan requesting this. 

Furthermore, the list of comments and sites was given to Council's Transport Safety Engineering Team.   Here is the list of their responses.

As we have become accustomed to, VicRoads seems to be the biggest hold up, with many comments along the lines of "We'll ask VicRoads if they can do this".   

It's also worrying that they consider a 1.5m wide bike lane (on Brighton Rd) sufficient to avoid the door zone--- Austroads guidance is that on a 60kph road, there should be a buffer of 1-1.5m between cyclists and passing trucks.   So it seems that we can be buffered from the doors, OR the trucks, but not both!

Thanks to everyone who helped.  The Lake Ward tour will be coming up in June.