Greens lord mayor candidate Roxane Ingleton pledges more bike lanes for Melbourne

Greens lord mayor candidate Roxane Ingleton has promised to advocate for a plan to build an additional 40km of bike lanes on major arterial roads if she is elected later this month.

Greens lord mayor candidate Roxane Ingleton has pledged to push ahead with plans to dramatically expand Melbourne’s bike lane network, if she is elected later this month.

Beyond completing 50km of protected lanes within the City of Melbourne, Ms Ingleton said she would advocate for the state government to build an additional 40km of bike lanes on major arterial roads such as Flemington Rd.

The bike lane expansion was part of a suite of Greens policies aimed at creating healthy communities, Ms Ingleton said.

The midwife and unionist wants to give people greater powers to report excess noise and disturbance from construction projects if she becomes lord mayor.

Lord mayoral candidate Roxane Ingleton, for the Greens. Picture: David Caird

In a resident-first pitch, the Greens would create three new green spaces in North Melbourne and Kensington to go with 15 park projects in development or committed to by the current council.

Ms Ingleton said expanding bike networks was an essential part of the long-term future of a growing city.

“The population is going to more than double (by 2050),” she said.

“We need to think about how these people are getting (both) into and around the city.

“We need to be providing more micromobility options, not less, and we need to be making them as safe as possible to entice people use them, getting more unnecessary cars off the road to free up the roads for necessary vehicles.”

Working with the state government to expand the city’s network of protected bike lanes – which separate cyclists from motorists with a physical barrier – is part of an existing transport strategy signed off by former lord mayor Sally Capp.

Ms Ingleton promised to leverage Greens representation in parliament to continue with the plan.

“I’m not a politician yet,” she laughed.

“But we’ve got a great party room of Greens in state government and collegiality across all levels of government.”

Separated bike lanes have proven a controversial addition to the City of Melbourne. Picture: Ian Currie

Putting residents front and centre of policy wasn’t anti-business, Ms Ingleton added.

“I don’t think the two need to be mutually exclusive,” she said.

“Of course business is important and the economy is important, but businesses will still be able to carry on their business … carry on their construction.

“We’re just talking about maximising the liveability of this city, we want people to live here.”

Rival candidates have signalled doubts about increasing the number of lanes, or said they would scrap them altogether.

Fellow candidate Arron Wood has promised to fix the bike lanes at the bottom of Exhibition St and put all future bike lane plans to a panel for independent advice prior to sign off.

Incumbent Nick Reece, who was deputy lord mayor when council signed off on the existing network, pledged to maintain investment in the lanes and also promised to fix the Exhibition St bottleneck.

Carlton great Anthony Koutoufides said there would be no new protected bike lanes built if he was elected and said the existing lanes were too wide.

The “Rip Up The Bike Lanes” ticket led by Carlton resident Anthony Van Der Craats has a predictable stance on the issue.

Ms Ingleton said criticism of the bike lanes was shortsighted and lamented the overall lack of big-picture thinking from some of her competitors for the top job.

“The economy is going to function well when city systems function well,” she said.

“We’ve got these huge areas of growth planning, those areas need to be well connected, safe and convenient to get around.

“We can’t just be spruiking singular issues without actually sitting down and mapping out the bigger picture and planning for the next 10 or 20 years.”

Originally published as Greens lord mayor candidate Roxane Ingleton pledges more bike lanes for Melbourne