Merri-Bek City Council questioned over controversial Kent Rd bike lane

A controversial bike lane in Pascoe Vale has kicked up a stink with locals who claim it’s causing congestion on already busy roads.

A pop-up bike lane on Kent Rd has caused a stir for residents in Pascoe Vale. Picture: Adam Daunt

A controversial pop-up bike lane has caused a stir with locals in an inner-city suburb sparked accusations of “implicit bias” against the Merri-Bek Council.

The council installed the lanes alongside Kent Rd in Pascoe Vale in 2021 as part of an initiative to create the Coburg to Glenroy Bicycle Link and encourage residents of “all confidence levels” to take part in cycling.

The Pascoe Vale Residents Group is leading the charge to see the lane dismantled as they fear it creates increased congestion on the busy road and is a safety risk to elderly people visiting a nearby health centre.

The group presented a petition against the controversial with about 2000.

Group member Ian Carmichael, in a letter to the council seen by Leader, questioned whether Greens-backed councillors had an “implicit bias” in voting for the bike lane.

“The four Greens councillors, which included the mayor, wanted to make those unsafe lanes permanent,” he wrote.

“With the new design the same councillors wanted to make them permanent without being certain they will be safe for all users, including bikes but mainly the thousands of elderly and vulnerable visiting Pascoe Vale health.

“Is this a case of implicit bias and should the four councillors declare a conflict of interest?”

The resident group also believe the lanes put cyclists at the risk of “dooring” with the Kent Rd bike lane running on the outside of cars’ passenger side doors.

Italian cyclist Alberto Paulon was the victim of a “dooring” incident when he rode alongside Sydney Rd, Brunswick in 2015. Mr Paulon was riding with his girlfriend when a car door opened and sent him into the path of an oncoming truck.

Mr Paulon was killed instantly with his girlfriend Cristina Canedda telling the Herald Sun she wanted people to “remember riders we have lost to car dooring”.

The council voted in August to change the design of the bike lane and extend the trial, which is expected to run for at least six more months.

The council believed its design would prevent a “dooring” incident, like the one which killed Mr Paulon, from occurring.

“In the rare instance, that a bike rider experiences a car dooring incident happening in these trial bike lanes on Kent Rd, they would not be pushed into flowing car traffic as they would be protected by kerb separators and the row of parked cars,” the council’s director city infrastructure Anita Curnow responded.

“If car dooring did occur, the consequences would be significantly less, which is why this is a significantly safer treatment for bike riders.”

When approached for comment over the project, the council supplied their media release from August as justification for the bike lane trial.

Last year, Cr Mark Riley said the council had found “no negative impacts” to the project which connected a “key gap” between Coburg and Glenroy for cyclists.

“This additional 12-month trial will allow us to assess the impact of the design changes through observation and further engagement with the community, as we address concerns that have been raised,” he said in the release.