Merri-bek council to remove separated bike lanes on Kent Rd

An inner-city council’s decision to ditch protected bike lanes for vulnerable road users has created a backlash from bike riding residents.

An inner-city council’s decision to abandon protected bike lanes has copped a backlash from residents.

An inner-city council’s decision to abandon protected bike lanes has copped a backlash from residents

Merri-bek City Council will decide whether to scrap the controversial Kent Rd bike lane on Wednesday, with council officers recommending they be removed.

The council installed a pop-up bike lane trial alongside Kent Rd in Pascoe Vale in 2021 to encourage residents of “all confidence levels” to participate in cycling.

However, in its latest recommendation published last week, the council plans to remove the Kent Rd separated bike lane infrastructure.

Councillor Adam Pulford said the council’s decision to scrap the bike lanes comes from community feedback that did not correctly state what the community was voting for.

“Council officers are recommending the Kent Rd protected bike lanes be ripped out based on feedback from a recent survey, but council‘s report notes this survey didn’t ask people to compare the existing protected bike lanes to having none, which is what they have now put on the table,” he said.

“At Merri-bek, we’ve consistently heard strong support from residents for more bike lanes and better footpaths … around 80 out of 120 submissions were from community members calling on the council to make it safer and easier to get around our city by building more active transport infrastructure.”

Mr Pulford said “ripping out” protected bike lanes would make it harder for the council to meet its emission target.

“The climate crisis demands we make changes to our city to cut emissions and build resilience for the impacts of rising temperatures, like climate-fuelled extreme weather,” he said.

“Council should be investing more in protected bike lanes and safe walking infrastructure, not ripping out some of the few protected bike lanes we have.“

Cr Adam Pulford

In its council agenda, Merri-bek said the challenges identified through feedback and evaluation of the trial include:

– Conflicts between parking and traffic;

– Access to a medical centre;

– Resident access;

– Bin collection; and

– Bike riders dissatisfaction with some aspects of the lanes.

“The length of this trial would ordinarily be adequate for traffic volumes and behaviours to settle, however, the issues identified early in the trial have instead prevailed,” the document reads

“These issues, as well as present and future connectivity to physically separated bike infrastructure, have caused officers to recommend that the Kent Rd trial be declared complete, that the separated bike lanes be removed, and an alternative route for less confident bike riders be identified for the Glenroy to Coburg bike route,” the document said.

Councillor Oscar Yildiz told the Herald Sun removing the bike lanes was the right way to go.

“They’re clearly not working, and they haven’t worked. It‘s causing massive safety concerns for the residents, drivers and pedestrians,” he said.

Mr Yildiz said with the existing infrastructure, it was “impossible to park” on Kent Rd.

“If cars are parked on either side of that road, you can’t get another car through,’’ he said. “The hospital doctors, the football club officials, and shopkeepers have asked us to remove it he said

“Most bike users don‘t even use the separated bike paths, and they actually use the road because they’re dangerous and have been dangerous for a long time.”

Mr Yildiz said he’s happy to have painted lines on the ground but not separated bike paths with concrete bollards that were “causing safety concerns”.

“The concrete bollards are making it difficult for our tip trucks to collect rubbish from the bins because if we have a car parked on either side, then the tip truck can‘t go through the road,” he said.

Mr Yildiz said ambulances and fire trucks also can‘t go through the road.

“To have a separated bike lane on that street was never going to work,” he said

It comes after another council initiative to abandon separated bike lane infrastructure on De Carle St from Rennie St to Moreland Rd and instead paint bike lanes on the busy road.

Cr Oscar Yildiz

Resident Anna Cook told the Herald Sun it was a “shame” the council had decided to ditch protected lanes for the busy road.

“There’s a school on that road and two childcare very close by, making it really busy with parents in the morning with drop off,” she said.

In its proposed changes for De Carle St, the council said the decisions were made because “the previous design was too narrow. The separation between the parked car and bike lanes was too narrow”.

The proposal stated the other key changes would allow for the regular collection of waste, create no loss of carparking and not incorporate bolt-down barriers.

Ms Cook said the community had a “real hunger” to cycle, but people felt unsafe outside the protected lanes.

“Paint doesn't cut it”.