How inner-city drivers could be slugged under new council plan

After new CBD bike lanes were slammed for causing congestion, the City of Melbourne has a new transport plan that could have drivers seeing red.

Mat Klock says city bike lanes have added to traffic congestion. Picture: Tony Gough

Road pricing measures could be introduced in the inner city to encourage more people to use bikes and public transport under a revised City of Melbourne transport plan.

However, the council is already facing a backlash from some motorists who say newly installed bike lanes have increased congestion in the CBD and surrounding roads.

On Tuesday, the council will consider commissioning an independent review to assess post-pandemic transport activity in the city.

Lord Mayor Sally Capp said the aim was to bring more people back to the city.

“We want to gain a real understanding of how people are getting into and around the city, their attitudes to different modes of transport and their travel needs and frustration,” she said.

The council fast-tracked measures such as more pedestrian-friendly zones in the CBD and protected bike lanes along the likes of Exhibition and Queensbridge streets.

A council meeting will consider commissioning an independent review to assess transport activity around the central city. Picture: Sarah Matray

Up to 2025, the council has budgeted about $47m for bike lanes and cycle infrastructure including $32.5m for the St Kilda Road Metro Bike Lane.

Mat Klock, who criss-crosses the city regularly for work, said a transport review was needed because the addition of bike lanes at the expense of vehicle lanes had increased traffic congestion.

“Going from north to south is getting really hard now, but the council thinks it’s doing OK spending a lot of money on something it believes people want to use, but no one wants to,” Mr Klock said.

“It thinks everyone within 10km of the city is going to ride their bike in, but I’m in Heidelberg, I can’t carry my equipment on a bike.”

In one of Mr Klock’s several complaints to council, Ms Capp said there was limited road space in the municipality combined with the “inefficiency private vehicles present as a transport solution”.

The council says cycling is growing strongly towards pre-pandemic levels, with April bike lane data showing Swanston Street (at Faraday) carrying 6000-plus riders a week, William Street (at A’Beckett) 9000 riders, and the La Trobe Street bridge more than 8500.

The proposed review will examine issues such as incentives, price changes, reallocation of road space and campaigns to promote the use of different transport modes.

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