‘Rip out bike lanes, build carparks’

Melburnian Caleb Bond argues why incentives to ditch the car and take up cycling in Melbourne won’t work.

OPINION

Melbourne has turned into a war zone.

It’s every man for himself. Resources are scarce and growing scarcer.

The situation is so bad, I read in The Age this week, that people are fighting in the street.

So what has run out, triggering this anxiety and violence?

Among other things, carparks.

The problem is that the population keeps growing, so apartments keep going up – but they’re built without adequate onsite parking, which drives residents to leave their cars on the street.

Streets are now full so councils have implemented timed parking. People are getting into rows on the street over who has dibs on parking spaces and then they’re racking up thousands of dollars in parking fines because they have nowhere else to go.

Melbourne: People are getting into rows on the street over who has dibs on parking spaces. Picture: iStock

The objective is to discourage people from owning cars in the first place. It is very deliberate that apartment buildings are constructed without enough parking spaces. They hope that if you can’t find somewhere to put the car, you’ll either sell it or not buy one in the first place.

Victoria’s transport department is considering scrapping minimum parking requirements for new developments close to public transport in an effort to force people to give up their cars.

Be damned if you want to go somewhere not served by a bus, tram or train – the government will determine where you travel and the circumstances in which you do it.

Elsewhere in Melbourne, Yarra Council has just reduced the speed limit on every street in Collingwood and Fitzroy to 30km/h.

Victoria’s transport department is considering scrapping minimum parking requirements for new developments close to public transport. Picture: iStock

It is expected to make the suburbs more time-consuming to navigate.

I could drive up the Monash from South Melbourne to Warragul in the time it’d take me to cross Collingwood.

Speaking of which, St Kilda residents are warring over a separated bike lane down Inkerman St which would – surprise surprise – involve the removal of 114 parking spaces.

It is my opinion that the bike lanes in the Melbourne CBD are not used enough and have become nuisances that hold up traffic. But, as ever, it’s not to serve current cyclists – it’s to force you out of your car through pure frustration so you have to use the bike lane.

Bike lanes in the Melbourne CBD. Picture: iStock

Those who might support all this, though, are academics and residents of some leafy Melbourne streets who apparently want navigation apps such as Google Maps to stop directing people down suburban streets because rat-running is destroying their tranquillity.

God forbid someone, you know, drove down a street on which they didn’t live.

The reality is that despite every effort to discourage car ownership it is actually increasing.

Australia is a big country. Unless you’re an insular inner-city ignoramus, you probably have to leave the confines of your compound occasionally.

And that, shock horror, means getting in a car.

We’re not some small European country where everyone lives on top of each other and you don’t have to travel more than 4km to go anywhere – for a lot of people, life simply can’t be done on a bike.

Rip out the bike lanes and put the carparks back in. We’re being taken for a ride.