North Melbourne businesses fear Arden St bike lanes are dangerous

Businesses fear a safety flaw in the new Arden St bike lanes will soon lead to a serious crash if the council doesn’t fix it soon.

North Melbourne businesses are pleading with the City of Melbourne to fix safety issues on the new Arden St bike lane before there is a major crash and a cyclist is seriously injured.

Prestige car dealer Nick Theodossi said the council needed to install safety devices such as flashing lights to alert motorists and encourage cyclists to slow down along Arden Street.

“The west sun hits around 4.45pm and it makes it next to impossible to see anything,” he said.

“The cyclists come along and they are travelling at speed and it can be very hard to see them, even when you are looking for them, depending on the time of day.

“There really needs to be something done to improve safety and that might be as simple as installing flashing lights along the bike lane.”

Kayne Theodossi, of Nick Theodossi Prestige Cars, fears the bike lane outside of the dealership will cause a major accident soon. Picture: Jason Edwards

Mr Theodossi said he understood the bike lane was here to stay but it needed to be improved before there was a major crash.

“There’s no doubt that someone is going to be seriously injured along Arden Street with the way the bike lane is currently designed,” he said.

“I don’t want to hit a cyclist and I never want any of my team to hit a cyclist. That would be a horrible thing.”

Prorepair co-owner Menka Michaelides said she was concerned the design of the new bike lane was not safe given the level of vehicle traffic entering and existing businesses on Arden St and the speed at which some cyclists travel in the area.

“It’s very difficult to see the cyclists as many of them are riding so fast, also the food delivery bikes that are motorised are speeding down the bike lane,” she said.

“There needs to be something done to improve safety because it’s only a matter of time before there is an accident,” she said.

“Whether it is something like flashing lights or better signage at key points, that will enhance the visibility and alert drivers to the presence of the bikes.”

Ms Michaelides said now the lanes had been installed it was “now about making them safe for both rider and driver”.

“Flashing lights would be particularly effective, I would think, during low light conditions,” she said.

The calls to fix the Arden St bike lane come just weeks after Lord Mayor Nick Reece caved to pressure from cyclists and voted to invest an extra $4.5 million to build new bike lanes over the next three years taking the council’s total spend in that period to $12 million.

A City of Melbourne spokeswoman said protected bike lanes made “it safer for everyone”.

“The North Melbourne community has shown strong support for protected bike lanes – and we’ll continue to take feedback on board as works progress along Arden Street,” she said.

“Most feedback so far has been positive, and we’re already making some safety improvements based on what we’ve heard.”

The spokeswoman said more upgrades such as new signage and line marking could be installed to “enhance safety and improve traffic flow”.

The bike lane on Arden St has reduced traffic from two lanes to one, with works between Wreckyn Street and Dryburgh Street completed.

The council said changes were already planned in response to community feedback – including improved sight lines for drivers at Leveson Street – for the section between Wreckyn and Dryburgh Streets.

Originally published as North Melbourne businesses fear Arden St bike lanes are dangerous