Haymarket roundabout on Elizabeth St to be given $2.3m upgrade | Herald Sun
They’re putting up sets of lights and ped crossings, which should slow traffic to a crawl, making it safer for you in the new bike lanes !
I will never forget my first ever alleycat (The dash for no cash fundraiser for the Golden Greek) one checkpoint was in the middle of the Roundabout of Death on a busy Friday… I was shitting myself haha.
^The first time I ever wore clip in shoes I rode through this in peak hour. Steep learning curve…
i ride through this (turn right from royal parade onto peel st) and it actually gives me a bit of a sick sense of excitement each morning!!
this morning was fucking brilliant as the gaps all fell my way and i absolutely hammered through it. always a nice feeling on the track bike 
be interesting to see how this all pans out. i actually find royal parade slightly more dangerous with people turning and parking without looking etc. my concern would be that if this slows traffic on royal parade, people will get even more angry and agitated, resulting in them doing more dumb shit!!
but on the whole, it probably can’t get worse, and it’s awesome to see the council doing something about it.
i don’t mind how it currently is. just wish more trams would go through there, as they stop all the cars which makes using it very easy.
i managed to get shafted this morning trying to take the same route rolly did.
it wasn’t cars today, but other cyclists overtaking me that prevented me from moving right.
ended up going all the way down elizabeth and across flinders lane to get to work 
9/10 i sit in front of the cars waiting at the lights on the corner of grattan and royal parade and just take the lane. sometimes people get shitty and act like dicks, but the majority of people realise i’m just as quick as them once i sprint from the lights. by doing that i enter the roundabout in the correct lane and can turn pretty easily. i hate having to go down elizabeth, so i fight like hell to stay in the lane i need!
i’m too lax when riding, i’d much rather let cars/trucks go do their thing. if it means i have to take the long way/wait another few minutes, then so be it. if i wanted my travel to be shorter/quicker (on average), i’d catch the trains like i have for the last 7/8 yrs.
still my favourite bike comic strip…
haha that’s me told then!!
i’m usually not too manic about getting to work, but that probably explains why i’m regularly 15 minutes late!!
i stop for all the reds etc and am pretty chilled out when it comes to letting cars do what they gotta do etc, but i still reckon hitting that roundabout with a bit of pace keeps the whole thing running as smoothly as possible…
decent headbutt would’ve sorted that problem out.
i’ll give your method a try the next few days, esp if i get stopped at the gratten lights.
maybe i should give the commuter cup a try as well…i always do very badly on the way home 
isn’t headbutting reserved for final sprints?
he’s done it before. I freaked right out.
The issue is the tram line going through the middle of the round about, if they moved the tram line (above or below the round about), the whole area would flow a heap better. I spent almost 5 years going through there twice a day and never had any real issues there that i wouldn’t have to deal with elsewhere.
In all seriousness, that roundabout is well overdue for a revamp.
I almost entirely agree with the idea behind it.
The problem I see in the proposed plans (http://www.bv.com.au/file/file/Haymarket_flyer_final.pdf) is that it makes it no safer or more useful for anyone that wants to get from Flemington road to Peel st on a bike. I will continue to do what I always do, wave my arm like I’m trying to take flight and catch the eyes of any driver near me, all while hoping that whoever is behind me considers cyclists vehicles and not 10,000 points.
I don’t think traffic lights should be VicRoads be all and end all solution to fixing things. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Melbourne to be the only place in Australia if not the world that has put traffic lights at a roundabout.
Arguably yes, an upgrade is needed for this roundabout, but I think this new design is more like make-up than plastic surgery.
Yeah man - I stop for Ranga’s too.
i’ll remember that next time you’re smashing me up a hill…
I think if it has 5 or more approaches then it’s no longer a simple roundabout.
And I have seen quite a few overseas with lights, not just here.
i’ve no issues with the current design, truth told. (i mainly go nth/sth on it tho).
i’ll never know why people seem so confused when it comes to navigating roundabouts.
i sincerely hope they don’t do what they did on the Roundabout Of Doom Jnr (aka St Georges Rd/Merri Ck Rd), which has turned it into a more dangerous, confusing clusterfuck than it was before the downgrade.
Difficult intersection. Sometimes when I ride past at 530PM it’s an absolute joke- a traffic jam from Elizabeth St all the way to Sydney road essentially. Why would you drive to the city everyday… why?
Man, the ped/bike lights for the central shared path there are whack. Southbound lights are constantly going regardless of peds/bikes/cars. Northbound lights you can wait for a really long time in peak hour.
On more than one occasion I have not made it through because of the sheer number of bikes lined up. I take Rae st and the backroads all the way up to Arthurton these days.