Agreed. What are you supposed to do if a pedestrian swarm blocks your path? Do a bunny-hop off the ledge into an oncoming tram?
Just saw the video - ridiculous.
Doyle has reportedly said there are signs indicating cyclists should give way to pedestrians.
Half the time pedestrians don’t know where they are going and are likely to push a cyclist into the tram tracks.
Not good
Elizabeth street will have to be paved over and made into a bikes only lane now, just to manage the bike traffic
I’ll be riding the tram tracks. Fuck that “bike lane”.
I’m a bit out of the loop on this, but is the plan to do all of Swanston street (from Flinders st station to the Elgin turn off)?
the problem with riding on the tracks now, is that you can’t ride around the tram when it is stopped, you will have to sit behind it like a car till the lights change. and if it is two trams, maybe two traffic light cycles. so basically the best ‘quick’ option i can think of is to get pro at cyclocross dismounts, and just jump off at the top of the ramp, run through the pedestrian area, remount and then ride through the intersection.
also, bike lane is not clearly marked at all on the platform, there’s slightly different coloured perpendicular lines of paving, but that’s it. safety sacrificed for visual neatness. i imagine after the official opening and in a few weeks time, the council will have to do a whole bunch of paint lines on their precious bluestone anyway.
This.
How long until a middle aged commuter gets pushed off the ledge into an oncoming tram??!
So dumb.
They should have moved the trams to the outside, and put the bikes up the middle. Separation, it’s not that hard.
Basically, Swanston St now becomes one of those shared pedestrian/cyclist areas that architects love to render; people meandering about in all directions with families on bikes riding leisurely through the crowd. As for the commmuting cyclist, who I’m guessing makes up 95% of the cycling traffic on Sawnston St, well, bad luck mate, no-one gives a shit about you.
Last night we actually saw a fella on a bike fall UP, off the tram tracks onto that shared ped/bike space tram stop or whatever the shit its supposed to be…
Saw a guy bin it on the tracks yesterday. I’m gathering he thought the bike path was the tram stop (pretty much is) and thought he had to ride along the tracks.
This is going to be a disaster.
And it took sooooo fucking long to build.
EDIT-Balki beat me to it!
I rode the tram tracks last night, there were pedestrians all over that platform.
When riding up Swanston it’s not really clear where to go on a bike because it does look like a raised tram stop. To be honest, the tracks are a safer option.
Another Melbourne, cycling debacle! For years now Swanston St has been a supported thoroughfare for cyclists. Over the next few months, a few peds will get hit and they’ll end up banning bikes, which will then be moved to another street and cause chaos for all.
Merry fucking Christmas Doyle, you prick!
i’m going to go against the grain here and say that if they manage to turn swanston st into a proper pedestrian street at the expense of commuting cyclists then so be it.
there are no major people-friendly streets in melbourne…and that end needs it so bad with the library.
if they could do something similar down near city square it would be great for the city.
cities need people more than bikes.
just find a new way to work…4 more turns.
(ideally they’d make russell and elizabeth st more bike friendly too).
+1
I haven’t actually ridden it yet, but your logic makes sense.
Slow down hipsters!
They need to do a bit of work where Royal Pde turns into Elizabeth.
That is hell for riding through.
Do you think funneling bike traffic into either Russell or Elizabeth, then turning it all back down at Flinders so they can access St Kilda Rd, will work?
Cities need people, but cyclists need access to a decent cross town route as well.
I think you’re all coming off sounding like a bunch of whinging douche bags. Tour the country a bit and then look at how fucking good you have it. I just started riding with my 1 year old and due to the complete lack of bicycle infrastructure around here we have to limit our riding to specific areas as there is no way I’m taking her out through Brisbane traffic (including the CBD). How nice it would be to be able to ride down the middle of the city in a dedicated bike lane.
I think the key point here is that you are not average Melbourne cyclists. The average cyclist is your BV member who wears Hi-Vis (headnod to CC) and rocks panniers, or just bought a bike off ebay and has started to get into this whole ‘cycling’ thing and are considering purchasing their first set of Netti shorts. These more conservative riders just want a route that just gets them away from the big scary cars, trucks and buses.
Seriously, is it that hard to slow the fuck down and take Swanston St at something less than a sprint? We all like riding our bikes fast but I would happily cede that experience for the experience of being able to ride down a pedestrian/cycling thoroughfare even if it does mean I have to dodge the odd pedestrian. We’ve got separated bike/ped lanes in Brisbane that the iPeds walk all over the bike lane all the time and seriously it is not that hard to slow down, give them a heads up and move on. You’ve spent the last how many years dodging taxi doors and horse shit down Swanston St, how much easier are a bunch of pedestrians?
Dan i don’t think you understand, riding my brakeless track weapon down there is going to be extremely difficult. I pay taxes you know!
Fair enough.
But I don’t think any of us said we were angry we couldn’t ‘sprint’ through Swanston Street?
What was once a decent road to ride down has become non existent. In essence there is no bike path.
Peds are very unpredictable, thus making it a get off the bike and walk zone.
I was there last night and it’s not the odd pedestrian that might get in the way, it’s fucking swarming with people.
Fair point
I dont really agree with this “dedicated bike lane” business… Segregation perpetuates the view that bikes do not have a legitimate place on the road, and I cant see that as a good thing
Slowing down is not the problem. In doing this, they’ve blurred the line between footpath and road, which means pedestrians will be all over the place even worse than before and you’re not just dodging the odd pedestrian, they are everywhere! This will make it worse given the huge volume of bike traffic through there every day.
Let’s, at least, hear it from those that ride it every day.