Fix St Kilda Road | Our Campaigns

The problem

St Kilda Road is one of Melbourne’s most loved boulevards, but right now it is a dooring hotspot with poor separation between cars and bikes.

St Kilda Road is a main thoroughfare connecting Melbourne’s southern suburbs to the CBD.

It should be a place for people, but it’s currently choked with traffic and unsafe for people who walk or ride bikes.

It is one of the busiest bike routes – more than 3,000 bike riders travel down St Kilda Road each day. They are all at risk.
More car doorings happen on St Kilda Road than any other place in Victoria.
Almost 40% of all crashes on St Kilda Road are caused by car doors being flung open into the path of bike riders.
It is taking too long to fix. The State Government has taken years to table a proposal and local councils have knocked back ideas.

St Kilda Road in its current form is an unacceptable risk that squeezes bikes in between parked cars and heavy motor traffic.

People who ride bikes on St Kilda Road need separated space to ride.

CAMPAIGN TIMELINE

2007 – 2015

In 2007, the City of Melbourne released a master plan for St Kilda Road that featured Copenhagen-style separated bike lanes along the length of the boulevard. The plan was put to public consultation but it was not supported by the State Government.

In the years that followed, a number of small improvements were made to St Kilda Road, including a stretch of separated bike lane between Princes Bridge and Linlithgow Avenue southbound in 2013.

There was a major revival of the plan in 2014 when the City of Port Phillip released a feasibility study that proved there would be major benefits flowing from the project

Progress then stalled and separated lanes were not built along the length of St Kilda Road.

August 2015

Then in August 2015 Roads Minister Donnellan launched a $305,000 study to investigate options for separated bike lanes on the street. It looked like a goer at last.

Bicycle Network reignited its St Kilda Road campaign for separated lanes and hit the streets to unite the community. Bike riders showed their support on social media using #SpacetoRide.

September 2015

A proposal for protected bike lanes was presented to key Victorian transport decision makers at a roundtable meeting held by Bicycle Network.

Survey results from bike riders on St Kilda Road found that almost 70% of people feel unsafe on the boulevard.

October 2015

The RACV confirmed their support for a safer St Kilda Road with a proper bike lane solution and called for the removal of on-street parking.

January 2016

Local bike rider David made an impassioned plea for action to be taken after being doored.

August 2016

VicRoads encouraged people who ride on St Kilda Road to put forward potential safety solutions as part of their St Kilda Road Safety Improvement Study

April 2017

VicRoads released draft plans for separated, copenhagen-style, bike lanes in the centre of St Kilda Road.

The central road option was finally decided upon because it removed the risk of driveway collisions, separated bikes from left-tuning motor traffic, improved safety at tram stops, reduced risk for pedestrians crossing the street, and recognised that much of the traffic turned left off St Kilda Road rather than travelled the entire length of the Boulevard.

The plans were rubbished by Port Phillip Council who thought they were dangerous. Premier Daniel Andrews then said plans would not go ahead, before going quiet.

November 2017

Melbourne Metro releases plans for the new Domain Station that includes the wrong, now-abandoned, curb-side bike lane infrastructure.

Due to the Andrews Government dilly-dallying over the development of the St Kilda Road plans, Melbourne Metro Tunnel, faced with a looming deadline, was forced to fall back on the earlier, rejected concept.

October 2018

In the lead up to the November 2018 state election, the Victorian Labor party announced that if they are re-elected they will build protected bike lanes in the middle of St Kilda Road from St Kilda Junction to the Arts precinct.

May 2019

The Victorian Government announced that they will come good on an election promise to build bike lanes on St Kilda Road with $27 million committed in the 2019/20 budget.

February 2021

Riders heading out of the city on St Kilda Road will benefit from an additional section of separated bike lane as far as the Shrine of Remembrance.

March 2021

The St Kilda Road bike lane project has taken an unexpected turn with news this week that the bikes lanes will be along the kerbs for about a kilometre through the Anzac Station precinct.

September 2022

Separated bike lanes for St Kilda Road are officially on the horizon! Major Roads Projects Victoria (MRPV) will manage the $30.5M project to completely remake the boulevard from Linlithgow Avenue at the Arts Centre to Charnwood Avenue south of St Kilda Junction.

Wrong lane, go back UPDATE, Nov 2017

Alarm bells are ringing following the release of draft plans for the new Domain Station that show the wrong bike lane infrastructure through the precinct.

St Kilda Road was due to be upgraded soon with new, safe and streamlined bike infrastructure along the road’s centre section rather than in the service lanes.

But the draft plans show an earlier—now abandoned—concept of separated kerbside bike lanes adjacent to the footpath.

This plan was dropped earlier in the year as unsafe because of the high number of driveways that cut across the path of bike riders.

The heightened risk of collisions that resulted from this initial plan defeated the entire purpose of building the lanes on what was a crash-prone street.

Now, bizarrely, the draft station plans show bike lanes that likely will never be built, or if they are, won’t connect to the new centre corridor bike lane.

How could a screw-up like this happen?

With the Andrews Government spending an eternity on the St Kilda Road plans, Melbourne Metro, facing a looming deadline, was forced to fall back on the earlier, rejected concept.

But there is some good news. Melbourne Metro have said their designs can accommodate the centre lane option if it is adopted by the government.

There’s now just a three-week window to get this problem sorted. The plans are out for public comment until Friday, 15 December.

If Melbourne Metro can get approval to use the centrally located bikes lanes before it finalises its plans, and has it signed off by the Minister for Planning, then there will be no stopping the early construction of the proposed central bike lanes from Southbank through to St Kilda Junction.

And millions of dollars of taxpayers money could be saved in the process by preventing the lanes being built twice.

Alternatively, riders could be stuck on the current, poor standard infrastructure for the next five years, with all the crash risk that entails.

TAKE ACTION – GIVE YOUR FEEDBACK BEFORE FRIDAY 15 DECEMBER

Make it clear in your feedback that the only acceptable option is the centrally located bike lanes through the precinct so that they can be linked to the future project for the whole of St Kilda Road.

The Draft Precinct Plan is here – go to page 22, section 4.3.4.3 Bicycle access

VIEW DRAFT PLANS

GIVE FEEDBACK

The solution

Build separated and protected bike lanes on St Kilda Road

There are a number of ways that St Kilda Road can be fixed and separated bike lanes installed.

Bicycle Network supports a central safety zone which will see a fully separated bike lane down the centre of St Kilda Road, reserving the outer lanes for vehicles and off-peak car parking.

It is vital that the final solution separates bikes from cars, property entries, side streets and laneways. Mid-block median cut-throughs that allow drivers to switch between service lanes and centre lanes must be addressed.

St Kilda Road needs attractive, low risk facilities that the whole community can benefit from.

Campaign status:

September 2022

It’s been a long time coming, but separated bike lanes for St Kilda Road will commence as of this month.

The $30.5M project will completely remake the boulevard from Linlithgow Avenue at the Arts Centre to Charnwood Avenue south of St Kilda Junction.

It will deliver wide, separated lanes along the kerb in the service lanes on both sides of most of St Kilda Road, with additional bike priority at intersections.

The St Kilda Road Bike Lanes project will involve:

building separated kerbside bike lanes with bike markings along St Kilda Road.
installing coloured bike lane surfacing at conflict points, and bike boxes and bike lanterns at traffic light intersections to provide better visibility and priority movement for riders.
modifying traffic signals to provide additional priority for riders.
removing kerb outstands to allow for continuous bike lanes.
resurfacing existing bike lanes to improve safety and comfort.
construction of DDA-compliant pedestrian crossings at some key intersections.

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