bike lanes...

... there should be more of them!

This one is in my street. It's ok because my street is rather wide and there's good visibility. Unfortunately, this isn't the case for most bike lanes in Melbourne.

The Melbourne City Council claims that Melbourne is one of the world's bike cities... but in reality and in general our bike lanes and the whole subject of bike commuting are not addressed appropriately.

The Melbourne Bicycle Account - Cycling Census 2007 shows that peak hour commuting increased from 4% to 8% of vehicles in key areas between 2006 and 2007. When you consider that many bike lanes and routes in Melbourne just vanish at the end of a street, or taper to allow for cars to turn corners, or share the side of the road with CAR PARKS so that for most of the day they're occupied by cars... it makes you wonder how MCC can claim we are a bike city.

Fair enough we have some successes - Canning Street in Carlton/Carlton Nth is a fantastic street for cyclists. Swanston St in Carlton has been made very safe (until you hit the city that is) with the Copenhagen style bike lanes. And the southern half of Rathdowne Street now has green bike lanes and audible road lines to correct straying drivers. I'm sure there are other projects around the city too.

But road safety isn't just a concern on major commuting routes. More time and effort is needed for those smaller bike routes in the back streets where drivers are just as likely to screw up and cyclists are less likely to ride defensively. On top of direct safety efforts, improved driver education and cyclist education must be implemented somewhere!