Hi there, just a casual observation, but I have been riding the St Kilda Road route in Melbourne to work for the past year, and in the last month or so the amount of riders has trebled enormously. I think this has been helped by some good weather, the recent ride to work day, Travelsmart and rising petrol prices.
It is so much so that between 8-9am every morning at each sets of lights you'll find up to 20 riders queued up in the narrow bicycle lane. I'd estimate about 1/10 of the number of cars using the road.
They talk about congestion of cars on Melbourne roads, but it won't be long before bikes face the same sorts of congestion issues, with some people being difficult to overtake without having to swerve out onto the road.
Pretty soon I think that councils will have to start thinking about alocating more space on St Kilda Road for bicycle users, and some radical ideas like Copenhagen style lanes or even reviving the idea that a Melbourne City Councillor had some time ago about giving up the service lanes altogehter to cyclists.
Any stats available on this ? In any case, great news for the cycling seen in Melbourne and a credit to the great work of Bicycle Vic.
It is so much so that between 8-9am every morning at each sets of lights you'll find up to 20 riders queued up in the narrow bicycle lane. I'd estimate about 1/10 of the number of cars using the road.
They talk about congestion of cars on Melbourne roads, but it won't be long before bikes face the same sorts of congestion issues, with some people being difficult to overtake without having to swerve out onto the road.
Pretty soon I think that councils will have to start thinking about alocating more space on St Kilda Road for bicycle users, and some radical ideas like Copenhagen style lanes or even reviving the idea that a Melbourne City Councillor had some time ago about giving up the service lanes altogehter to cyclists.
Any stats available on this ? In any case, great news for the cycling seen in Melbourne and a credit to the great work of Bicycle Vic.