[YarraBUG-list] Call to support the City of Melbourne's plans for the roll-out of the cycling network

Yarra Bicycle Users Group admin at yarrabug.org
Sat Jun 4 20:44:06 AEST 2022 

Hi all,

Your support is required at short notice to support City of Melbourne's 
separated bicycle lanes, see below for two messages received from 
Stephen Hodge, WeRide Australia and Craig Richards, Bicycle Network.

The Age: No more new bike lanes for CBD after council cops complaints
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/no-more-new-bike-lanes-for-cbd-after-council-cops-complaints-20220602-p5aqia.html

Also a heads up to listen to Yarra Bicycle Users Group Radio on 3CR this 
Monday 6 June 2022 at 10am to hear Chris interview Cr Rohan Leppert, 
City of Melbourne and Andreas Loewe, Dean of Melbourne at St Paul’s 
Cathedral talk about these issues including how separated bicycle lanes 
improve the city for everyone

https://www.3cr.org.au/yarrabug
https://www.yarrabug.org/radio/

*
*

*1. Craig Richards: It’s time to declare a bike lane emergency*

Please register to attend by 10am Tuesday 7 June 2022:

https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/about-council/committees-meetings/meeting-archive/Pages/Future-Melbourne-Committee-7-June-2022.aspx

If hundreds of people turn up council will take this seriously, if it’s 
just a couple well we’ll be dodging trucks for years.

We’ll provide the bike parking! See you there

Best wishes

Craig Richards, craigr at bicyclenetwork.com.au


*2. Stephen Hodge, WeRide Australia*

We are getting in touch about an urgent issue which threatens the 
fantastic progress that has been made during and since COVID by the City 
of Melbourne to invest in a network of bike lanes and separated 
infrastructure that is vital to getting Melbourne moving into and around 
the CBD by bicycle.

*What’s the Issue?*

Reporting today in The Age indicates that the City of Melbourne is 
considering scaling back their plans to provide safe, separated bicycle 
lanes across the city in response to vocal criticism from business 
interests, AWU and some residents.

The City of Melbourne will make their decision at the next Council 
meeting on Tues June 7 starting at 5.30pm.

Melbourne Greens Councillor Rohan Leppert is calling for people to write 
to the Council to show they support the bike lanes.

WeRide is working with the Climate Council, Victorian bicycle user 
groups and other cycling organisations to publicly support the City of 
Melbourne’s plans for a better cycling network.

*This development is bad news because:*

  * It is likely to galvanise the anti-bike lane cohort – it will
    establish a precedent that loud opposition has the power to stop
    sensible transport investments and could mean they will continue to
    block active transport infrastructure both in Melbourne and interstate,
  * This could also set a worrying precedent that the Melbourne CBD
    Council would stop rolling out bike lanes after a few adverse media
    days. Our aim is to support the Melbourne City Council’s efforts for
    all the people that would like to cycle and love the bike lanes.

*Please take the time to make a submission*

You can make an urgent submission before the Council meeting deadline

  * The submission deadline is 10am Tues June 7, but ideally it would be
    better to get it in a bit earlier!
  * The submission portal is here:
    https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/about-council/committees-meetings/meeting-archive/Pages/Future-Melbourne-Committee-7-June-2022.aspx
  * The fact that media announced these changes on World Bike Day is all
    the more important!
  * The Climate Council has provided a template letter of submission
    which you can use to expedite the process (please refer below)
  *   You can include anything personal that is relevant - personal
    experiences and anecdotes in relation to the importance of the bike
    lanes will go a long way
  *   Please sign off with your own name and suburb if based in Melbourne.

*Ideas and stats/facts to use in your submissions*

Here's points for a draft letter is attached for use if it helps you, 
the more you can personalise it the better

  * We support the City of Melbourne’s efforts to ensure our streets are
    able to be accessed by those that want to walk or ride as well as drive
  * People make the city not cars
  * No matter where we live, it’s important for everyone in our
    community to access and enjoy our streets. That means joining up the
    missing links in our walking and cycling networks with more
    footpaths and bike lanes.
  * Our streets are for everyone to move around – bikes belong here.
  * 43% of cars in the City of Melbourne are simply travelling through,
    the city is not their destination
  * Before COVID, 7% of all people travelling into the CBD came by bike,
    if Melbourne wants to attract people back into the city, people who
    walk and people who choose to ride a bicycle must be supported and
    that includes routes both into and within the CBD.
  *  From Urbis – parking in a bike space generates twice as much
    economic activity for local businesses as a car parking in the same
    space
  * The average trips distances in Greater Melbourne are very small,
    more than 40% of all trips for all purposes are just 3km or less,
    50% are just 5km or less.
  * Average speeds in the CBD can be competitive for people riding
    bikes, who average around 20kph. And the more bikes are separated
    from cars the more space for drivers who do not have the option to
    ride a bike.
  * Improving safety for people riding and walking improves safety for
    all road users
  * Economic activity generated by the Australian cycling sector is
    significant:
      o          $6.3 billion in direct industry output
      o          $3.4 billion in direct value add to our GDP
      o          34,295 direct (FTE) jobs, and
      o          Cycle tourism has a direct industry output of $1.2
        billion annually.


We hope this helps. Please let us know if you do a submission, it would 
be great to be able to tell media how strong the support it! Don’t 
hesitate to get in touch if you’d like to discuss this with us.

Thanks in advance!
Stephen Hodge
Director - National Advocacy
M:+61 411 149 910
E: stephen at weride.org.au
Twitter: @werideaustralia, @stephenhodgeaus
Web: www.weride.org.au


*****

-- 
Listen to Yarra Bicycle Users Group Radio <http://www.yarrabug.org/radio/>
Every Monday morning 10am on 3CR 855AM Community Radio 
<http://www.3cr.org.au/>
web <http://www.yarrabug.org/> | facebook 
<https://www.facebook.com/YarraBUGRadio/>| twitter 
<https://twitter.com/yarrabike>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://yarrabug.org/pipermail/yarrabug-list_yarrabug.org/attachments/20220604/5e661a6d/attachment.html>

More information about the YarraBUG-list mailing list