Bumpy start to City of Vincent Bike Campaign

[Aushiker]

City of Vincent mayor John Carey wants Perth's road and transport authorities to drop their "can't-do" attitude and embrace Vancouver's "can-do" approach to new bike paths and bike infrastructure.

Mr Carey said there needed to be a total change of thinking - particularly in Main Roads and in some local governments - towards cycling.

more in the West Australian

Andrew

[Hugor]

The markings for the Bulwer St cycle lanes have been made.
They are perfectly positioned for doorings from the parking bays. The cycle lanes will at least serve at a safety (door zone) buffer whilst people still use the road.
This will irritate the drivers even more who wont understand why the cyclists wont use the marked bike lane.

[CityofVincent]

Hi Hugor – City of Vincent here! We appreciate your concern about the potential for dooring. The bike lanes we are installing in Bulwer Street will be 1.6metres wide (Aussie standards say lanes in a 60kmh zone should be a minimum of 1.2m, with 1.5 m being desirable) which provides for some significant designated space for cyclists on the road and heightens the awareness that cyclists share the road space. The reduced traffic lane width also ensures that drivers stick to that section of the road, reducing the potential for conflict with cyclists. Unfortunately most of the streets in Vincent are not wide enough to incorporate a fully separated bike lane, but we are planning for them in Scarborough Beach Road. Please contact our TravelSmart Officer - anytime - with queries on 9273 6000 or travelsmart@vincent.wa.gov.au

[crazioldjane]

Hi City of Vincent.. ?? i'm sure you are on it t...i rode around bulwer and palmerston street yesterday in the early afternoon... I rode in the new lanes and was quite impressed but not with the few cars half parked into and across the bike lanes on both of these roads..maybe a really proactive anti-parking thing might be a good educational tool as I am sure that it would mostly have to be locals or familiar visitors to the area... .sadly its going to take a long time to change driver attitudes and behaviours...bike safety is much more than environment..it all helps though so its good stuff...

[piledhigher]

Hi Hugor – City of Vincent here! We appreciate your concern about the potential for dooring. The bike lanes we are installing in Bulwer Street will be 1.6metres wide (Aussie standards say lanes in a 60kmh zone should be a minimum of 1.2m, with 1.5 m being desirable) which provides for some significant designated space for cyclists on the road and heightens the awareness that cyclists share the road space. The reduced traffic lane width also ensures that drivers stick to that section of the road, reducing the potential for conflict with cyclists. Unfortunately most of the streets in Vincent are not wide enough to incorporate a fully separated bike lane, but we are planning for them in Scarborough Beach Road. Please contact our TravelSmart Officer - anytime - with queries on 9273 6000 or travelsmart@vincent.wa.gov.au

Best not to admit that you know there are concerns when building them, will be quoted later in lawsuits...

[Hugor]

Nice to see council communicating with the cycling groups about cycling infrastructure. Should be more of it.
As above I hope the council is proactive about ensuring these lanes don't just become drop off or loading zones, and double parking lanes.
Otherwise you'll be forcing cyclists to merge into your narrowed car lane.

Generally accepted width of a cyclist (including buffer zones) is 1m.
1.2-1.5m is plenty of room for a kerbside bike lane but I'm not sure the same should be applied for a lane adjacent to parking bays.
Hope the project is successful anyhow. It has the potential to be a very useful link.

[Hugor]

Interesting study pertinent to this discussion and the CoV current plans.

http://www.vox.com/2014/9/8/6121129/bik ... c-new-york" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[NewStew]

Had to have a laugh walking up Oxford St where they are doing the works on the cycle lanes at the moment.... one resident had put up a sign saying "Residents say no to cycle lanes" right next to their F250 sized monster truck. It was so tempting to add a little bit to the sign along the lines of "Ratepayers say no to oversized vehicles", but then with the volume and genre of music playing I wasn't sure there would be a good outcome for me.

I think the addition of cycle lanes are great in Vincent and well done to the Mayor and team - really good to hear about separated cycle ways along Scarborough Beach Road as well (are there plans to do anything on Angove St?). Anyone who is against them really needs to have a look at the speeds that are achieved on these roads and realise that there is little or no impact of having cycle lanes on other road users. Parking is minimally impacted but then there is plenty of off-street parking around Vincent anyway (but you may have to take a little stroll). Cant wait for it all to be finished!

[wellington_street]

Had to have a laugh walking up Oxford St where they are doing the works on the cycle lanes at the moment.... one resident had put up a sign saying "Residents say no to cycle lanes" right next to their F250 sized monster truck.

The appropriate response to that is to take the sign, strap it to your back, and meander down Oxford Street in primary position.

[CityofVincent]

Thanks everyone - we're really trying to do our best and get more people cycling around and through Vincent with the new Bike Network Plan - and if we don't do this now then it'll only get harder to put lanes in with increased density and development along these corridors. Protected, uber-wide lanes are of course the ideal/ultimate scenario - but they can't always happen. Mayor John Carey and the Technical Services and TravelSmart teams have spent years looking at all the angles to come up with the best possible plan given our constraints - things like road width, existing power poles, community feedback (this was one of our biggest community consultation campaigns ever!). Let us know if you need any more info - happy cycling! We also have some great events coming up so be sure to like us on facebook or follow us on twitter, or subscribe to the Vincent e-news here - http://www.vincent.wa.gov.au/Contact_Us/Subscribe" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;