Fitzroy Street St Kilda Dual Copenhagen Lanes
Back in early 2008 it was announced that Fitzroy Street in St. Kilda would be getting a Copenhagen style dual bicycle lane.
The lane is similar to what Swanston street has up near Melbourne university but different in that both directions run off the one side of the road.
Coming home from my bicycle shopping run this afternoon I decided to stop by and give the lanes a test run. Here’s my impressions.
1. Usability
I’ve used dual lane bike paths before but never on the road so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. It’s a weird feeling riding against the traffic on the ‘wrong’ side of the road.
The good news is I felt quite safe on the road side of the lane. The bad news I was paranoid about being slammed from the curb side by a car not looking in both directions. Mind you this is with the green bicycle traffic lights running all the way through (which by the way I LOVE and want to see more of).
I’ll admit I don’t do it either when I’m driving, it’s totally alien to look both ways unless you’re crossing a two lane road. Fitzroy Street is separated by a tram line so prior to this Copenhagen lane there was no need to look both ways.
This I feel is going to be the biggest danger to cyclists using the lane. Pedestrians only focus on looking for cars so they can run across the road to catch a tram and cars pulling out of side streets are only focused on road traffic so they can merge.
Every time I crossed a side street I slowed right down till I was sure there wasn’t a car screaming down it and in the short trip I had to use my AirZound once to wake up a pedestrian.
This style of bicycle lane is going to have to become a lot more common if people are going to get used to watching out for them.
2. Usefullness
I’m primarily a commuter and for me having a Copenhagen lane on Fitzroy street is kind of a gimmick. Unless I’m going down to eat something on Fitzroy street there’s probably not much use for it.
The beach road end currently just dumps you onto a sidewalk in the middle of nowhere. Construction for bicycle parking facilities seems to be going on but in terms of where the lanes will end up there’s not much use except for the Sunday beach rider.
Going in the other direction it takes you to Albert Park, which is useful again for Sunday riders but practically useless to commute anywhere but to the South Melbourne Market with.
Getting onto the lane coming from St. Kilda Road isn’t worth the effort as a cycle lane still runs along the right side of Fitzroy street and is quicker. Jumping on towards St. Kilda road is kinda useless too unless you’re coming from the South Melbourne side, in which case you’d probably bypass the lane and head to Canterbury road directly anyway.
What I’d love to see is the implementation of a Copenhagen lane along an arterial route. St. Kilda road would benefit hugely from one of these with the amount of commuter cycle traffic it gets.
I appreciate that councils need to test the feasability of new road facilities but cmon, Swanston street got it’s Copenhagen lanes 2 years ago. Surely that’s long enough to decide whether or not it’s feasible to roll out the lanes?
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