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?
October 19th, 2010 at 3:30 pm Tony(Quote)
This would have to be the one BIGGEST mistake as far as making cycling safer in the city. An even bigger mistake is for cyclists to feel encouraged that Copenhagen style cycle lanes are the way to go.
I reluctantly use the northbound cycle lane along Fitzroy Street three days a week. I can predict ALL the possible potential mishap scenarios and there are far too many.
At the end of the day I feel there’s too much onus placed on the motorist. Imagine you’re a motorist travelling south down Fitzroy Street and you wish to make a right turn into a side street.
Firstly, are BOTH tram tracks clear for safely making a right turn across them?
Secondly, after clearing the tram tracks are there any cars travelling northwards I need to also give way to? Then, and this is the bit I find hard to come to terms with especially for any motorist using Fitzroy Street for the first time, is there a cyclist heading southwards in the opposite direction to the northbound motorists?
And what about the cyclists travelling northbound…you also need to give way to them….and then, just as you think you’re cleared for trams in both directions, oncoming cars, cyclists in both directions, there’s the possibility that you’ll need to give way to pedestrians crossing the side street as they too have right-of-way if not on a signalled crossing.
I feel a single lane for cyclists is all that’s necessary as there is in the opposite side of Fitzroy Street. I’m all for uniformity. There have been cycle lanes all over Melbourne for many years now which most cyclists and motorists are used to operating on and around. Why change things and end up confusing most motorists and cause many accidents because of this rarity!
I have cycled all over Melbourne and the Fiztroy Street dual cycle lane would be the most dangerous trip on a cycle anyone could make. Each time I have cycled along it I could have easily been wiped out by motorists if it weren’t for the need to be constantly vigilant about the movement of all other traffic. IT IS SIMPLY NOT SAFE!!!!!
October 19th, 2010 at 4:02 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Yeah when you put it like that there is an awful lot for motorists to have to check when performing a simple right hand turn.
Very easy to miss a cyclist travelling at speed, especially seeing as from memory there wasn’t traffic lights on the sidestreets (just more of a haphazard give way system where nobody really knew what they were doing).