Council’s Zero Effort, Zero Kilometres on Bike Lanes
At council’s meeting on the 5th of September (2023) Streets Alive Glen Eira (SAGE) asked how council was progressing with its Cycling Action Plan. Specifically, we asked:
How many kilometres of safe, protected bike lanes were constructed in the 2022-23 financial year?
Is council on track to meet its 2030 goal of a 50:50 mode share split between private vehicles:active and public transport?
Paul Wood, Councils Interim Director of Planning and Place, responded on behalf of council stating:
“Council did not construct any new protected bike lanes in this last financial year. However, undertook improvement to the Rosstown rail trail including new traffic calming measures and improved signage along the route.
Council is progressing actions within the Integrated Transport Strategy of 2018, which is the mechanism to strive for a 50:50 car and non-car trips by 2031. The key actions that are identified as having the most impact to achieve this are to support and increase dwelling density at key transport hubs and to focus employment and office development within major activity centres and strategic sites.
This is underpinned by councils strategic planning work within our major activity centres. Council is undertaking a refresh of the Integrated Transport Strategy this year, where additional actions to increase the mode split will be explored”.
Councillor Tony Athanasopoulos, followed up by asking council officers if council knew how many kilometres of protected bike lanes exist in Glen Eira.
Wood responded, saying that council has approximately 7 kilometres of protected bike lanes. We followed up with council to confirm which bike lanes made up these 7 kilometres. The shared paths of the Djerring Trail, Frankston Rail Trail and a small section of the Rosstown Rail Trail make up the only 7 kilometres of bike lanes that are separated from cars.
Pledges Made, Not Delivered
At the 2020 Council Election, Mayor Jim Magee said he wanted to ‘increase the number of safe bike lanes’.
Council’s response to these questions was completely disheartening. To declare a climate emergency and take no real action is disappointing to say the least. To have built zero kilometres of safe, protected bike lanes within Glen Eira in the last financial year, shows the lack of commitment from council to take urgent action on climate change.
On-road transport is one area of emissions that council does have control over and in Glen Eira, that makes up 13% of our total municipal emissions (Snapshot Climate). Safe separated bike lanes would encourage more people people to get out, onto their bikes and travel in a healthier, more sustainable way.
We call on all councillors to commit to climate action and make riding a safe alternative to driving, by rolling out safe bike infrastructure as soon as possible.
We encourage everyone to reach out to our local councillors to show your support for safer streets. If you’d like to get involved at Streets Alive Glen Eira, you can sign up to our mailing list below.
