Wellington Street Consultation

After a very long wait of over six years and several public consultation processes stretching back to 2010, Stages 3 and 4 of the Wellington Street bike lane project rollout is open for public feedback.

If you’re unfamiliar with Wellington Street protected lanes, scroll down to a youtube video at end of this post to see the Yarra City Council, VicRoads, TAC and Vision Zero partnership from 2019.

At Your Say Yarra: Building a safer Wellington Street you can read about project benefits, changes to parking, street trees, traffic calming and access changes, view the streets before and after the changes proposed in the designs and answers for what is a “Bicycle Street”, what is a modal filter, what is a pedestrian refuge island, what are unidirectional bike lanes, what are zebra crossings and what are protected bike lanes?

Stage 3: Wellington Street – South (Collingwood)

Outlines the changes proposed for the section of Wellington Street between Alexandra Parade and Johnston Street in Collingwood.

Stage 4: Wellington Street – North (Clifton Hill)

Outlines the changes proposed for the section of Wellington Street between Queens Parade and Alexandra Parade in Clifton Hill.

  • Option 2: Painted Bike Lanes (7 pages, pdf)
    • Page 7: Concept Design Options 1 and 2: Protected Bike Lanes between Hodgkinson Street and Queens Parade

Our Pick: Option 1 Bicycle Street for both Stage 3 and 4

We strongly suggest Option 1 Bicycle Street for both Stage 3 and 4 as it reduces traffic and improves local walkability as well as cyclability, and has more trees, similar to the existing Canning Street route in Carlton, one of Melbourne’s best known cycling corridors that’s safe, peaceful, enjoyable and effective.

Read about existing modal filters, the “Bicycle Street” option for Wellington Street is basically what has existed in Collingwood, Fitzroy, Richmond and Abbotsford streets for several decades.

Do the survey: open to 9am Monday 13 October 2025

Attend Yarra Council pop-up information sessions

Clifton Hill Primary School (185 Gold St, Clifton Hill), Friday 10 October 2025, 3.30pm to 5pm, the event will include a free Bike N Blend smoothie stand, music and a bike maintenance station.

Wellington Street Background

YouTube: Yarra City Council, VicRoads, TAC and Vision Zero partnership from 2019

Question & Answers – we’ll add to this when time permits

Also refer to Streets Alive Yarra: Building a better Wellington Street – scroll to ‘Are there any downsides?’

1. Is keeping the north section of Wellington Street as is, eg, doing nothing, a sensible option?

Looking at recent CrashDash, this area of Clifton Hill requires safer road infrastructure, you can explore the road crash data at this link, select a state to begin – then filter by severity, mode, date, and area. Also see this screenshot + data below, to answer the question, doing nothing about people’s safety is absolutely not a sensible option.

Looking at hospitalisations from 2020 to 2024 (from north to south)

  • Queens Parade intersection: one pedestrian injured,
  • North of Alexandra Parade: four cyclists injured,
  • The intersection of Wellington with Alexandra Parade: nine cyclists injured and six car occupants,
  • Between Alexandra Parade and Johnston Street: seven cyclists injured and two car occupants,
  • The intersection of Johnston and Wellington has had four cyclists injured and two motorcyclists.

2. What’s the go with parking spaces? Will the Wellington Street area lose over 66 car parks?

Under our suggested Option 1: Bike Street, after reading the information available, we believe only 13 would change. Of course with any public consultation that’s why it’s better to be objective, act in good faith and fill in the Your Say Yarra survey so the best result for everyone can be achieved.

3. Would the Council Street Christmas party be stopped if Option 1: Bike Street goes ahead?

The Council Street Christmas Street Party is a fabulous annual local event and to be honest, it’s up to event organisers negotiating with Yarra Council and other groups for it to go ahead. And possibly having traffic calmed streets in the future would make for a easier, fun event as would other flow-on effects, like local kids to ride to school safely amongst many other benefical outcomes.