Strategic Cycling Network Design Guidelines Ignored
Media Release: Tuesday 17 March 2026
Residents and cyclists in North Richmond want to get around their community safely, and they have been writing emails – hundreds of them – asking the Minister for Road Safety, Melissa Horne, and the Minister for Active Transport, Gabrielle Williams, to intervene in a local dispute that will see bicycle lanes in Elizabeth Street, Richmond, narrowed to make way for 45 additional car parking spaces as part of road resheeting works that commenced on Monday, 16th March 2026.
With no action to stop the works from the state government, residents and bike riders were on site on Monday as workers levered up the yellow traffic separators, leaving people on bikes, e-bikes, and e-scooters with no protection from cars for the next four to five weeks and exposing people on bikes to close passes and near-dooring, in a risk to Yarra Council’s public liability.
The residents argue that narrower lanes and the associated narrow traffic “buffers” will put people on bikes into gutters and increase the danger of dooring. Narrower lanes will make traveling difficult for cargo bikes and delivery workers. Residents also requested that the ministers enforce the minimum design guidelines for Strategic Cycling Corridors (SCC), which recommend a minimum width of 2.0 m for protected bike lanes on streets like Elizabeth St.
As a major east-west cycling route into Melbourne’s CBD, the SCC along Elizabeth St. connects to Albert St. in the City of Melbourne. Elizabeth St. is a local road under the control of the local Yarra Council. The existing Albert St. protected lanes are due to be upgraded and widened in 2026-27.
The Elizabeth St. protected lanes in North Richmond were designed and trialed in 2020 and made permanent in 2023. On 8 April 2025, a new councillor group voted to drastically narrow the protected lanes so as to be able to add car parking to the north side of the street. A second vote, on 22 April 2025, was held to clarify the motion after the CEO raised governance issues with the original motion.
At a third vote on 12 August 2025, councillors ignored concerns raised in a Road Safety Audit report for the preliminary design. A fourth vote in 12 February 2026 saw councillors vote for an extra $520,000 for Elizabeth St to be resurfaced, bringing the total cost to downgrade Elizabeth St. protected lanes to $720,000. A cost of $16,000 per car parking space.
Quote attributable to Karen Hovenga:
As a local, I support these lanes and at a time when many people are facing uncertainty due to possible petrol shortages, the Victoria State government shouldn’t allow local councils to play short-term politics and remove safe alternative travel options and waste ratepayers money.
Quote attributable to Herschel Landes:
Streets Alive Yarra obtained The Cycling Guide under FOI in 2022, after it was “soft launched” by the state government in 2020 and sent to local councils and transport consultants. These minimum design guidelines have never been made mandatory, and local streets, even those which are Strategic Cycling Corridors, are at the mercy of local politics and influence.
Quote attributable to Yarra Councillor Sophie Wade:
Labor has stood by while Yarra Council rips up safe bike lanes. Residents deserve safe and affordable options in Richmond, as they were promised. Instead they’ve been abandoned completely by Yarra Council and the Labor government.
Read more:
- Elizabeth Street protected bike lanes downgrade to start Monday 16 March 2026
- Elizabeth Street Protected Bike Lanes: A history 1993 – 2026
- Strategic Cycling Corridors in Victoria
- The Cycling Guide: was obtained under Freedom of Information in 2022. It’s been sitting on the Minister’s desk since 2020. It’s time for the state to adopt it.
