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Dear Minister Horne,

I’m writing to you to ensure Yarra City Council’s Elizabeth St bike lanes are made permanent at their current width (and not narrowed). 

Elizabeth Street is a strategic cycling corridor and key east-west route within Victoria’s Principal Bicycle Network, and so a priority of the state government’s active transport map. 

[any personal story about Elizabeth Street]

Strategic Cycling Corridors are supposed to be safe and encourage greater cycling for transport.

Unfortunately, on the 8th of April 2025, Yarra City Council councillors voted for a proposal that will make these bike lanes unsafe and increase the number of near-misses and crashes between vulnerable road users and vehicles, against the wishes of the local community. I understand that the matter is now with the state government, and I urge you to protect these critical lanes. 

Narrowing these bike lanes will result in the following challenges:

  1. Safety: Due to narrower lanes and narrower buffers, people cycling will be travelling closer to parked cars with an increased risk of ‘dooring’ 
  2. Accessibility: Less confident riders, families and people using wheelchairs and mobility scooters will feel less confident in these lanes and be discouraged from using them as there is no room for faster riders to overtake
  3. Against guidelines: The councillors passed a proposal that does not follow modern safety guidance and design. The current version of the lanes (and the officer version of the lanes) do meet the Victorian guidance. Not meeting the guidance seems to open the state and council up to legal risk (as well as endangering people on bikes and scooters, as above). 
  4. Community Sentiment: Over 1,100 people, majority of whom are residents of the City of Yarra, signed a petition calling for the current width of the lanes and buffers to be retained. Council consultation results also showed the lanes were supported by the community. You can read what some locals said here.  
  5. Housing density and vulnerable residents on Elizabeth St: As Richmond continues to densify, new residents need safe cycling and mobility lanes to get to where they need to be. We can’t all get around by car, including because many can’t afford it. 

The Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into impact of road safety behaviour on vulnerable road users found that poorly designed active transport infrastructure places pedestrians and bike riders at a greater risk when using the road (finding #7) and that the Victorian government should place greater emphasis on the safety of vulnerable road users in future road and urban infrastructure design and strategies (recommendation #8).

As Roads and Active Transport ministers, please intervene and stop the narrowing of these bike lanes from happening. The Department of Transport and Planning should not approve this proposed change. 

Kind Regards, 

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