The Age: Beach Road safer for cyclists as councils put wheels in motion – October 10, 2011

One of Melbourne’s favourite bicycle thoroughfares is set to become a permanent delight for weekend riders in a move welcomed by cyclists and local government.

The Beach Road route that runs through Melbourne’s bayside suburbs is world-renowned as a city-cycling stretch, but has been notorious for safety issues involving cyclists hitting parked cars, and drivers and riders jockeying for positions on weekends, when an estimated 10,000 bicycles take to the strip.

But a 12-month trial on banning cars parking along Beach Road between 6am and 10am on Saturdays and Sundays – the peak time for weekend cyclists – has eased tensions on the road and made for safer riding.

Bayside City Council’s trial on reserving the left-hand lane for cyclists, so they need not weave into traffic to avoid parked cars, will expire next month but is set to become permanent. The no-parking rule is already implemented by neighbouring Port Phillip Council, while Kingston Council has implemented the trial ban which ends next month.

Beach Road Cyclist spokesman Marcel Lema, whose group first called for a parking ban in 2002, said the trial had been a huge success and proved cyclists and drivers could share the road effectively.

”The improvement has been amazing,” he said.

”From a visual increase, there are many more women taking up riding and parents with their kids, and you just never saw that previously.

”From a safety perspective, they were two groups who were reluctant to get on the road, but now it’s great to see.”

Mr Lema rides Beach Road as a cyclist, but has found he is rarely called to the area on weekends in his job as a paramedic, when previously he saw plenty of ”nasty, nasty accidents” there. [Read more →]