Station St bike lane Bonbeach: cars parked in bike lane

Nepean Highway, south of Melbourne near Bonbeach station.

I have complained to the Kingston council about cars parked in the bike
lane on the west side of Station St. The cars are always parked near
the station in the bike lane.

Their response is that this parking is legal, and they do not propose
to do anything about it.

If you use these bike lanes going northward, then I suggest the only
safe way to proceed is to "seize the lane", and to ride in the middle
of the car lane. Of course riding no more than two abreast, as the law
requires. No need to hurry, since obviously there is no car traffic to
speak of, and they won't be delayed significantly.

Meanwhile I am going to contact the Victorian Government and see if
Kingston Council received money for this bike lane. If they did then I
will encourage them to seek a refund of the funding for this portion of
the bike lane. Since it is obviously not a bike lane, and the money
would be better spent on councils that actually make bike lanes.

Please forward this message to any cycling outlets that may be
appropriate.

Thanks.

Sadly, it IS legal to park in bike lanes (unless a clearway or signage
says otherwise).

The council would have recieved funding from Vicroads to put the paint
down and signs up at start/finish.

Please DONT write that letter to the govt. it's hard enough getting
funding.
or if you do suggest it should have been a wider parking AND bike lane
(ie either parknig indicated plus separate EBL or one big wide zone as
done recently elsewhere...


--
flyingdutch

Hm. I haven't written the letter yet.

But surely a bike lane with cars parked in it is of no use to anybody?

There is no room on this road for a park + lane option. It is this way
on the other side of the road.

In the surrounding streets there is plenty of parking available - all
the coffin drivers have to do is park and walk 100m or so.

Here it is. Lots of grovelling, but I don't figure whinging will help.

To:

Subject: car parking in bicycle lanes

Firstly let me thank you for your excellent efforts in creating many
new and well constructed bicycle lanes. They really make Melbourne a
much more liveable city.

However I have one issue.

In the City of Kingston, I have complained to the Council about car
parking in the bicycle lanes at Bonbeach Station. The precise location
is the west side of Station St near the station.

Here there is an excellent bicycle lane, which is every day occupied by
cars parking in the bicycle lane.

I would really like you to legislate to make it illegal to park in a
bicycle lane. We can't create bicycle lanes and then fill them with
cars. It defeats the point.

Failing that, please take issue with those councils that allow parking
in bicycle lanes.

Thanks again for the great work on encouraging cycling.