Merri-bek BUG

The Council is taking the opportunity provided by the installation of the ped op signals at the Dawson St crossing to undertake additional civil works to improve conditions for cyclists and make it safer for pedestrians.

Specifically,

1. The crossings will be widened as much as possible and kerbing will be roll-over type to allow cyclists to get away at different points if they want. The widening is only about 300mm but it's as much as we can get.
2. East/west pedestrians on the north side footway will be forced to detour out on a widened footway so that they are away from the Baths blind corner. (Both the above are requests/suggestions from BUG and Council hopes that cyclists will be patient and understanding of the inconvenience. It's for cyclists' benefit after all.)
3. Tactile ground service indicators will be added (by regulation of the Disability and Discrimination Act)

The projected date is Tuesday/Wednesday next week (13 or 14 March 07).
The crossing will have to be closed for several hours to enable the concreters to work safely.

We have put our minds to how best to detour cyclists. Our thoughts are:

1. Not to close it before 9am to avoid inconveniencing LARGE numbers of cyclists
2. To block the path completely at Phoenix St in the north and Michael St in the south and detour cyclists via Saxon Street. It adds an extra 200 metres to the trip, but there are no destinations cyclists can ccess from the bike path between the detour points, apart from Dawson St, and that is still accessible.

We thought to send cyclists across the rail line to cross the road on the west side of the rail, and back again. But there are safety concerns with numbers of cyclists trying to cross rail lines in gated crossings that are not designed for bikes, let alone several of them.

In the picture below, the red line with arrows shows the detour.

Nicholas Elliot
Transport Projects Officer

PH: 9240 1294