Department of Transport’s pop-up bike lane program

Background

City of Port Phillip has an extensive bicycle network that includes 38 kilometres of on-road routes and 21 kilometres of off-road routes. We’re committed to ensuring our City is well connected and easy to move around in, with options for sustainable and active transport including bike riding.

Move, Connect, Live 2018-2028 is our long-term Integrated Transport strategy to deliver Council’s commitment to:

• supporting a well-connected transportation future for our City
• making it easy for people to move around
• connecting people with places in a way that suits them as our City grows.

In 2020, The Department of Transport and Planning established the pop-up bike lanes Program to support more people to ride bikes across Melbourne. In September 2021, Council requested that DTP consider funding pop-up routes in Port Phillip that aligned with our Integrated Transport Strategy. The pop-up approach uses temporary infrastructure which can be adjusted in line with community feedback and monitoring. The routes were proposed to be in place for 12-18 months after which they could be removed, or if successful, converted to permanent routes.

As the pop-up bike lanes were being installed, Council received feedback from the community identifying concerns about safety, amenity and aesthetic impacts. In response to these concerns, Council wrote to DTP requesting changes to the trial infrastructure installed. An additional request for further changes was made by Council following a meeting on December 8 2022, with DTP set to deliver improvements in coming months.