Is there any change to our city that everyone agrees about? The Andrews state Labor government is fast-tracking 100 kilometres of pop-up bicycle lanes on major arterial roads, starting with Heidelberg Road in Northcote and through the inner north. Despite this being a no-brainer of a great idea, some people have gone troppo. They want the government to back-pedal and some people, getting even crank-ier than that, have pumped up their outrage further. They want to put a spoke in the wheel, let the air out of the government’s tyres and make the plan go flat. Their objections have gone up another gear.
The Andrews state Labor government is fast-tracking 100 kilometres of pop-up bicycle lanes on major arterial roads.Credit:Nick Moir
Enough cycling puns. The plan for pop-up bike lanes is wheely-well researched and has been fast-tracked due to the COVID-related aversion so many commuters have for public transport. Patronage on trains, trams and buses was sky-high pre-pandemic. There were commuter complaints that more trams and trains were urgently needed to keep up with the growing demand, especially for the morning and afternoon peaks. Shortly before the pandemic hit, the state government accelerated the new acquisitions of trams, buses and trains for country and city services.
Loading
Then with the pandemic, patronage collapsed overnight. Scheduled services were maintained even when there were no passengers – it would have been cheaper to provide essential workers who relied on public transport with a taxi or an Uber. But keeping the services running and the staff at work had wider community benefits and, not unimportantly for a left-aligned state government, it kept the Rail, Tram and Bus Union happy, too.
