Nicholson St bike lanes 27/7/2010

At the corner of Albert St, heading south along Nicholson St, the bike lane was narrowed to accommodate a tram superstop.  Car parking was retained, so that a very narrow bike lane is squeezed in next to a narrow vehicle lane.  You can see the kink in the white line showing where the bike lane was narrowed.

And the most common cause of collisions between cars and bicycles in the City of Melbourne? Car doors opening onto cyclists.

What speed can cars legally drive here?  50km/h. 

Removal of about 5 parking spaces would have avoided this unsafe situation, and so provides a case study of the order of priorities for allocation of space on our roads:

1. motor traffic
   
2. trams
3. parked cars
4. bicycles

The only bicycle fatality in Melbourne so far this year (at the time of writing) was recorded by police as follows:

17 March 2010
At about 9.40 am a bicycle travelling in a southerly direction along Glenferrie Road collided with the open door of a vehicle parked at the side of the road.  The male bicycle rider then collided with the wheels of a trailer being towed by a truck and suffered fatal injuries.