April 2025

Monthly meeting

Our next meeting will be held on Friday the 11th of April, 6PM at Borderlands (30A Pickett St, Footscray). All welcome!

Infrastructure Victoria Draft 30 year strategy

BikeWest put in a submission specifically referencing recommendations 14, 15 and 16

Draft Recommendation 14: Make local streets safer for children and communities

Slower local streets reduce road trauma

Reduce speed limits to 30km/h on local streets, starting in places that children often visit including around schools, playgrounds, childcare centres and kindergartens.

BikeWest strongly supported this recommendation and offered suggestions about how it can be effectively implemented.

Draft Recommendation 15: Build safe cycling networks in Melbourne and regional cities

Continue building protected and connected cycle corridors across Victoria.

A network of safe cycling corridors will encourage more people to ride

BikeWest also supported this recommendation but the proposed routes for western Melbourne were underwhelming, essentially consisting of the following existing routes: Fed Trail, the trail beside the railway to Sunshine and beyond, and the river trail to Highpoint.

BikeWest emphasised the need for local connections to local places to replace short trips which is mentioned as an afterthought in the strategy

Prioritise which government school sports fields and facilities could deliver the greatest benefits if they were shared with local communities outside school hours. Give these schools extra help for maintenance if they voluntarily share their grounds outside school hours. Offer funding for upgrades to incentivise shared access outside school hours.

Sharing school grounds can help more Victorians stay healthy, active and social.

BikeWest proposed that school grounds would be ideal places for pump tracks and single track MTB courses like that at Dromana College which have been highly successful.

You can read the BikeWest submission here, and the Infrastructure Victoria Draft Strategy here.

Better West support letter

BikeWest supplied Better West with a support letter for Better West's TAC grant application for a road safety analysis of Blackshaws Rd and surrounds.

Streets People Love

BikeWest committee members have been participating in the Streets People Love campaign for the upcoming federal election. Specifically surveys for candidates to fill out so SPL can provide information for voters to make informed decisions. Find your local candidate here: streetspeoplelove.org

Meeting with Maribyrnong council

BikeWest is meeting with Maribrynong council transport staff every 2 months to provide regular feedback. Council is currently preparing the Integrated Transport Strategy as well as projects exploring connections to the veloway due to be opened in the coming year (hopefully)

M9, Leadwest

BikeWest has contacted M9 and Leadwest to organise meetings to facilitate further advocacy efforts. Both of these organisations specifically mention improving cycling infrastructure.

M9 logo

Frankston federal grant application

The federal government has recently announced funding for active transport but it is still woefully inadequate ($100mil for the whole country)

To give an idea of just how woeful, this article summarises it. Over the past 20 years the Australian government has spent $0.91 per person per year as opposed to $714 per person per year on car based road networks.

GCN just released a video showing the folly of it all

To most people's surprise, Frankston Council have put in an election application for $11.7 mil to the federal government to help fund their cycling infrastructure. While their plans are relatively modest, we wish them success as no other council has got around to doing this.

Maribyrnong Council Projects

Footscray Park master plan

BikeWest is on the advisory committee for the new Footscray Park Master plan. This will include the current Footscray Park, Henry Turner South and North Parks and Quarry Park. As many of you will be aware BikeWest was the successful driver of the MTB trails in QP and had a leading involvement in the development of the Bike Sports Strategy that aims to expand cycling facilities in Quarry Park. Unfortunately some members of the advisory committee, eg Friends of Footscray Park have previously lobbied to remove any cycling in Quarry Park and thus remove the existing trails. Their preference appears to be a 14th off leash dog park.