December 2025

Dixon Veloway sign

Come and say hello at our monthly meeting. For December we will be having an informal meeting at Mama Chen's in Footscray to close out the year. We'll be there from 6PM, on Friday the 12th.

Veloway Opened

Today the Veloway opened. They invited Australian Tour De France winner Cadel Evans and local Footscray school kids to open the Veloway with Katie Hall, somehow our invite must have got lost in the mail. It's been officially named the Dixon Veloway after Iris Dixon. We hope the Veloway proves to be a catalyst to improving bike infrastructure in the west. Read about our campaign for WestLink below.

Bollards

The very odd case of the bollards where the Veloway connects to Shepherds Bridge is yet to be resolved but BikeWest has had meetings with the WGTA and are working with Bicycle Network to get a better outcome. We hope this can be improved quickly

Critical Mass

The October Critical Mass was a memorial ride for Will Richter who tragically died in Kensington when a truck driver turned left from Macaulay St into Rankins St in a very similar circumstance to Angus Collins on Footscray Rd in 2023.

It was a very sad and moving event with Will's parents showing remarkable courage to speak to the people who attended. Pierre Vairo gave an impassioned speech about the cruel way our governments only ever seem to take action when blood is spilt. Our continual efforts try to avoid this terrible way of operating. We hope never to have to have a memorial Critical Mass again.

Media

North West City News

The Age, Tottenham Station development

BikeWest contributed to an article drawing attention to the poor infrastructure surrounding Tottenham station, in particular the Ashley St tunnel:

“The railway line is a massive barrier for movement north-south in that corridor. Without a shadow of doubt, the Ashley Street tunnel needs to be upgraded before major housing growth.”

Harris St

The very unsafe pedestrian crossing across the yet to be opened cycleway on Harris St is still not resolved. We are very concerned people on bikes riding down the hill will encounter kids running across the bike path and it will be difficult for people on bikes to stop in time. Seddon Cricket Club have also raised their concerns but despite many meetings both online and on site the WGTA have not changed anything. We first raised this issue in 2018

The intersection of Harris St and Hyde St is being rebuilt after the flaws in the original design were highlighted. The intersection of Hyde St and Somerville Rd is being finalised soon and hopefully it will be clearly marked with good signalling separating people on bikes and drivers.

Westlink

BikeWest's next major campaign will lever off the opening of the veloway and highlight the gap to the shared user path (SUP) on Cross St beside West Footscray Station. There is a 2km black hole between the veloway and West Footscray Station and we have drawn up plans that utilise much of the designs the ALP took to the 2019 federal election. We are working with Maribyrnong Council and this will be part of the state election campaign.

Incident Report Form

There are far too many crashes, near misses and other incidents that go unreported so BikeWest will be launching an online Incident Report form in the new year. This will give us more evidence to support our advocacy efforts.

Maribyrnong Council

Mayor

Maribyrnong council met and elected Mohamed Semra as mayor for the next term along with Cr Meredith as deputy. Mayor Semra spoke about active transport being a priority for his term and we look forward to working with him to advance this.

Budget

Cycling infrastructure has previously rated high in the budget suggestions but it can be a clear number one if we all make a suggestion

Physical Activity in Maribyrnong

Wyndham Council

Active Wyndham

Moonee Valley Council

Mayor

The newly elected mayor of Moonee Valley, Rose Iser, is an old friend of BikeWest and we have already met with the mayor with plans to advise MVCC on their future bike plans.