July 2025

Our next monthly meeting will be on Friday (11th of July) at Borderlands Footscray (30A Pickett St). Everyone is welcome!

WestGate Tunnel Authority (WGTA)

Veloway

Naming Competition

The WGTA have proposed a naming competition for the Veloway. Unfortunately staff at the WGTA don't know BikeWest exists (WTF??) and asked Meri-Bek BUG for suggestions. Just bizarre, especially when we've put in about 5 submissions and have regular contact with their community engagement manager.

We hope to publicise a naming competition shortly and no, it probably won't be Velo McVeloface!

How do you get there safely?

While there are reports Maribyrnong Council are investigating connections to the Veloway as yet there is no safe way to get there from the west

Connection concerns for new veloway | Maribyrnong & Hobsons Bay
While the West Gate Tunnel veloway is expected to open by the end of this year, a western suburbs cycling …
Maribyrnong & Hobsons Bayjimjin

Napier St

Back before the 2019 election the ALP proposed some cycle infrastructure along Napier st that would connect West Footscray Station and Shepherds Bridge. Wouldn't that be great? We contacted Katie Hall's office and the spokesperson said Katie supported the idea but it was a federal issue.

It's a state owned road!

Shorten commits $4.8M to Footscray route
The Shorten campaign announces $4.8M plan for a major bike corridor through Footscray, linking West Footscray Station to the Maribyrnong River via Napier Street.
Bicycle NetworkNikk Hunter

Behind the Barriers tour

We couldn't get a ticket and WGTA won't offer us any. Shame. We hoped to give you some more information and when it might be opening.

Bridge over Williamstown Rd

Looks ready to us but still no response from WGTA on when it will open. This will be really good though as well as the connection to Hall St Spotswood which HBCC hope to continue down to Newport station.

Harris street

The new protected bike path alongside Yarraville Gardens and then on to Harris St is supposed to be bidirectional. However, despite our repeated feedback they haven't addressed the issues at the intersection with Somerville Rd, nor the inherently dangerous pedestrian crossing between the Seddon Cricket Club and Yarraville Gardens. This area is teeming with kids on the weekends and the crossing is in the worst possible spot and unfortunately we predict there will be collisions due to the bad design and quite possibly a kid will be hospitalised. We have told the WGTA about this over 10 times and had a couple of onsite visits. Still no change. Maribyrnong Council has retained a consultant to redraw the intersection at Harris and Hyde as well as the pedestrian crossing but we are not sure what the state of play is.

Events

JaCX Magazine September 20-21

Westside Cycle Club are organising a fantastic cyclocross (CX) event at the historical site, Jack's Magazine on September 20-21.

There will be a community day to cycle around Jack's Magazine on Saturday and some races on the Sunday. Quite the party atmosphere is planned. There will also be tours run by Working Heritage around the site on the Saturday.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DK8CqzfTvGc/

Tickets are required for both the community day and the races. You can get 4 week trial license or a one day racing license if you want.

Community JaCX Magazine Ride Day
revolutioniseSPORT is an online end-to-end online platform for sports management. Manage memberships, finance, events, governance and more.
revolutioniseSPORTWestside Cycling Club Incorporated
CX Event - EntryBoss
EntryBoss
EntryBoss
Four Week Free Trial | Membership | AusCycling
Discover the joy of cycling with AusCycling’s Four Week Free Trial Membership and unlock a world of advantages.
AusCycling
Event Licences | Membership | AusCycling | AusCycling
AusCycling Event Licences start from $44, giving you the piece of mind you need to compete in an AusCycling Sanctioned event.
AusCycling

Big Bike Film Night

It's the Australian Premiere screening of The Big Bike Film Night 2025.

Village Cinemas Sunshine on Sunday 3rd August, 5pm. You can book tickets here.

State Government

Strategic Cycling Corridors and Principal Bicycle Network

ahem, um nothing (first proposed mid 1990s)

Would actually be good but nothing more than a bit of paint in some bits at the moment.

Strategic Cycling Corridors in Victoria.
Strategic Cycling Corridors (SCC) are important transport routes for cycling and are a subset of the Principal Bicycle Network (PBN).
vic.gov.au

Bicycle Network

Campaign to reinstate MCC bike budget

Bicycle network helped coordinate a campaign to get Melbourne City Council to reinstate their bike budget and it was successful. Congratulations to all involved. A great win.

Town Hall abandons bike budget cuts
In a dramatic change of tune the City of Melbourne last week abandoned proposals in its draft 2025 budget to cut funding from its bike infrastructure program.
Bicycle NetworkMaddie Ballard

Bicycle Network are possibly a bit charitable in stating "It is too early at this stage to predict the impacts but Bicycle Network expects that the government will follow usual practice and take any opportunity to improve the quality of the bike links."

Our experience tends to be the opposite. Let's hope Bicycle Network are right.

Major changes planned for western corridor
Airport Rail is well along with planning for massive changes to the rail connections between Footscray and Albion that share a corridor with the main bike route out to the west.
Bicycle NetworkMaddie Ballard

Affiliate membership

Bicycle Network Membership for riding groups and clubs
Late last year, we launched our Affiliate Membership program, specially designed for cycling groups and clubs.
Bicycle NetworkLeanne Tolra

Maribyrnong LGA

Barkly St West Footscray

Maribyrnong Council are investigating protected bike lanes on Barkly St between Geelong Rd and Summerhill Rd. They need to do car parking surveys and can't get anyone to do them. We might have to do them so if anyone is willing to count how many cars are parked early morning, lunch time and evening over a week please get in touch. Even if you only can do one, if we get a few volunteers we'll be able to finish the survey and council can at least get an idea of what's going on.

Bridge over Tottenham Railyards: Sign the petition

Some visionary locals have come up with an idea to connect the good people of South West Footscray with a bridge over the railway line. Darn good idea we think.

Sign the Petition
Build a bridge that reconnects West Footscray.
Change.org

Integrated Transport Strategy

Staff at Maribyrnong Council have presented their first draft of the ITS to councilors. We are not aware of the details but we are led to believe it is mostly motherhood statements with no concrete actions. Concrete actions are supposedly going to come in action plans from the ITS.

Breathe

Hobsons Bay City Council

Better Places Spotswood and South Kingsville

Better Places Spotswood and South Kingsville
Learn more about the Better Places Spotswood and South Kingsville Place Guide and projects!
Participate Hobsons Bay

The Mainlines

The Mainlines
Help Shape the Future of Walking and Cycling in Altona Meadows and Seabrook
Participate Hobsons Bay

Brimbank LGA

William Street streetscape

William Street Streetscape Improvement Project
Help shape this road renewal project
Your Say Brimbank

International news and research

12 Mayors in the UK back plan for a national active travel network (Peter Walker author of Bike Nation, great book)

Twelve of England’s regional mayors back plan to create ‘national active travel network’
Exclusive: Unprecedented move to focus initially on helping children to walk, cycle or scoot to school safely
The GuardianPeter Walker

WA road safety expert (OK not international) says urban streets should be 30kmh (like some European countries since the 1980s)

Claims blanket 30kph speed limit the best protection for road users
WA’s Centre for Road Safety research says the measure is the only foolproof way to protect all road users.
ABC NewsNAnalysis by Norman Swan

This campaign is good

30please.org
We campaign for 30km/h to become the default speed limit on residential and urban streets in Australia.
30please.org

Washington State US Shared Street laws

Washington State’s new shared streets law could set an example for pedestrian-friendly design nationwide
Washington recently became the first state in the country to authorize “shared streets,” a shift that could reshape how people move in cities across the state and serve as a model nationwide. The measure gives walkers and bikers priority, slows vehicle traffic to 10 miles per hour, and removes jaywalking restrictions. Washington’s law, signed in April, is a major step toward safer, people-centered streets.
State Smart Transportation Initiative

Dallas (DALLAS!!!!!!) approves hundreds of miles of bike lanes

Hundreds of Bike Lane Miles Approved for Dallas, but is the City Working Fast Enough?
Dallas has half the bicycle infrastructure of Houston, Austin and San Antonio. The newly adopted plan could fix that.
Dallas ObserverEmma Ruby

Evaluating Transport Affordability

Article by the legendary Todd Litman who founded the Victoria Transport Policy Institute:

https://vtpi.org/ITEJ-eta-Jun2025.pdf

The link between low-stress bicycle facilities and bicycle commuting - Nature Cities
Bicycling offers a range of benefits for urban commuters, but the facilities that best facilitate bicycle lane use are still unclear. Using data from 28 US cities, this study found that bicycle lanes and similar low-stress facilities increase ridership markedly.
NatureNicholas N. Ferenchak

Historical patterns and sustainability implications of worldwide bicycle ownership and use

Historical patterns and sustainability implications of worldwide bicycle ownership and use - Communications Earth & Environment
High bicycle ownership does not necessarily correlate with high bicycle use, with substantial health and environmental gains possible by worldwide pro-bicycle policy implementation, suggests a global compilation of bicycle ownership, production, trade and stock.
NatureWu Chen

Not Just Bike does it again! Best designed town in the world!

Must read: Killed by a Traffic Engineer

Traffic engineers are not safety experts, especially when it comes to cycling infrastructure. They simply implement outdated guidelines. Do not believe them. Read this to understand better what's going on.

Killed by a Traffic Engineer
Island PressAuthor

Free Online Courses

Get informed. Do these courses

Courses & Training - Urban Cycling Institute
All the courses & training and workshops follow an experiential approach in which the social and spatial environment is both a storyboard and a lab
Urban Cycling Institute - Bringing Cycling Research from Science to Practice and Back

Why advocacy is so hard in Australia

Very informative chat between Sam Kellahan and the author of the Emergent City on Substack

“Australia’s culture crisis” with The Emergent City
What does it mean for a nation to build its identity around owning a house?
Concept EconomySam Kellahan

Read more