November 2026
Annual General Meeting Friday 13 November
We will meet this Friday November 13th, 6pm in the garden next to Borderlands at 30a Pickett St, Footscray to elect next year's committee members and chat about how we can get some progress. All welcome.
State Election Campaign: Strategic Cycling Corridors
The State election is in a couple of weeks and it's time for a final push. It looks very possible there will be change of government and it is time to really put the heat on the candidates.
Strategic Cycling Corridors (SCCs) are the state's plan for a network of safe bike routes across Melbourne and regional centres. But after decades of talk only a small fraction has been built. That's why BikeWest is partnering with Bicycle Network and other community groups across the state to ask for a dedicated 5% of transport funding for building safe bike routes. Check out the campaign page to find what's been built, what still needs to be done, and send a message to your local MP.
The Bicycle Network web page show's both incumbent and candidates, and the status of whether candidates (and their party) support the Gimme 5 campaign.
Sustainable transport is not just bikes— we're looking forward to parallel campaigns for public transport, walking, and electrification of road transport.
Barkly St Improvements
Recently, Maribyrnong Council voted in favour to improve Barkly Street in Footscray!!!
The project includes new pedestrian crossings, improved footpaths, median strip tree plantings, level boarding bus stops and significantly, Council's first new protected bike lanes in 5 years!
Construction on the project is scheduled to start next year, in conjunction with a planned resurfacing of the road. We can't wait to document the progress of the works and demonstrate that good well-balanced streets don't cause the sky to fall in.
BikeWest would like to thank and congratulate the following 6/7 councilors for their support.
Cr Bernadette Thomas ✅
Elena Pereyra ✅
Mayor Mohamed Semra - City of Maribyrnong ✅
Pradeep Tiwari - Maribyrnong City Councillor ✅
Samantha Meredith - Councillor for Saltwater Ward ✅
Susan Yengi for Maribyrnong City Council - River Ward ✅
(Cuc Lam abstained from the vote.) ❌🤷🏻♀️
Droop St upgrades and Tram Stops
New tram stop design sets Community up for a bike vs parking fight on Droop Street
DTP’s plans for new level boarding tram stops on Droop Street are very welcome. As are the new low-floor G Class trams. They’ll improve public transport to the new Footscray Hospital. They also include provision for future bike lanes.
In the current design, one-way bike lanes “roll over” the tram stops, as they do in other parts of Melbourne, including Swanston Street.
However, connecting those lanes along Droop Street would require removing all parking. While BikeWest welcomes safe cycling corridors, especially between the two big activity centres, Footscray and Highpoint, the removal of large amounts of car parking inevitably creates a massive bikelash
Another potential option could be if the tram stops supported a single two-way bike lane on one side of Droop, parking could be retained on the other side.
Maribyrnong Council has voted unanimously to write to DTP and ask for a better design. We think a two-way lane is what that design should look like.
BikeWest will share DTP’s response, if it’s made public.
Veloway bumps to be fixed this month.
The expansion joint bumps along the Dixon Veloway have begun to be fixed with modifications to the surface already started this month. The Veloway has been popular with riders heading to and from the city since opening late last year. Soon, it will be smooth all the way with a modification to the expansion joints along the Veloway. It should be finished shortly but will involve the veloway being closed overnight to make the changes.
Melbourne Airport Rail Link
Closure area: Section of Sunshine Rail shared path parallel to Station Place and Drayton Street.
Dates: 7am, Thursday 5 November to mid-December.
Detour: Pedestrians and cyclists can follow the signed detour along Station Place and Drayton Street. Pedestrians asked to use the footpath and cyclists asked to use the road.
Closure area: Section of Sunshine Rail shared path between Holzer and Teague crescents.
Dates: 7am, Thursday 5 November to 5pm, Tuesday 22 December.
Detour: Pedestrians and cyclists can follow the signed detours along Royal Road and Teague Crescent. Pedestrians asked to use the footpath and cyclists asked to use the road.
The following works notice on the Melbourne Aiport Rail website includes more information: https://bigbuild.vic.gov.au/library/melbourne-airport-rail/works-notices/sunshine/shared-use-path-closures-sunshine-braybook-nov-dec
Greenways for the Leafy East, why not the West?
Nat Bromhead
Point Cook Rd planning upgrade
Nat Bromhead
Franco Cozzo Link
BikeWest are working hard with Maribyrnong Council to join the Hopetoun Bridge with central Footscray. We have been led to believe there has been progress on the section between Whitehall St and the river.
Westlink
BikeWest is continuing our campaign to lever off the opening of the Dixon 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.
Research and International News
Safe System Success Stories
The Safe Systems Pyramid developed by Ederer et al. (2023) illustrates how system design at the socioeconomic and built environment levels — not individual behavior — sets the stage for these risk conditions and thus offers opportunities for the most impactful interventions.
Addressing America's traffic safety crisis
Traffic fatalities of motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists represent a critical safety crisis in the U.S., claiming 241,637 lives from 2020 to 2025. After surging in 2020 and 2021 as the nation grappled with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, traffic fatalities in the U.S. have decreased four years in a row. However, despite the decrease in traffic fatalities over the past four years, traffic fatalities in
2025 were three percent higher than a decade ago.
Mapping Bicycle Data in OpenStreetMap
This document serves as a resource for participants in a series of mapathons hosted by PeopleForBikes and provides a high level overview of the most relevant information for getting started.
Modeling the effect of multimodal accessibility on public health outcomes
The proposed framework identifies the types of access most strongly associated with specific health outcomes and explores how these relationships vary by demographic factors such as age, income, and car ownership. Results indicate that the GWRF model outperforms other models. Findings suggest that targeted improvements in modal access through placement of resources or investment in infrastructure can improve public health outcomes.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0966692326002140?via%3Dihub
Pedestrianisation yet again demonstrates increase in retail sales:
Maurício Alencar