Thousands of on-street parking spaces in the city would go to make room for extra bike lanes, under a proposal from the RACV.
RACV roads and traffic manager Dave Jones said on-street parking is a waste of space in the CBD where drivers and cyclists already struggle to share the road safely.
“On-street parking is a pretty inefficient use of valuable street space where there are competing demands for traffic lanes and bicycle facilities,” Mr Jones said.
Jane Jing is an accounting student at RMIT who rides her bike to university. She expects the proposal would give bike riders a safer riding experience.
“Parked cars are taking up too much space on the narrow roads in the city and it can be dangerous for other road users. People should consider riding to work, it is healthy and good for everyone,” Ms Jing said.
“Cities with physically active residents more productive as well as healthier” http://t.co/h39BkeHlkn
— MoreBikeLanesPlease (@MoreBikeLanes) July 27, 2015
Not everyone welcomes the proposal.
Jesse Way drives to the city . He prefers on-street spots for its cheaper parking fees and proximity to city’s shops and restaurants.
“I always try to find street parking first because it’s so convenient that I can just park my car and go into the shops,” Mr Way said.
With the removal of on-street parking spaces, the number of people driving in the city would drop significantly and might affect city’s businesses and retailers.
The owner of Chinese-Japanese cafe on Swanston Street, Ling Pham worries that the new plan will affect her cafe’s profit.
“Without the spaces on the street, people don’t want to walk to my cafe just to buy some sushi rolls and I will lose a lot of customers,” Ms Pham said.
But there is a bright side: city commuters would be encouraged to ride or take public transport instead a car, which might benefit the greater good.
“If there is no on-street spot available, I will take public transport instead. It saves me time and it’s something I can do for the environment, Mr Way said. “If everyone can do the same, our city will be cleaner.”
Melbourne’s municipality is busier than ever, catering for more than 850,000 residents and visitors everyday.
Under the RACV proposal, the extra spaces would be used to widen bike and bus lanes in an effort to improve traffic conditions on city roads.
Mr Jones said Melbourne’s city council could plan alternative parking in off-street car parks to compensate for the torn-up on-street spaces.
A separate move was proposed that could see hundreds of on-street parking spots out of reach of most drivers. City of Melbourne councillors are due to vote on it tomorrow night.
[poll id=”52″]
Photo credit: Richard Taylor via Creative Commons
