Jesse1h ago

City of Melbourne released their draft budget of $804M.

It looks like they've allocated $4m (0.49%) of the budget to bicycle infrastructure which is the expected amount projected from the previous budget. They'd spending it on "Continue the rollout of the cycle infrastructure program on Queensberry Street and Rathdowne Street, and progress design development and community engagement for Queens Bridge Street and Flinders street"

But since that previous budget was made they've been given a grant of $7M/yr for 10yrs to build active transport infrastructure by the state government from the car parking levy. What happened to this? Did they cut their own spend and replace it with this grant?

Given the large increase in available money for active transport I'm surprised there isn't an a bigger ambition for building and planning new cycling infrastructure.

#CityOfMelbourne #bicycles #Melbourne

novaTopFlexJan 18

Hype for the Future 79N: Melbourne 🇦🇺 and Sydney 🇦🇺 Compared

Introduction The two largest cities in Australia have largely created a historic rivalry from the earliest days of British colonization as a predominantly penal colony in the modern nation of Australia. When most of the region was part of New South Wales, the penal colony had largely determined the communities of Melbourne (in present-day Victoria) and Sydney (remaining with the State of New South Wales). As the two cities have effectively always been relatively close in population, the City […]

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/01/18/hype-for-the-future-79n-melbourne-%f0%9f%87%a6%f0%9f%87%ba-and-sydney-%f0%9f%87%a6%f0%9f%87%ba-compared/

Hype for the Future 79N: Melbourne 🇦🇺 and Sydney 🇦🇺 Compared

Introduction The two largest cities in Australia have largely created a historic rivalry from the earliest days of British colonization as a predominantly penal colony in the modern nation of Austr…

novaTopFlex
JesseNov 3

This is the last I heard about the Flinders St protected bike lanes which were planned to be completed in 2024 and now no longer appear on the City of Melbourne's list of up coming bike lanes.

Flinders St is essential as an alternative to the very crowded shared paths along the Yarra river that are very difficult to ride along at peak pedestrian times.

It was important to get this done and open before the Westgate Tunnel project starts dumping thousands more cars on to Flinders St but that didn't happen.

With the metro tunnel works largely completed & ready to open, and changes to Wurundjeri Way complete & already open there shouldn't be any reason not to start this project immediately.

#CityOfMelbourne #bicycles #Melbourne #BikeLanes

https://www.cbdnews.com.au/more-delays-on-flinder-st-bike-lane-projects/

More delays on Flinder St bike lane projects

A key CBD bike lane project has been further delayed without explanation.

CBD News
BardyBOct 24
Does Melbourne need to become less car-centric? http://dlvr.it/TNs0Vl #Australia #cycling #CityofMelbourne #Melbourne
News BeepAug 12, 2025

Fatal drug overdoses reach 10-year high in Victoria, with people aged between 35 and 54 most at risk

More Victorians died of drug overdoses in 2024 compared to any other year in the past decade, a…
#NewsBeep #News #Headlines #AU #Australia #CityofMelbourne #CityofYarra #cocaine #coronerscourtofvictoria #drugoverdoses #Geelong #GHB #heroin #johncain #MDMA #pilltesting
https://www.newsbeep.com/54660/

Show threadJesseJun 30, 2025

It looks like we mostly won!
The City of Melbourne council meeting tonight that passed the budget had an amendment to restore the budget for bicycle infrastructure adding back $4.5M over 4yrs.
This brings the spend from 2026/2027 back up to the previous amount spent in recent years.

This is still a cut in the 2025-2026 budget, and we were asking for an increase to $5m/yr but it's better the previous draft budget.

It also makes it clear that the Mayor was misrepresenting the actual spend on bicycle infrastructure in the previous draft budget.

Another amendment was to have the budget list the actual projects being delivered. This will make it easier to read the final budget and see what they're actually spending the bicycle infrastructure budget on.

#melbourne #bicycles #CityOfMelbourne

Port Phillip Bicycle UsersJun 27, 2025
The St Kilda Rd bike lanes are often filled with leaves. Many cleaning requests submitted to #SnapSendSolve. I wonder if this will spur the #CityOfMelbourne and #CityOfPortPhillip to add them to the regular sweeping schedule?
#melbourne #cycling #BikeLanes #CoPP
Rod SherwinJun 25, 2025

Found these City of Melbourne housing monitor stats interesting. Household type in most need of affordable housing are Lone person (3,755 households).

I know on the building I live in there are two one bedroom units per floor out of 16. I suspect this needs to change to meet this demand.

https://housing.id.com.au/melbourne/

#CityOfMelbourne #Melbourne

Show threadJesseJun 19, 2025

Bicycle Network has a clear breakdown on this seemingly intentional obfuscation that the City of Melbourne council is doing with the bicycle infrastructure budget.

"One of the most frustrating aspects of this process has been the shifting narrative around how much Council is actually investing in bike infrastructure. Over recent weeks, the figure has grown – not through new budget commitments, but by creative redefinitions of what 'bike funding' means."

#melbourne #bicycles #CityOfMelbourne

https://bicyclenetwork.com.au/newsroom/2025/06/19/melbourne-demands-better-its-time-for-council-to-fund-bike-lanes-properly/

Melbourne demands better – it’s time for Council to fund bike lanes properly

Bicycle Network CEO, Alison McCormack provides a deep dive into the wonky numbers in the draft City of Melbourne 2025 budget.

Bicycle Network
Rod SherwinJun 7, 2025
Bit concerned about the City of Melbourne increasing the size of their private security force as indicated in the recent draft budget. Didn’t they make a movie along those lines? Oh yes, Robocop. That worked out well for the citizens didn’t it?
#Melbourne #TheReecePolice #CityOfMelbourne