A quick look at the narrowed bike lanes on Elizabeth Street, Richmond.

The positives. The new smooth surface and removal of road humps from the bike lane are great. You can ride without giving attention to pavement obstacles.

However, the bike lane is now too narrow for social cycling and passing. This was considered to be a luxury item by the populist mayor and low on his hierarchy that puts car parking above.

I think social cycling is very important for normalising bicycle transport from an early age. The simple act of allowing a parent to cycle beside their child with a hand on their back goes a long way.

As a side note, this bike lane plus the buffer would be about the width of a stepped bike lane design from Copenhagen. They don't bother with buffer space there and let you use the whole width between the footpath and parking lane (example linked below). If such a design was made here, you'd keep parking and still allow social cycling.

https://www.google.com.au/maps/@55.684195,12.543591,3a,26.7y,91.76h,78.8t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1slqrrvNKS1y_VqQdaPH_q1g!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

#TransportPlanning #Melbourne

Long awaited statutory guidance? I know, let’s publish it on Maundy Thursday and not send the standard email notification that ensures people who need to know find out about it… thanks DfT, really appreciated!

#TransportPlanning

"The road lobby’s most pervasive denialist framing is that speed does not kill, or that high speeds can be made safe under the right conditions. Nothing could be further from the truth, as a change in average vehicle speed on a given road network has a direct relationship to the rate of fatal crashes. Reality, however, hasn’t slowed the spread of one of the world’s oldest “alternative facts.” In 1948 the head of the British Pedestrian Association noted that the road lobby’s “Big Lie is that ‘Speed is not dangerous.’ Goebbels never invented anything more perfect. Accept this and you accept everything.” He added that when this denialism is challenged, “ the motor propagandists, again following the Nazi technique, temporarily modify it, usually to ‘speed is dangerous only according to the circumstances.’” The fact that a faster moving object is more likely to cause injury than a slower one, is so transparently clear that this denialism boggles the mind."

— Grant Ennis: Dark PR, pp. 30-31

The only thing I disagree with here is that comma in the last sentence.

#TransportPlanning

Four-way temporary traffic lights on main road into town not working, with traffic already in conflict just after 7 before it starts to build. Called the highways out of hour number. Now, guess who they think is responsible for hunting down the contractor to rectify it and why?

#Transport #TransportPlanning #LocalCouncil #LocalGovernment

I haven’t read it yet, but FIT’s report on the Peak District “Mini Switzerland” public transport concept is now available (has been for a couple of weeks in fact!) - see https://integratedtransport.org.uk/plans-published-for-mini-switzerland-a-national-demonstrator-to-transform-rural-public-transport

#Transport #TransportPlanning #MiniSwitzerland #FoundationForIntegratedTransport

Interesting pedestrian crossing design on Little Lonsdale Street at Sutherland Street.

It's unusual to have a pedestrian-priority crossing directly on an intersection but this is what has happened here. A raised threshold has been installed across the entire intersection with zebra linemarking, but reversed so it's perpendicular rather than parallel to the busier street (Little Lonsdale).

This creates a much larger space that is at the same level as the footpath, sending multiple visual signals to drivers. There are other design elements that do this, such as the square cutouts on the approach to the crossing.

I think it could be improved further. It looks like the road could be narrowed more (this is purely me looking at this without a design or turning radius checks). Doing this would also provide more footpath space in a place where it is frequently crowded.

It's an interesting approach to treating intersections where you want to give priority to people walking. Rather than installing separate crossings on each leg, this is another option available.

#Melbourne #TransportPlanning #Cities #Walking

People of Nederland or Europe in general,

Does your country publish vehicle turning path diagrams, like the example below from Australia?

I'd like to compare turning path assumptions for similar vehicles across jurisdictions.

Thank you kindly for your assistance.

https://austroads.gov.au/publications/road-design/ap-g34

#Transport #Engineering #TransportEngineering #TransportPlanning #UrbanPlanning

@BicycleDutch @LiorSteinberg @verbeeld @hembrow @GarethDennis @1000millimeter @notjustbikes

Calling all Shakespeare fans in #transportplanning or economic #appraisal...

Tonight is Twelfth Night.

To celebrate*, I’ve hidden a phrase from that very play🎭 in my blogpost on the latest changes to #TAG. Can you spot it? Comment below if you do.

https://grahamjames.co.uk/whats-new-in-tag-for-december-2025/

* And definitely not as a contrived excuse for a blatant plug for my run-down of all the latest updates to the DfT 's Transport Analysis Guidance. Not at all.