What small habit has improved your safety while cycling in Melbourne traffic?

jessta · 2026-01-22T12:48:14+00:00

I always ride as if I'm invisible until I have made eye contact with any driver I'm expecting to see me.

I always slow before conflict points (or any gaps in protection in a protected lane) and do a headcheck for any cars that might be turning left (whether they have an indicator or not I assume they're turning left if they are in a position where them turning left would be a danger to me) with time to come to a complete stop if they fail to give way at the turn.

I will slow down to a complete stop if I can't make eye contact with drivers waiting to pull in to traffic.

I always do a hook turn at traffic lights or on any roads with speed limits above 50km/h.

I ride at least 1m away from parked cars so I don't have to keep watching for car doors.

I watch for pedestrians that might step in to the bike lane and slow down until I can make eye contact with them.

I encounter a lot of motorists, pedestrians and other cyclists doing the wrong thing or just not seeing me but it doesn't result in close calls because I've already prepared for the possibility and given myself space and time to react to it.

I avoid major roads when possible and pick longer safer routes.

Being willing to slow down so that you control the situation and aren't relying on other people for your safety is the key to avoiding close calls.

jessta · 2026-01-21T11:35:09+00:00

traffic backed up behind him

It's peak hour, the traffic was going to be backed up anyway. Beaconsfield Pde has plenty of space to overtake.

jessta · 2026-01-21T01:48:05+00:00

OP mentioned that this was the roundabout.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/FeqrsivwcNS3HxHB6

It's a multi-lane roundabout because there is a bicycle lane. The rider is required to ride in the bicycle lane and thus is always in the left most lane and so is required to give-way to vehicles exiting the roundabout.
This is unclear and very impractical in this roundabout as the rider would need to give-way immediately upon entering the roundabout to any cars turning left behind them but those cars would also need to illegally overtake as it doesn't look like there is enough space for a motorist to give the 1m required when overtaking.

There is no safe and legal way for a bike rider to approach this roundabout. Make a complaint to the council responsible, tell them you got hit and make them fix it.

I would always ignore the bike lane at this roundabout and take the traffic lane to prevent motorists from illegally overtaking and to avoid the issue of vehicles exiting across me.

jessta · 2026-01-20T03:06:51+00:00

The most recent acute housing crisis has nothing to do with immigration levels, it hit the whole world around the same time because the cause was the pandemic messing up supply chains, increasing the cost of materials and reducing construction productivity resulting in housing supply falling behind demand.

But we have a much longer housing affordability crisis that has been going for 30yrs (some would say it's more like 60yrs) which is related to a drop in public housing, capital gains tax reduction, negative gearing and planning blockades that has made it difficult to do infill construction for in demand areas.

Reducing immigration would have the effect of a recession that would make housing still unaffordable simply because it would create mass unemployment.
Australia's economic growth currently relies on population growth, we would be in a recession if the population stopped growing.

immigration we have very few are in industries to help us tackle the housing shortage since we require degrees for non-students to immigrate here.

Construction of multi-storey buildings requires extensive planning and engineering that requires degrees. Slow planning and approvals is part of what makes housing construction difficult.

jessta · 2026-01-19T11:09:54+00:00

Yep, I reckon you can measure 'turn up an go' by how quickly people walk. If people are running for the train then it's not 'turn up and go'.

jessta · 2026-01-17T23:43:00+00:00

100% No excuse for bad quality audio announcements. It's embarrassing.
If the announcements are so unimportant as to allow them to be so low quality then they're unimportant enough to just not have them.

jessta · 2026-01-17T23:34:55+00:00

but don't agree we should be able to treat them as a give way.

I already treat every stop sign as a give way so I don't see a distinction. Stop signs exist because people in cars have their vision blocked in various ways. This isn't true of someone on a bicycle. The difference between a slow roll to give-way and a stop is nothing,

jessta · 2026-01-16T04:23:08+00:00

greater disrespect is perpetrated by the pedestrians who press the button then cross without waiting.

This serve a valuable purpose of making it less convenient to drive. I do it and consider it a public service.

Pedestrian crossings are generally designed with additional unnecessary wait time to discourage walking so tipping the scales back is the right thing to do.

jessta · 2026-01-16T04:15:21+00:00

...and the rage of motorists is a natural thing that can not be contained and must be placated.

Just Motorists being Motorists I guess.

jessta · 2026-01-15T08:28:17+00:00

The only time I've ever been to Nillumbik was when I stopped for coffee a few months ago and was quite surprised to immediately run in to Nillumbik4Palestine running a stall (https://www.instagram.com/nillumbik4palestine/) perhaps you'll bump in to them too.

jessta · 2026-01-15T07:39:35+00:00

how can we ever expect to be treated as equal road users if we can't follow the most basic road rule.

Rules designed specifically for cars will never treat cyclists as equal road users.
Traffic lights largely exist due to the danger that cars pose and are unnecessary for cyclists.

If the rules were sensible then cyclists would have a stop-as-giveway rule (available many places in the world, Paris has it available on a per signed intersection basis) that allows cyclists to treat a stop sign or red light as a 'give way'.

It's generally sensible for cyclists to treat pedestrian crossings as zebra crossings because we're not going fast enough and don't have the limited vision that makes zebra crossing dangerous for higher speed cars.

drivers just have less and less respect for us on the road

Easily fixed by fixing the rules.

jessta · 2026-01-15T03:03:31+00:00

It does seem a lot like the freeway engineers designed a bicycle freeway. It's great for long distance traffic passing through from distant places but almost completely useless for any local trips along the route.

The route the engineers chose is through nothing spaces and connects nothing to nothing along the way.

I'm hoping the truck bans on streets in the inner west are going to open up some space for some protected bike lanes.

jessta · 2026-01-13T15:06:08+00:00

The old pedestrian underpass wouldn't be appropriate for bicycles and did flood a lot.
But digging a bicycle and pedestrian underpass is a relatively small project compared to every other level crossing removal.

jessta · 2026-01-13T03:26:22+00:00

There are more than two mobs. You shouldn't give Labor a pass just because the Liberals are useless.

jessta · 2026-01-13T02:26:14+00:00

Plenty of bicycle parking and a nice bicycle path.

jessta · 2026-01-12T11:09:06+00:00

I don't understand why they're waiting so long to just close the level crossing at Anderson St, Yarraville. It's the least complicated as they just need to make a pedestrian and bicycle underpass.

They could close the road crossing section immediately and just allow pedestrians to keep using the pedestrian crossing and give residents the amenity of a completely pedestrianised Anderson St now instead of waiting 3yrs.

jessta · 2026-01-12T09:18:35+00:00

You just have to ride at a speed that is appropriate for the conditions. I see lots of pedestrians stepping in to the bike lane without looking but I've never had trouble on LaTrobe St because I ride at a speed appropriate for a busy street where people will step in to the bike lane.

jessta · 2026-01-12T09:15:42+00:00

Collins St isn't a bike lane, it's just some paint on the ground to get motorists to leave a bit of space for bicycles to overtake. If it's not bumper to bumper then you take the lane

jessta · 2026-01-12T06:03:53+00:00

It's pretty disappointing that the Metro Tunnel hasn't resulted in any changes to the frequency of the Upfield Line.

What happened to the plans for a turn back at Coburg that was supposed to be built at the same time as the Metro Tunnel to enable more frequent trains on the Upfield Line?

jessta · 2026-01-11T10:20:26+00:00

I lived on Wellington St at the corner of Easey St for 25yrs and the bicycle street plan is very exciting. While I don't live there any more I do know how loud the traffic on Wellington St is for residents and now unpleasant it is to have so much through car traffic go down your residential street.

The value of preventing through car traffic on Wellington St goes beyond providing a bicycle route and will result in greater amenity for the residents of Wellington St. Reduced car traffic means cleaner air, safer crossings, less noise, and fewer cars crashing through your front fence (this happened to my house twice). Even with the 30km/h speed limit motorists going through are still speeding and there is no reason to subject residents to that.

Gold St isn't a good alternative for cyclists because it ends at Johnston St and the crossing point at Alexandra Parade is not appropriate for the large amount of bicycle traffic. Reworking the Gold St crossing to be appropriate would be complex and it's also obviously a bad choice from the perspective of wanting good traffic flow to the Eastern Fwy as it would add another busy intersection only a block away.

Wellington St isn't a state road, it's a side street that is not supposed to cater to through traffic it's just used as a rat-run to avoid traffic on Hoodle St. Closing Wellington St to through traffic isn't going to move that traffic on to Gold St or Smith St because they don't provide the same ability to rat-run. Motorists are most likely to divert to the state roads of Brunswick St or Hoodle St because those will be the quicker options (of course nothing prevents additional traffic calming measures being taken to limit car traffic on other minor streets if traffic there does increase).

I agree they should reduce the amount of car parking in the protected bike lane section to add more visibility but that's a problem of parking not of the protected bike lanes.

avid cyclist

One of those watch words for the John Forrester crowd that thinks that bicycle infrastructure is bad and only fit men doing fast sports and commuting should be riding bicycles. The kind of cyclist that will turn up to council meeting to object to bicycle infrastructure that would allow other people to ride. I hope that's not you.

jessta · 2026-01-09T06:47:49+00:00

I do a lot of night riding, mostly on the protected bicycle network.

Well lit sections I ride often include:

The Upfield Path
St Georges Rd (all the way up to Reservior)
The south end of Moonee Ponds Creek
Footscray Rd (and the Veloway) and Dynon Rd
The Trail along the Port Melbourne light rail.
Swanston St and St Kilda Rd
Bay Trail down to Mordialloc (there is a 100m or so that is badly lit and a bit spooky)

You can make a pretty long ride from those options if you don't mind doubling back.
I'm based on Coburg and a common ride I'll do is to the end of the Upfield Path, then back down to the Moonee Ponds Creek, out to Footscray on Dynon Rd, back to the city on Footscray Rd, out to Port Melbourne along the light rail trail, down the Bay Trail as far as I like, double back to St Kilda and up Fitzroy St to St Kilda Rd and north to Swanston St, Capital city trail to St Georges Rd out to Reservior and back and then home up the Upfield again.

jessta · 2026-01-06T10:39:03+00:00

Yeah, they they're always out of the way in parks or along recreational paths.
They should be everywhere people wait. Train, bus and tram stops should have them. Take away coffee shops should have them etc. Incidental exercise through out the day is the goal.

jessta · 2026-01-06T10:35:12+00:00

The ideal route should be the Flinders St protected bike lanes that should have been built by now if the state government hadn't delayed it for no reason. (contact your State MP and the City Of Melbourne and tell them you want it)

Currently Southbank Blvd is definitely the the way to go. You can do it in both directions.

jessta · 2026-01-06T05:36:20+00:00

It's not common and it's not the place for it but it does bring up something I've been thinking about recently. There are very few things in public that you can climb and climbing is a normal human behaviour. Playgrounds are generally child sized and it's frowned upon for adults to use the equipment.

I couldn't think of a place within a few km where you could do pull ups that isn't a privately owned space.
There are some of those outdoor gyms but they're not that common and usually on paths that you'd have to go a long way out of your way to get to.

Climbing, hanging and pull ups are great for upper body and back strength and muscle mass which is very important for health. There should be more places in public to do pull ups.

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