Melbourne cycling infrastructure plan risks getting stuck in low gear if feeder networks not considered: new research

A new study highlights how far Melbourne still has to go in becoming a cycling city, warning the state government’s plan for strategic cycling corridors must be complemented by local government efforts to make local streets safer for cyclists.  

The research, led by RMIT University, measured access to cycling infrastructure before and after the Victorian Government’s Strategic Cycling Corridors (SCC) plan, which aims to connect and build more dedicated bike lanes to make it easier and safer for Melburnians to cycle.  

While the SCC will increase bike lane coverage by almost a third, the study found trips under 5km still spent half their journeys on roads with no bike lane or other safety features. 

Lead researcher and RMIT Research Fellow, Dr Afshin Jafari, said the push to increase cycling participation may fail to gain momentum if the safety of the entire cycling journey was not considered.  

“A bike ride where only half the journey is on a dedicated cycling lane is still well below the critical point where people feel safe to ride,” he said.  

“Local and state governments need to prioritise supporting their cycling strategy by filling in the missing links to feed cyclists from their home safely to the corridors, or it risks failing to budge our low cycling rates.” 

Despite the health, financial and environmental benefits of cycling, Australians are not big commuter cyclists. 

Findings from the National Cycling Participation Survey 2023 showed more than half of Australian households owned at least one bicycle, but according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Journey to Work Census data, cycling accounted for only 0.7% of daily commuting in Australia in 2021 and 1% in 2016. 

In regional areas, the majority of workers employed locally still drove to work despite 30% of work trips being within 5km of their homes. 

Jafari said inadequate cycling infrastructure was a major barrier to cycling. 

Currently, around two thirds of the length of inner Melbourne’s roads are without any type of bike lane or cycleway. This rises to over 90% in suburbs further out. 

“For every 100km of road in inner Melbourne, a third of that road has some sort of bike lane or cycleway.”  

“Dedicated cycling infrastructure is even more important in countries dominated by cars, such as Australia and the US, where there is a latent demand for cycling if adequate infrastructure is provided,” Jafari said.  

“Studies in European cities show the adoption of pop-up bike lanes during the COVID-19 pandemic increased cycling from 11% to 48%.” 

While the completion of the SCC could increase cycling by 30% in Melbourne, Jafari said that only equated to lifting Melbourne’s cycling rate from 2% to 2.6%. 

“The plan to connect bike paths and cycleways is great because it provides safer, more direct routes to activity or employment areas,” Jafari said. 

“But we need to ensure the journey from home to a bike lane is also considered to increase riding safety, which can help encourage more people to cycle.” 

The study found about 50% of non-work trips fell within a bikeable distance, showing great potential to shift more people to short bike rides. 

Jafari said better cycling infrastructure in residential areas, such as reduced speed limits, could help make traveling to cycling corridors safer, but it required state and local governments to work together.  

“From policy and planning perspectives, cycling corridors are mostly on state government roads, while residential roads are usually managed by local government,” he said. 

“There needs to be good coordination between the two so that local governments can work with the state government to safely feed cyclists into these cycling corridors.” 

“Understanding the impact of city-wide cycling corridors on cycling mode share among different demographic clusters in Greater Melbourne, Australia” was published by Transportation (DOI: 10.1007/s11116-025-10599-5).   

Afshin Jafari, Steve Pemberton, Dhirendra Singh, Tayebeh Saghapour, Alan Both, Lucy Gunn and Billie Giles-Corti are co-authors.