No tour coaches in Swanston St? Yes!

When you ride in Swanston St, you accept that trams, taxis and delivery vans are part of the deal. But the bloody tourist coaches are a major inconvenience to all other users on that street and they increase the risks for cyclists.

But the worst thing is that they are often illegally parked in no standing zones and right on corners, presumably because their passengers (fat-arsed tourists and equally fat-arsed bogans on shopping tours) think themselves incapable of walking more than ten paces.

There’s no doubt that traffic flow on Swanston St would be greatly improved if tourist coaches weren’t there, but never in my wild erratic fancy did I imagine that they would be excluded. But The Age. reports that it might actually happen:

Melbourne’s civic spine, Swanston Street, would be cleared of buses under a council plan to make the street safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

Melbourne City Council will investigate pushing the tourist buses that congregate on Swanston Street every morning to Lonsdale Street or to Federation Square.

For more than a decade the street has remained a major hazard for pedestrians and cyclists as they compete with buses, taxis, delivery vehicles and trams.

Woohoo!

And quote of the day goes to Greens councillor Fraser Brindley: Playing Luke Skywalker on your bike might be fun for the daring, but it’s not the way to attract more bike riders into the city.

Heh, very true.

More on related topics

• Swanston Street is crazy
• Melancholy thoughts on road death
• Where to park those tour coaches?
• Elizabeth’s badly designed bike lanes
• Melbourne as the Copenhagen of Australia