So, you want to cycle from the CBD to Footscray. Go south, there's a boat, go north, there's some bridges and some backroads, but the central, direct route is along Footscray Road. There's been a bike path here for at least the last 20 years, and it has been... fine. It was a perfectly fine, separated bike path next to a major, loud, arterial road. Truly not great, but not terrible. Better than riding on the road. I said Was, because this path is now shadowed by temporary infrastructure for the Westgate Tunnel project. A major redevelopment of Melbourne's roads -
That has killed.
Temporary infrastructure is exactly what it sounds like - temporary, often haphazard implementations or adjustments to infrastructure, usually to navigate around construction sites. These are replacement buses, traffic cones, and signs. For cycle infrastructure it's mostly signs, maybe paint. Temporary infrastructure is also not subject to the same planning or consultation requirements as permanent development. It's cheap. That's the point. This has consequences.
Large sections of the Footscray Road path have been diverted or rebuilt around the 3 metre wide support columns for the Westgate Tunnel overpass. This is particularly egregious at the intersection of Dock Link Road and Footscray Road. Here, a column obscures visibility of the path. It's worse, because large trucks are the only traffic turning here - vehicles with shit visibility and stopping power. Add, also, that a green light allows cyclists to travel through and truck traffic to turn. The point is-
This design was careless and dangerous, and on the second of February it killed 22 year old Angus Collins.
His death was more than preventable, it was a lesson that had already been learned. In 2017, Arzu Karakoc was killed in Yarraville, in a similar accident. While crossing a road, she was run down by a turning truck. Both had a green light.
This accident had happened before. VicRoads knew how to prevent it. But prevention means slowing truck traffic. So they chose not to.
Backlash was immediate. Outcry from local advocacy groups, Bike West, Bicycle Network, Amy Gillett Foundation, so on and so forth.
Angus Collins' death was, in that way, absorbed. It would be wrong to say recuperated, but it fit neatly into existing NGO strategies and demands -
But organised outcry was not the only response.
Critical Mass is a kind of recurring, constant background protest. On the last Friday of every month, hundreds of cyclists meet, then chart a mass protest ride through the city. The goal is always to highlight some topical aspect of cycling safety or infrastructure, disrupting roads at peak hour and demanding space. It's meant to be unusual, attention getting, shocking. While, legally, cyclists are allowed on most roads, that is not the public consensus. So while these Critical Mass rides do often use police escorts, in a way, they do confront public authorities and challenge the status quo. In February Critical Mass memorialised Angus Collins.
Another form of illegitimate, challenging protest is the memorial. Roadside memorials are a tradition as old as... roads, really. They're familiar to any traveller, but cyclist memorials, for preventable accidents like this, have a different tone. They are as much for the family, for remembrance, as they are for political ends. While this accident was marked only with a wreath, similar accidents are marked by "ghost bikes," white, skeletal bikes chained, illegally, nearby.
(Google Maps)
This one belongs to Arzu Karakoc.
And I do mean explicitly political, one active group explains;
The goal here is not to scare cyclists, no, it is to scare drivers, policymakers. It is to make sure they remember they can kill. To build and reinforce the power of death in planning.
Death is a powerful thing, when treated properly. When ignored by accident or dismissed with intent, that power is diminished. Death and injury should influence policy. It's an old truism that regulations are written in blood, and it is half true. Blood and power, because blood alone is not enough.
In the aftermath of Angus Collins' death, VicRoads installed a sign.
Drivers can still turn left on the green light.