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Response 1 I am writing to you regarding the latest agenda item for the 23 June council meeting regarding the trial transport projects. I have submitted a response for tomorrow's meeting but am messaging you here as my full submission is longer than allowed and seek some further information. The proposed transport, movement and access trials are a good initiative for public safety, health and improving the current road hierarchy, particularly to support cycling. The strategic move of not letting a good crisis go to waste is also appreciated and I fully support these trials in these times. However, a comprehensive analysis of traffic conditions (before and after), community consultation and transparent process must be adhered too. Traffic surveys and evidence to justify their permanency post-trial needs to be transparent and open for discussion via good community consultation. Concerns: Trenerry Crescent closure: - It is expected that this will cause significant delays to local community traffic in the Clifton Hill pocket bordered by Heidelberg Road to the north and Hoddle Street to the west. Without any southern access point, it will divert all traffic towards these major arterials. Whilst I understand this is the desired outcome and will prevent rat-running through this pocket (which there is a substantial amount of), it does require serious consideration of the impact to this community. It will cause significant delays for local traffic which will now be funneled towards these state arterial routes which already experience substantial congestion particularly at peak times. Further, there are 3 main exits for residents from this pocket, being Roseneath, Ramsden and Fenwick. The use of Ramsden Street as an exit from this pocket already experiences heavy delays due to the level crossing, leaving only 2. - Does the benefit to cycling outweigh this impact to local vehicle traffic? What are the cycling volume rates for this road? I can imagine they are not massive as I ride here most days. Alternative safe cycling routes on the merri creek and capital city trails already exist in this area, making the benefit to cyclists less pronounced. Further, existing speed bumps and bike lane make it reasonably safe. I have had very few issues cycling this part of Trenerry Crescent. - Have traffic and cycling surveys been done for trenerry crescent prior to covid? If so could you please provide me with them. - Notwithstanding, I am supportive of the trial period for which I hope there is transparent and clear community consultation at the end to determine its viability into the future. Assessment Tool - I am unsure where to find this assessment tool and this should be made available for transparency reasons. Could you please provide this as I am interested in the criteria that these projects met to be put ahead of other ones and if a list of the other projects examined could also be provided. Submissions of support: I am a regular cyclist around Yarra and I fully support the trialing of these projects. I make the following submissions of support for the below projects: Wellington street mid-block closure - similar to Napier street this will stem the amount of cars travelling through this area, re-prioritise cyclists and pedestrians as the predominant road user and strengthen wellington street further as a cycling corridor. Fully support! Contra-flow on park street - this will take advantage of an under-utilised space and is needed given the amount of cycle traffic along the capital city trail. Centre median preventing east-west movements across Nicholson Street - I ride this part most days and acknowledge that it is quite a dangerous intersection for cyclists. Lessening the amount of vehicle east-west movement will greatly improve our safety. Fully support! Actionable Items: - Traffic and cycling surveys for Trenerry Crescent to provided if available. - Assessment Tool as described in Council report to be provided if available. - List of other projects examined using this Assessment Tool. I hope this submission can assist in this project and look forward to hearing a response regarding the above items. Response 2 Hello. I think the flag about Wellington, Johnston and Nicholson St work needs to be reworded, as Wellington doesn’t intersect with Nicholson St? I fully support the proposal to close Trenerry cres, but it doesn’t seem to be on the map. As an Abbotsford/Vic Park local resident the benefits of reducing traffic flow on Trenerry cres outweighs the negatives. Cars use the road as a rat run to avoid Hoddle St, which is damaging to our local community. When I cycle under the fwy using this road I feel unsafe and have been passed by cars dangerously close. Response 3 Please go ahead with Blocking Trenerry Crescent - use this space for bikes , green space and clean air - cars = pollution Response 4 ‘Great ideas! Now that we are back in lockdown, could we also trial closing Trennary Cresent to car traffic? (bikes still allowed). The east side of Clifton Hill is used as a rat-run because of the "short cut" to Johnson street. It makes it tough for kids to walk/ride/scoot to school, and challenging to walk around in general. I know it is a tough one, lots of locals love the convenience, but I think a trial would let people experience the benefits, particularly when no one is in as much of a hurry... Thanks for keeping on experimenting. Response 5 I am a Victoria Park resident, living in Maugie St which intersects with Trenerry Crescent. I am very well aware of the through-traffic problem on Trenerry Crescent during peak hours on work days (prior to covid-19 restrictions). I write to strongly object to the proposed closure of Trenerry Crescent to vehicular traffic. The only thing worse than the current situation would be the closure of this street. Such a closure would cause enormous inconvenience for the residents of both Victoria Park and East Clifton Hill. These are close communities, and we frequently use Trenerry Crescent for our own legitimate, local purposes. For example, I have friends I regularly visit in East Clifton Hill and I use the shops and businesses along Queen’s Parade. East Clifton Hill residents frequent the cafes etc in Johnston St. A closure would split these two communities and is thus unacceptable to me and surely to many other residents. I would also like to point out something that should be obvious: no trial makes sense during the existing work- from-home restrictions. There is currently greatly reduced traffic on Trenerry Crescent. But I sincerely hope you abandon this trial, and I will most cretainly vote against it. Response 6 I am writing to Council as I was recently informed that Council had floated the idea of shutting Trenerry Crescent and I wanted to see if there was any truth in this. I would be deeply concerned if this was even remotely thought of as Trenerry crescent is a necessity to the residents of East Clifton Hill for accessing our own neighborhood without having to battle with either Hoddle Street or Heidelberg road. Response 7 Thanks for your time and attention to this matter, and your continued service to our community. Also, great progress on the Elizabeth St improvements! As a resident of Abbotsford, and City of Yarra, I wholeheartedly support closing Trenerry Cres to through motor vehicle traffic. Why? Because this *opens* Trenerry Crescent to walking, cycling, playing, more peace and quiet and a more beautiful space along which we live. Not to mention our climate *emergency* policy. Not only Trenerry, but the routes it services. From a transport perspective, this is an important step to “decouple routes” which is a long-standing Dutch technique (offset grids for motor vehicles and active transport) and akin to the Barcelona ‘superblocks’. https://streets-alive-yarra.org/30-km-h-superblocks/ Of relevance to me, as a resident, is the through-rat-running from Johnston, north through Trenerry impacts other bike routes such as Yambla St. Yambla St is supposed to be a bike way, but it is not fit for purpose. This bike way, marked by sharrows (statistically shown by a U.S. studies to _reduce_ cyclist safety) has a high volume of rat-running traffic. I’ve been hassled here numerous times. Last time I used this route to ride my kids to Collingwood pool, I was honked at and verbally abused by someone with me ultimately reporting the incident to the police. The offending driver was of the opinion I had no right to be on this road. He felt taking up the street as a single occupant in a large, polluting vehicle was more important than me on a bicycle with two kids, despite he having many alternative route options, and me very few. This is the level of expectation when motorist traffic takes over our residential streets. Might is right. With this route failing, I now take a less direct and less practical route. But I’m more persistent than most. For cycling to flourish, routes need to be direct, efficient, safe, desirable and enjoyable. We have our climate emergency policy, and with areas like the CCT with a daily crush of people unable to maintain spatial distancing, this is the perfect opportunity to fix this. Just as I no longer ride here, bicycle traffic along this route is dysfunctionally low. For these routes to function, they need to filter out through motor traffic. We already do this on many of our best streets, such as Napier St and Canning St, which once again are in Melbourne’s top-10 preferred safe cycling routes (https://medium.com/crowdspot-blog/bikespot-2020-results-10b62d3e49d5).

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