Cycling in Melbourne Australia
Dangerous corners on latest Yarra Trail detour
Have you seen the notices for the latest closure on the Yarra Trail? The Burnley Harbour section (between Barkly Ave and Mary St) will be closed soon and will remain closed until August.
The suggested detour is the one that's recommended when the Harbour gates are closed, which is OK for the handful of riders who are too impatient to wait for the gates and for the trickle of riders who enter the Trail from Mary St. And as a detour, it make sense: keep the deviation from the normal route as minimal as possible.
However, the trail counter at Morrell Bridge shows that an average of about 2600 bicycles use this section of trail every day—and that's not counting pedestrians.
So what's the problem?
At the Mary St end of the detour there are two corners that are sharper than 90 degrees, one at the top of the ramp coming up off the floating path, and the second at the exit from the Mary St underpass:
(On the aerial view, switch to "MultiView" - North to get a clear view.)
Clearly, I'm a bit slow on the uptake, but does that strike anyone else as potentially very dangerous with such a volume of bikes? Both of these corners will be points of conflict and possible collision. Apart from the tight cornering, the exit from the Mary St underpass is a blind corner. And the ramp from the floating trail is going to be very hairy, as riders coming up from water level will be trying to maintain the right speed for a tight corner while the traffic descending from Mary St will be descending under brakes, and riders in both directions will be making wobbly, slow-speed turns.
Suggested action
Maybe it's a bit late, but I'm going to contact the Monash-CityLink-Westgate Upgrade Project with the following suggested measures for mitigation. You may wish to do likewise:
- Install a parabolic mirror at the exit from Mary St underpass
- Trim the overhanging foliage at the exit from Mary St underpass
- Clear all debris out of the Mary St underpass
- Install a sealed turning circle where the Mary St path joins the Yarra Trail (dozens of tyre tracks show where cyclists already take this line when entering the Yarra Trail city-bound)
- To provide the best line for point 4 above, remove the directional sign opposite the ramp on the Yarra Trail and paint a guide line
- Lots of warning signage at approaches to both corners would be appropriate. (e.g. "Slow Down Dangerous Corner Ahead")
And for good measure, I think I'll spray this request around to BV and the City of Yarra.
I'm really concerned about what's going to happen when this detour is activated, so I'd welcome your comments and suggestions.
Personally, I'll be riding a detour that goes a bit further afield and will avoid this section of the Trail altogether.
Tags: m1 upgrade, yarra trail
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Zed on
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Never too late Treadly. These are all good suggestions. Might also be worthwhile contacting Yarra BUG. Yarra Council are also pretty supportive, so that may help. Out of interest what's the lighting like in the Mary St underpass - are the bulbs all OK?
It might have made sense for the tollway people to also suggest the shared path on the south side of the Yarra as another alternative. It's about the same distance, certainly a rougher surface but is not as hilly. However you have to dodge the fire hydrant right in the center of the path between the Yarra Blv and the northern approach to the bridge at Grange Rd.
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Permalink Reply by ChrisS on -
Hey Treadly, did you follow up the info from yesterday? Can also follow up if you wish.
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Permalink Reply by Treadly and Me on -
Good point: the man of the moment is Brendan Walsh, Interface Manager for the Southern Link Upgrade Project and his email address is brendan.walsh[insert curly AT symbol here]mcwupgrade-slu.com.au
Anyone who shares my concerns, please feel free to notify Brendan.
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Permalink Reply by Treadly and Me on
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In the belief that pictures often speak louder than words, I'll illustrate the problems as I see them.
The Mary St entrance to the Yarra Trail
This photo shows someone making the sharp turn onto the Yarra Trail that will be required by this detour:
Note how the rider needs to cut the corner to make it around—not conducive to two-way traffic.Tyre tracks show the line that dozens of cyclists take when entering the Yarra Trail
This is the area that I believe should be sealed to make a wide turning circle.See how this rider could swing to his left and make a wider curve into the corner on the unsealed section in shadow:
But to make a really smooth turn, that directional sign in mid-shot needs to be positioned elsewhere.The Mary St Underpass
The exit from the Mary St Underpass is a blind corner:
Note the overhanging foliage that makes a narrow passage even narrower. A parabolic mirror in the corner would really help here, too.At the exit from the Mary St Underpass, there is a tight, blind corner, a change in grade, and a change in trail surface.
I believe conflict and collision are likely here, and everything must be done to mitigate the risk.
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Permalink Reply by Steve Jay on -
Ack! That turn is terrible! Do they actually have people who ride designing cycling facilities, or do they give them the non-cycling projects?
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Permalink Reply by trundlebug on -
Well spotted, Treadly. I really don't understand how these decisions are arrived at but it seems constant vigilance is required if we don't want to wind up with bizarre outcomes like the Footscray Road Chute of Terror.
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Permalink Reply by Treadly and Me on
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In fairness, I suspect the Mary St underpass pre-dates the Yarra Trail on the north bank—at least, as we know it today with its floating pontoons and high volume of foot and pedal traffic. I think the underpass was built mainly to provide an escape route from the emergency stopping lane on the south side of the freeway (back when it was a freeway). So it's a bit harsh to criticise the designers of cycling facilities in this case, given that cycling probably wasn't on the agenda when it was built.
That said, a few simple things could be done to improve both corners. As it stands this is not a safe or optimal route through which to direct the volume of traffic that moves along the Yarra Trail each day.
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Permalink Reply by Treadly and Me on
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Since raising this topic, I've been totally avoiding this section of the Yarra Trail but last week I had cause to ride this way, so it was interesting to see how things have gone during the works on the motorway.
As I recall, the Mary St underpass was pretty tidy and there's a newly installed convex mirror in the blind corner—no photo of that [oops] but so far, so good.
The overhanging foliage has been trimmed back…to ground level (see the right-hand side here):
Again, as good as we could expect.
But then we get down to where the Mary St ramp intersects with the main trail:
Who-oa! What the hell is that? Quite the reverse of what I suggested, they've managed to make that corner tighter and sharper—and boxed-in for good measure.
In fairness, I don't suppose there's much else that could reasonably have been done here (short of building a whole new ramp from the underpass to the Main Trail) but I'm very, very glad this is not on my regular route any longer.
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