Perth Voice Interactive

WITH a few final pleas of support from locals, Vincent city council voted Tuesday to give a symbolic thumbs up to WA transport’s bike boulevard plan for Shakespeare Street in Mount Hawthorn.

The project’s designed to make the street safer for bike-riding, slowing traffic down to 30kph and installing treatments to make it crystal clear to motorists that bikes rule.

Mayor John Carey told the Voice it was up to the street to decide if it wanted the council to support the department’s watered down version. Most did.

The mayor is concerned the chosen design could hinder the project’s success.

A key sticking point is it’s too hard to get onto the boulevard from busy Green Street.

“I think it could set up the bike boulevard to fail,” he says, “because people will ask how do you use Green Street to get onto the bike boulevard?

“It’s a very unsafe street, with the slope of the hill, the number of cars, the speed, and I don’t think that any family is going to cross Green Street to get onto the bike boulevard.”

The boulevard is now in Transport’s hands.

by DAVID BELL