This design creates a new shared zone on Breese Street.
A shared zone is an area in which pedestrians have right of way and is designed as a place to visit and spend time, as well as a road to travel on.
This option is designed to complement Bulleke-bek Park as the centre of the precinct. It creates a central point on the street to stop, rest and enjoy the area, while providing traffic calming effects, reducing congestion, and creating a safer environment for all road users, espeically those walking.
During our first round of community engagement, we heard that cars parking on both sides of the street was causing significant congestion on the street, particularly on weekends.
To address this, this design proposes car parking on one side of the street only. This will allow for a two-way flow of vehicles while reducing congestion and speeds, and providing increased opportunities for planting.
Shared zones are an effective road treatment option to address our community's priorities and the project goals for the Breese Street streetscape improvement.
A shared zone is an easier to implement option for improving Breese Street compared to the one-way southbound design solution, as it requires significantly less involvement from external organisations.
A shared zone design option addresses the community feedback that directly requested this change, and more generally expressed frustration with parking and congestion in the area.
20 per cent of all survey respondents suggested a shared zone as a preferred solution for improving Breese Street, pointing to the shared zones at Albert and Victoria Streets in Brunswick East as an example.
A shared zone is an area that all road users can use. Vehicles and people riding bikes must give way to pedestrians in a shared zone.
Please note the Road Safety Road Rules (rule 83), “A driver driving in a shared zone must give way to a pedestrian in that zone. For this rule, give way means a driver must slow down and, if necessary, stop to avoid a collision”.
The new speed limit for vehicles, including people riding bikes, within this shared zone is 10km/h because of the need to give way at any time.
Although pedestrians have right of way, like many road treatments, eye contact where possible between all road users when determining who will go first is key to safely negotiating the shared space.
This is the same principle for zebra crossings and T-intersections, however in a shared zone, the speed limit is slower and the treatment can apply to a length of street rather than a single crossing point.
While the speed across Breese Street is proposed to be 30km/h, shared zones are required by law to have a speed limit of 20km/h or 10 km/h.
The new speed limit for vehicles and people riding bikes within the shared zone is proposed to be 10km/h. This will give drivers and bicycle riders time to slow down to avoid pedestrians.
As part of this design option, we are proposing that the shared zone treatment extend to West Street. These changes will improve access to the proposed location of the planned new railway station entrance, and Bulleke-bek park.
During our community engagement period, we heard how important this park is to residents of the Breese Street Precinct, and the design seeks to expand the feeling of where the park ends into the street.
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