Councillors vote to pursue line-marking, lighting, school crossing and side-street upgrades while conceding the community remains split on more transformative options.
Yarra City Council has endorsed a "tactical" package of safety works for Wellington Street, directing officers to pursue a set of smaller-scale upgrades after an extended and often fractious debate about whether the busy inner-city corridor should be transformed to prioritise cycling and walking.
Yarra City Council Mayor, Cr Stephen Jolly thanked residents for what it described as a "very high level of engagement", saying the feedback had been "insightful", while acknowledging "broad community support" for measures that improve safety for all road users. But it also conceded there was a "diversity of views" and a "lack of local community consensus" on the more ambitious street transformation options put to consultation.
Wellington Street, a two-way collector road linking Clifton Hill and East Melbourne, carries about 10,000 vehicles a day south of Alexandra Parade and about 5,000 to the north.
Instead of committing to new protected lanes or "shared street" designs that would have reshaped traffic movement and removed significant parking, councillors opted for a suite of investigations and, if feasible, designs for lower-impact projects aimed at addressing known hazards.
These include:
re-line marking existing bike lanes and refreshing green conflict paint treatments
lighting upgrades near the Hodgkinson Street roundabout
further upgrades to the existing school crossing on Wellington Street
continuous footpath treatments on Council Street and Noone Street
pedestrian safety upgrades on side streets intersecting Gold Street, including Hotham, Keele and Sackville streets
upgrades to existing continuous footpaths in Hotham Street and Easey Street
removal of two southbound parking spaces and narrowing the centre island to widen the bike lane approaching Wellington Street from Alexandra Parade
improved sightlines for vehicles exiting side streets by removing some parking and managing vegetation, in line with a road safety audit
a proposed 30km/h speed limit on local streets in the northern precinct bounded by Alexandra Parade, Smith Street, Queens Parade and Hoddle Street
The decision left the door open to more significant change later, but only should a clearer local mandate for change emerge.
Council noted $200,000 has been set aside in its draft 2026-27 budget to progress detailed design, with further funding potentially required the following financial year. Officers have been asked to seek external grants and to report back to a council meeting in the third quarter of 2026-27 on what is feasible, including further information on delivery costs, with any future engagement to be undertaken in line with council's community engagement policy.
While there was reported strong agreement that the street feels unsafe and traffic volumes are too high, local residents and traders were far less united on the remedy. Consultation summaries provided to councillors showed roughly half of respondents living or operating a business on Wellington Street or intersecting streets did not back either of the proposed change options.
Between 2015 and 2019, protected bicycle lanes were installed on Wellington Street's southern half between Johnston Street and Victoria Parade, a project funded through a state cycling grant and costing about $4m.
