Every time I walk past Flinders Street Station I see bikes chained up to the railing, and I think to myself “why would you leave you bike here?”
Plenty of people ride bikes to suburban railway stations because that is the only way to get there other than driving, but anywhere within cycling distance of Flinders Street Station is well served by trams.
Maybe I should have asked the girl I saw today why she rode?
Do you really discount exercise so readily? I bet that’s the answer the majority of these people would give you. I go to ACU in Fitzroy and there are always a heap of bikes there despite it a tram stop being at the front door. Why shouldn’t they bike as a way to keep fit?
I would call Fitzroy a more bike friendly place: less traffic on the side streets, and plenty of local residents who want to get from home to wherever they are going nearby.
I can see why people would cycle to work or study in the CBD, but I still have trouble imagining a large number of people who live close enough to Flinders Street Station for it to be their local railway station, but far enough away that the effort of cycling beats walking.
cycling is also generally faster.. and more fun.
Could be that people are fed up with overcrowded trams.
If you lived on St Kilda Road it would probably be quicker to ride your bike than try to cram onto the crowded trams in peak hour. Possibly people in areas such as South Yarra or Port Melbourne find it easier to cycle across to Flinders Street Station than to bother with trams.
The other point one could make is that if the government wanted more people on trams, they wouldn’t have put bike lanes in the city
There is definitely an argument for more bike lanes in the Melbourne CBD: a dozen cyclists take up hardly any space at all as they fly past, while the same number of people in single occupant cars clog up an entire city block!