‘Something’s gotta give’: the zero-sum game for Chapel Street’s future

To stand on Chapel Street at rush hour is to observe a zero-sum game play out in real time.

Motorists crawl along the heavily congested shopping and nightlife strip spanning Windsor, Prahran and South Yarra. Commuters on the 78 tram – Melbourne’s slowest and least accessible route – are stuck behind them.

Cyclists ride a gauntlet between moving and parked vehicles, the ever-present risk of a car door opening in their path, making it the most dangerous street in Melbourne for bike riders.

Pedestrians squeeze past each other on narrow footpaths, where outdoor dining creates further pinch points. Navigating it in a wheelchair or with a pram is even harder.

The problem was succinctly summed up in a study commissioned by Stonnington Council: “Chapel Street currently tries to be all things to all people … Something’s gotta give.”

But any attempt to improve the situation for one group means taking away from another.

This balancing act is something council has struggled with since 2022, when it launched its Chapel Street Transformation Project. Detailed studies have looked at different options – including, most controversially, removing free on-street parking to make room for wider footpaths, bike lanes and level-access tram stops – but council is yet to produce a definitive plan.

A spate of hospitality venue firebombings has heightened concerns about the strip, which was once the city’s premier shopping district but recently has struggled with retail vacancies and crime.

In many ways, the question of Chapel Street’s future lies in how to allocate the 20 metres of space between its opposing Victorian and Edwardian shopfronts.

Andrew Bretherton lives just off Chapel Street, near the intersection with Dandenong Road. It should be easy for him to catch a tram from the historic Astor Theatre to visit Chapel Streets’ shops, venues and essential services.

But as a wheelchair user, it’s not worth the effort.

The route 78 does not have a single level-access stop or any low-floor trams – making it the least accessible route in the network.

“Whenever I need to go shopping or do anything, it’s easier for me to just get a car because I know I can’t access anything on Chapel Street,” Bretherton says.

“Chapel Street is supposed to be one of the biggest shopping and tourist destinations, and the fact there’s not one accessible tram along the whole street is ridiculous,” he says, adding that elderly people and parents with prams face the same challenge.

Constantly stuck behind traffic, the 78 is the also slowest route in Melbourne, with an average speed of 13.3km/h.

Bretherton says that even if he rolls his powered wheelchair down to Chapel Street, many of the kerb crossings have a high lip which “throw you out of your chair”, and some footpaths are so uneven or crowded with street furniture that he resorts to travelling on the road.

Stonnington has been calling on the Department of Transport to fund accessible stops and low-floor trams on the route, and also wants the line extended 700 metres further west along Victoria Street, to North Richmond station, to improve public transport links to Chapel Street (the 78 is one of only two tram routes in the city that does not travel through the CBD).

Despite a council study finding 54 per cent of visitors to Chapel Street walked there – and are the highest spenders – only 30 per cent of street space is footpaths, and much of that is constrained by on-street dining, outdoor furniture and shopfront stalls.

The study surveyed 600 people on Chapel Street and found that after walking, the most popular methods of reaching the strip was public transport (24 per cent), driving (16 per cent) and cycling (2 per cent).

This competition for space extends to the road, where it can quickly become dangerous.

Harry Townsend was lucky to escape injury both times he was hit by motorists opening their car doors into his path while he was riding his bike on Chapel Street.

Despite these frightening incidents, the 22-year-old business student still regularly rides on Chapel Street, which is the key north-south corridor connecting the inner south-east to the CBD. Despite being classified as a state government “strategic cycling corridor”, the street only has a painted bike lane.

“What makes it dangerous is the space you have between cars and the trams – there’s no room for error,” he says.

Between 2019 and 2023, Chapel Street was the scene of 181 reported crashes involving cyclists – more than any other road in Victoria. The RACV has called for it to be a top priority for improved cycling infrastructure, given its high number of crashes, large population and proximity to schools.

Townsend’s father, Matthew, is a planning barrister and travel activist who has spent years lobbying council to make Chapel Street safer for cyclists.

He believes Chapel Street doesn’t have room for protected bicycle lanes like those built through parts of the CBD. But he does think on-street parking should be removed and through-traffic discouraged to reduce the risk of “doorings” and turn the strip into a calmer, shared space like the streets of many European cities.

“Chapel Street should be made a low-speed, shared space in which cyclists and pedestrians do not feel as though they are taking their life into their hands by crossing the street,” Matthew Townsend says.

“We need to reimagine the road reserve as one in which pedestrians are given priority, and other forms of transport, cycling, trams and finally motor vehicles are made to feel like visitors in that space.”

As part of a trial, the speed limit on Chapel Street is to be reduced to 30km/h later this year, which council says will help improve safety.

However, Matthew Townsend says the road is clogged with motorists using it as a thoroughfare to avoid Punt Road or Williams Road, which slows down trams, and makes it harder for the motorists who actually want to visit the area. He suggests closing the street off at one end, starting with a Sunday morning trial accompanied by street markets.

While he acknowledges the anxiety some traders might have about removing free on-street parking, he points to council research that shows there are 5307 spaces in council-run and private multi-storey carparks – more than enough for everyone who drives to the precinct, even if all 398 on-street parks are removed.

“By improving the speed and efficiency of trams along Chapel Street and making it more comfortable for people to walk and ride, traders will welcome an increase in visitors,” he says.

But many traders say on-street parking is vital.

Arthur Galan has run his eponymous men’s fashion boutique on Chapel Street for the past 28 years.

Galan says his part of the strip in South Yarra is undergoing a retail revival, with luxury New York eyewear brand Moscot moving in next door and several other recent openings.

“There’s some good things happening. If they take parking away, they’ll destroy it,” he says.

When The Age visits, the three bicycle racks outside Galan’s store are all empty, while the on-street parking spaces are all full (two Porsches, a Lexus and a black Mercedes G-Class).

“The mum from Armadale, or from Richmond or Prahran or Toorak, they’re not going to jump on a bike and come down here,” Galan says.

“The customer that shops here wants convenience. They want to be able to drive in, park, run in, do what they’ve got to do and off they go.”

Galan says it is often difficult to find a spot in the nearby Colonnade Centre multi-storey car park, especially since the Jam Factory’s car park closed while undergoing a major redevelopment.

“If parking were to be taken away, it would be tough. I don’t think a lot of us would survive,” he says. “Look after what the precinct actually is – don’t try and make it something that it isn’t.”

Stonnington Mayor Melina Sehr says the state government’s ambitious targets for housing and population growth in the area make it even more important to improve transport along Chapel Street, but concedes that there are no easy answers.

“Chapel Street is a complex and dynamic street with competing interests,” Sehr says.

“Any changes in the road space will be explored as part of council’s Chapel Street improvement program. However, there are no current plans to remove on-street car parking.”

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