Hi all,

Harrison Watt here, the founder of the Bike Lanes for Johnston St campaign.

It’s been a while since my last update, so I wanted to check in!

We recently hit 3500+ signatures for the petition, with 3755 people calling for a safer and more liveable Johnston St. If you haven’t shared it with your friends yet, please forward this email or link on change.org/bikelanes4johnstonst.

Since I last sent an update, we’ve also seen that Johnston St has been voted the 7th most unsafe spot to cycle in Melbourne in the 2023 Bike Spot project, up from 10th spot in 2020. This places Johnston St ahead of the notoriously dangerous Chapel St in South Yarra and St George’s Road in Fitzroy North. The key reasons as to why it is unsafe are ones we all know well: no bike lane, lack of separation and dangerous intersections. 3 key barriers to getting more people cycling, especially women.

Since I launched the campaign nearly a year ago, I’ve also seen how important local councils are in re-balancing the space allocated to people vs cars. 

So excitingly, I’ve decided to run for Council myself. I’m running for Langridge ward, Yarra City Council, which includes Abbotsford and part of North Richmond. 

Running a campaign involves a huge amount of work - so if you’d like to see a cyclist elected to council and see safer streets for walking and cycling in Yarra, I’d love any help you can give! You can help the campaign by hosting a sign on your fence, help me letterbox the ward and or if you live in the area, by voting [1] Harrison Watt for Langridge Ward and posting this by October 25th. Shoot me a reply email if you’d be willing to get involved :)

Thanks so much for supporting the campaign for a better, safer Johnston St. 

Harrison