Teen’s death sparks calls for long-awaited bike lanes in Melbourne’s west

3 days ago 5

The death of a young cyclist has reignited calls for the instalment of protected bike lanes in Melbourne’s traffic-heavy inner west, which the victim’s family and road safety advocates say could have saved the teenager.

Plans for a protected bike lane along Macaulay Road – where 19-year-old Will Richter was killed after being struck by a truck on September 22, his birthday – has been in the pipeline since 2021.

Will Richter with father Tim, mother Andrea Carr and sister Sophie at a university colleage football match in mid-September.

Will was riding along Macaulay Road when a truck turning left onto Rankins Road struck him, leaving him trapped underneath.

The kerbside-protected bike lanes would see a concrete barrier built between cyclists and traffic along much of Macaulay Road, including the stretches immediately before and after where the accident occurred. The intersection of Macaulay and Rankins roads would be painted a bold green colour.

The bike lanes were first budgeted fully by the City of Melbourne in 2021, and community consultation was undertaken in 2023, with 87 per cent of community members in support.

They went out for consultation simultaneously with an almost identical project on Arden Street. The Arden Street bike lanes were approved by the Department of Transport, and construction began in June 2024, but the Macaulay Road bike lanes are still awaiting approval by the department, according to the council’s latest budget.

The department provided no explanation as to why it had not approved the project when asked by The Age.

Will’s father, Tim, said that if the protected bike lanes had been constructed, it may have saved his son’s life.

“Had the approval and construction been concurrent with the Arden Street bike lanes, perhaps Will’s life may have been saved,” Tim said.

Tim, his wife, Andie, and daughter, Sophie, are now mourning the loss of their treasured son and brother. The family said he was a top student and had only recently begun studying at the University of Melbourne. He was a talented and hardworking athlete, too.

Floral tributes for 19-year-old Will Richter who was killed while riding his bike in Macaulay Road, Kensington.

“But he preferred to celebrate others and was very humble about his achievements,” Tim said. “He was genuinely kind, caring, grateful, always so optimistic and enthusiastic about life.”

In the days after Will’s death, several of his friends visited the family, sharing previously untold stories about how Will would spark up a conversation with someone if they appeared lonely or share his lunch if someone didn’t have anything to eat.

“What’s so heartbreaking ... we don’t get to see how his talents might have played out or the contribution and impact he could have made,” Tim said.

Cycling advocates are calling for the Macaulay Road bike lanes to be built immediately and are questioning why the department still has not approved them.

Victorian Greens leader and MP for Melbourne Ellen Sandell said that while the exact circumstances of Will’s death were still being determined, it would be heartbreaking if it had been avoidable had the protected bike lanes been installed.

“It’s simply not good enough that the state Labor government … seems to routinely delay or deny the approval of safer bike lanes in Melbourne and provide no clear explanation as to why,” said Sandell, who on Wednesday launched a petition demanding the government approve the project.

“Pedestrians and bike riders should be able to use our roads without fear of being killed.”

Pierre Vairo, vice president of western suburbs’ cycling advocacy group BikeWest, called Richter’s death an unnecessary tragedy.

He said that although accidents were inevitable when cyclists and motorists share the road, good transport infrastructure could mean the difference between “a horrific tragedy or … a dent or a scraped knee”.

Pierre Vairo, the vice president of cyclist advocacy group BikeWest, said improved cycling infrastructure can mitigate the outcomes of crashes.

“A 100-kilogram bike and rider and a three-tonne truck should be kept separate from each other … and that, in many cases, means protected bike lanes where you have some sort of physical separation.”

Between 2014 and 2021, of the 67 cyclists killed or seriously injured in accidents involving trucks in Melbourne, 28 per cent were in the City of Melbourne, according to a Road Safety Victoria study.

Vairo said the approvals process for bike lanes was often very slow.

Three sources, not authorised to speak publicly, told The Age that the transport department considered factors such as loss of car parks, disruption to bus routes, impact on local traffic and disturbance to nearby infrastructure projects when granting approval.

A department spokesperson said road trauma was devastating and that thoughts were with the victim’s family.

“The circumstances of the crash are being investigated, and it would be inappropriate to comment further while that investigation takes place,” the spokesperson said.

Anthony Bartl knows the perils of Macaulay Road well. Nearly four decades ago, it changed the course of his life.

Bartl, then aged six, was hit by a car while crossing Macaulay Road and suffered a severe spinal injury, leaving him quadriplegic.

He cannot move his body below his head and needs a ventilator to breathe. He holds a stylus in his mouth to type on a computer and uses a wheelchair, controlled by his chin, to get around, and requires round-the-clock care by nurses.

Anthony Bartl was left quadriplegic after being struck by a car on Macaulay Road nearly 40 years ago. He’s calling for more safety infrastructure on the thoroughfare after the death of a young cyclist.

“Before, all I had was my body and I had complete freedom to do whatever I wanted and go where I wanted,” he said.

“It’s hard when you have nurses with you all the time, it makes life a lot more … constraining.”

Bartl said news of Richter’s death had triggered his own trauma. He joined the chorus of voices calling for the protected bike lanes to go ahead.

“It’s an absolute tragedy … it brings back nightmares for me... But if there were those concrete barriers in between, that’d be a big, big difference.”

A Victoria Police investigation into the collision is ongoing.

Road Safety Minister Melissa Horne was contacted for comment.