Melbourne’s Veloway continues to amaze with last week’s Super Tuesday commuter bike count showing that huge numbers of riders have adopted the route.
Despite the chilly and gloomy conditions on the day, the Iris Dixon Veloway was buzzing with smiling riders, and some very contented young passengers.
Since the structure opened in late December riders from all over Melbourne have been visiting to try out the experience of zipping along in a green steel tube above the hustle and hassle of the Port of Melbourne truck traffic below.
But now, with the holiday season over and everybody heading back to work, would the 2.1 kilometres of elevated path lure in the regular commuter who had previously used the ground-level path along Footscray Road?
The answer is an overwhelming yes.
A total of 600 riders took the Veloway route between 7am and 9am on March 3 2026.
And just 32 riders took the former, now alternative, route along the road.
That is an astonishing ratio and will hearten the designers, builders and operators who faced doomsayer predictions that the facility would not attract riders.
Of the 600 riders, 132 were riding e-bikes.
The Veloway was built as part of the West Gate Tunnel project, which delivered multiple kilometres of bike paths, and ramps and bridges in various locations close to the city, and further out to the western suburbs.
A number of other sites were also counted as part of the Super Tuesday count this year.
For example, the new ramp and bridge from the Moonee Ponds Creek Trail over the rail corridor and up to the North Melbourne Station precinct, clocked a total of 65 riders exploring this new route.
This connection will be massively important when the trail route along the creek floods – a regular event at high tide – enabling hundreds of riders to continue their journey to work by taking this new detour.
And further west, the new path along the Yarraville Gardens in Harris Street and over Whitehall Street carried 248 riders.
The Super Tuesday bike count is undertaken by Bicycle Network at hundreds of sites across Australia each year.
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