The City of Yarra is considering creating Melbourne's first 30km/h zone. Credit:Penny Stephens The crowd-sourced data will be compared with VicRoads crash stats and fed to 12 councils to help them prioritise future plans. It will also seek to find discrepancies between people's perceptions and actual crash black spots on the road. The TAC-funded project, by CrowdSpot and The Squeaky Wheel, was launched this week, as one council debates a proposal to create Melbourne's first permanent 30km/h zone.

The City of Yarra wants to trial the low speed limit across a large part of Fitzroy, in an Australian first that would follow the lead of some European cities. A council report cited the example of Edinburgh, where the rate of children cycling to school reportedly trebled. If the council votes yes, the city will move to drop the speed limit to 30km/h in all streets bounded by Alexandra Parade, Brunswick Street, Smith Street and Johnston Street. Greens councillor Sam Gaylard, who moved the motion, said 30km/h was an inclusive speed for all modes of transport. "People feel like the streets belong to them, that they're not just corridors for cars, and cars can come into the zone without having to take traffic-calming measures like blocking off streets," Cr Gaylard said.

Fellow councillor Phillip Vlahogiannis​ wants the motion rescinded, arguing the community has not been given time to consider the proposal's merits. "Thirty km/h is something we need to have a conversation about with the community, but this is something that is being attempted to be brought in by stealth," he said. There is growing angst among some Melbourne motorists about lower speed limits. Motoring group the RACV has called for a blanket moratorium on speed limit reductions in Melbourne, arguing there are too many new 40km/h zones needlessly penalising motorists. But for The Squeaky Wheel's Pip Carroll, there is no question high speed is one of the key fear factors that puts some people off riding, and dents Melbourne's reputation for bike-friendliness.

And roads that are hostile, with fast traffic, no bike lanes, or disjointed bike lanes, won't show up in crash stats if no one is riding on them, which is why the survey is important, Ms Carroll said. "People shouldn't be fearing for their lives when they are on the road and that is a feeling that ... has come out already after one day of the bike spot project being open," she said. An early survey comment about busy Bulleen Road in Melbourne's east bears this out: "Terrifying experience riding along here in the 'bike lane' with trucks and a 70km/h speed limit. Plenty of room for a properly separated lane." Conditions such as this "can get into the head of a bike rider and make them feel they are not meant to be there", Ms Carroll said.