All cities change over time. We are working hard to create vibrant, safe linkages between the key areas across our city.

In recent years, we have:

• significantly upgraded retail precincts throughout Hobart
• helped to transform Liverpool Street into a business and street dining hub
• installed a new pedestrian and cycle bridge connecting the city to the University Rose Garden and the Queens Domain.

The area around Collins Street has recently become the subject of significant, medium-density development proposals.

The recently adopted Central Hobart Plan has identified the need to support this growth by improving linkages to the CBD and natural areas like the Hobart Rivulet. It also identified the need to improve the general amenity of the area with street-side dining and additional greening.

Giving people greater options in how they move along Collins Street, including by bike and on foot, is also important. Our designs are aimed at ensuring people have safe and efficient routes, with some streets being prioritised for specific modes of transport.

A lower speed environment, streetside dining, a new pedestrian crossing and street greening will create a more comfortable, inviting environment for people walking and spending time on Collins Street. This is good for business and good for our city.

Improving the amenity of Collins Street for pedestrians, cyclists and businesses has been a long-term vision for the City. The ambition has been outlined in various plans and strategies over the past two decades.

The street was identified as a future arterial cycleway in the Hobart Regional Arterial Bicycle Network 2009.

Plans to improve active travel along Collins Street were then highlighted in the 2011 Hobart Rivulet Park Strategic Master Plan.

In 2012, linking the rivulet to the CBD through Collins Street was listed as a "priority project" in the Inner City Action Plan.

The need to strengthen Collins Street for walking and cycling, to support medium-density development, was then identified in the Central Hobart Plan in 2023.

Off the back of this strategic planning, a concept plan for the tactical trial was produced before eventually being presented and endorsed at the Council Meeting on 27 May 2024.

The City of Hobart engaged with business owners along Collins Street and, because of feedback, made multiple changes to the proposed design to retain more car parks and loading zones.

The updated design was presented before Hobart City Council at the Council Meeting on 16 September 2024, with councillors endorsing the two-year trial.

The Tasmanian Government then withdrew its commitment to help fund the project, causing the Hobart City Council to resolve to use project contingency funds to cover the funding shortfall at the Council Meeting on 14 October 2024.

The project appeared before the councillors again at the Council Meeting on 11 November 2024, where it was resolved that the project would be paused between Victoria and Murray St to explore options to "retain loading zone and parking opportunities".

Following an engagement process, options for the design of the trial between Victoria and Murray St were presented to councillors at the Council Meeting on 31 March 2024, where it was resolved that a design which included a protected bicycle lane on the northern side of the street with parking and a loading zone on the southern side of the street would be trialled.

Collins Street, between Molle and Harrington streets, will still have:

• 25 on-street parking spots
• two accessible parking spaces
• four loading zones.

Between Harrington and Murray streets, there will be 10 parking spaces and two accessible parking spots.

There are more than 1000 parking spaces within the immediate vicinity of Collins Street. This includes both on and off-street parking. This trial will see a 2 per cent reduction to public parking in the area.

There are five side streets which come off Collins Street which have roughly 150 on-street car parks within one block of the project area. This includes Molle, Barrack, Harrington, Victoria and Murray streets.

There are also over 100 spaces, including eight accessible parking spaces, in the Village Cinemas car park on Collins Street.

The Centrepoint Car Park is located next to Collins Street and has 780 car parks. It is rarely at full occupancy.

We engaged Pitt and Sherry to undertake traffic modelling of the proposed changes.

The findings of this modelling showed that there would be a slight increase in delay for vehicles at some Collins Street junctions.

The traffic modelling was presented at the Council meeting in September 2024 and is publicly available.

It is important to understand that Collins Street is not a strategic traffic route for through vehicle movements. There are several other streets around the city that do prioritise vehicle movements. This includes Macquarie, Davey, Barrack, Bathurst, Brisbane streets.

The Greater Hobart Household Travel Survey 2023 was conducted by the Tasmanian Government. It showed there is a rising number of cyclists in Hobart.

It found there were 4800 trips completed on bikes within the City of Hobart local government area each day. This is a 50 per cent increase since 2019.

Hobartians riding bikes is good for their health and good for motorists. It results in less cars on the road and helps traffic flow better.

We know the number one barrier to more people taking up cycling or any form of active transport is safety, something which separated cycle lanes will help address.

Data shows between 350 to 450 bicycle trips were conducted on Collins Street each weekday prior to the trial. This depended on the count location along the corridor.

The trial will be carefully monitored at key intervals across the two-year trial.

The seven key metrics which will be measured during the trial are:

• The number of bike and micromobility users using the street (targeting an increase in riders)
• The diversity of users of the street (targeting an increase in the proportion of women, children and types of bicycles)
• The number of people crossing the street (targeting an increase in people crossing from one side of Collins Street to the other)
• The speed of vehicles driving on the street (targeting reduced vehicle speeds)
• Perceived safety (targeting an increase for people walking and riding)
• Feedback from local stakeholders (targeting net positive sentiment towards the project)
• Feedback from broader stakeholders (targeting net positive sentiment towards the project)

The 'Monitoring & Evaluation Framework' outlines how we will track these metrics.

We will make regular updates to this Your Say page and directly to our project mailing list at key milestones.Subscribe here.

Engagement surrounding the project will occur at five key-intervals, with findings reported back to the city's elected members (along with road use data) in publicly-accessible reports.

This engagement will occur pre-installation, one month post-installation, three months post-installation, one year post-installation and following the conclusion of the two-year trial.

The engagement will take place through face-to-face interviews on Collins Street, business visits, online surveys, one-on-one meetings with key stakeholders, drop-in sessions and more.

Click on the top left to "Follow" the project Your Say page to ensure you're aware of the upcoming engagement opportunities.