Parking in the bus zone

I’ve mentioned this in passing before, but what the heck.

This is a bus stop on Jasper Road in Bentleigh, opposite Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College.

Normally it’s used by local bus route 701. It’s also used when there are planned rail replacement buses running, as the designated stop for Patterson station. These ran this weekend just gone, and will run again over the coming Easter long weekend.

Back in 2006, under a government plan called Meeting Our Transport Challenges, route 701 was one of the first to get extended hours, with services until about 9:30pm, and the introduction of a Sunday service – only hourly, but better than nothing.

When the rail replacement buses run, they are scheduled until about 1am outbound, with services all night on weekends.

Here’s the bus zone for this stop:

These hours apply on both sides of the road.

Not only can someone park their car in the bus stops after 7:30pm, two hours before the last bus, but they can also park here all day on Sunday and on public holidays, blocking buses.

This could make it near impossible for someone with mobility difficulties to board or alight the bus.

Most other stops in the area have been changed to full time bus zones. It’s only this one (one of few that actually gets 24-hour buses during rail replacements) that hasn’t been updated.

Some local stops have just a bus stop sign – no specific bus zone is marked. This is actually better than having a part time bus zone – regulation 195 prohibits stopping/parking there, regardless of the time (though plenty of people don’t understand this rule).

I’m not even sure whose responsibility it is to update the signs to reflect bus timetables. In this case it’s not the council; it’s a Vicroads-managed road.

Over the years I’ve raised this multiple times with various people via back channels, but today I’ve tried putting it into Vicroads directly. Will see what happens.

But I’m amazed it’s gone unnoticed for more than 12 years. And I’m wondering how many more there are like this?

• Update 1pm. I sent an enquiry about this to VicRoads. They have referred me to PTV, so I have forwarded the enquiry to them. (Obviously the merger has only just been announced!)
• Update 3rd June: It took a while for PTV to reply, but they say it’s not them, and they’ve referred the query on to the local council… we’ll see what happens next.