Opinion
Pedestrian etiquette in Melbourne has reached new lows. It’s time for a ‘keep-left’ crackdown
Nick Reece
Lord Mayor of MelbournePedestrian etiquette in Melbourne has reached new lows. On any major street you have fast walkers, slow walkers, people drifting diagonally like bishops on a chessboard, or those so engrossed in their phone they are oblivious to the bustling reality around them.
Foot-traffic numbers are soaring in the city again, and the new metro stations are about to deliver half a million more people every week – it’s time we took action.
Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece has proposed a crackdown on pedestrians who don’t keep to the left on CBD streets. Credit: Penny Stephens
Victoria’s Road Safety Road Rules mandate pedestrians must keep to the left when walking on roads “without footpaths”. But they remain silent about how people should move on actual footpaths. Is it time for a keep-left law for pedestrians on footpaths?
Claire Heaney has argued on these pages that a community information campaign is needed to educate a city of pedestrian drongos.
But is an information campaign going to be enough? Given the chaos on our footpaths, perhaps it is time for less carrot and more stick. Less suggestion and more compulsion, in the form of a new keep-left law.
Indeed, Melbourne has done it before. As historian Robyn Annear has written, in 1886, in an endeavour “to regulate the course of traffic on the footpaths”, the City of Melbourne erected signs on lamp-posts: Pedestrians Keep to the Right.
Yes that’s right, the right. Confusingly, the rule for footpaths was the reverse of the rule of the road. The penalty for breaching the “keep-right” bylaw ranged from a small fine to three months in jail.
Eagle-eyed Melbourne commuters can still see the faded lettering of the “Keep to the Right” era on the walls of the Flinders Street Station underpass – not far from the vintage “DO NOT SPIT” plea.
Early in the 20th century, British and colonial cities began switching their footpath rule to match that of the road. Sydney adopted a “keep-to-the-left” rule for its footpaths in 1921 and Melbourne followed in 1925.
“Keep to the Left” was stencilled on the surface of city footpaths, with a continuous white line painted down the middle so there could be no mistaking where the left became right. Photos from the 1960s show arrow-painted Melbourne intersections with people keeping to the left and crossing in stylish, orderly streams.
By 1963, The Age was reporting the council was no longer fining wayward walkers under the bylaw – just asking them politely to “please walk left”.
The intersection of Collins and Swanston streets in 1963, when there were painted dividing lines to ensure pedestrians kept to the left.Credit: City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection
These arrows gradually faded away, disappearing by the time the 1970s began.
From there, standards slipped. And they slipped enough that in 2014 Melbourne City Council introduced a walking etiquette campaign called Share Our Streets. The campaign saw actors with giant phones wandering the streets pretending not to pay attention to where they were going. Cards were handed out with tips: cyclists should give way to pedestrians, and those on foot should “keep to the left”.
In 2025, our city’s streets and footpaths are busier than ever with pedestrians, cyclists and micromobility devices such as e-bikes, (private) e-scooters and even e-skateboards. Add to this a culturally diverse population with more international tourists and students than ever before.
Meanwhile, mobile phones have created a generation of zombies who are always looking at their screen, taking a selfie, or streaming the latest series.
A decade ago, the City of Melbourne installed phone-friendly tech at the crossings just outside Town Hall: green and red footpath lights on the pavement are designed to grab the attention of screen-absorbed pedestrians who might be about to step into oncoming traffic.
City pedestrians are defying Melbourne’s “walk-left” convention en masse.Credit: Wayne Taylor
The success of the pedestrian upgrades has been mixed. Monash University found a frightening 42 per cent of phone starers failed to check before crossing the road.
Honolulu was the first city to fine people who cross streets while doomscrolling, and others have now followed. Is it time for Melbourne to do the same?
Victoria has a road rule that bans phone use while driving. What about the same for pedestrians crossing the road? Perhaps we could seize offenders’ phones for a day? For many, that would be harsher than a fine.
Walking has always been the predominant mode of transport within the CBD – up to 90 per cent of trips started and ended within the Hoddle Grid are on foot. The CBD hosts 900,000 pedestrians daily – a figure forecast to balloon to 1.4 million in the next decade.
If we want to remain a beautiful walking city, then we need to brush up on our pedestrianising skills.
Let’s return order to our footpaths while also celebrating our walking economy. Stay calm. Be kind. Keep left. Or we may need the strong arm of the law to fix things.
Nick Reece is Lord Mayor of Melbourne.
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