Getting around

Melbourne is an accessible city and improved access for everyone is continually strived for. The city was specifically planned with a rectangular street layout so its wide streets meet at right angles making orientation straightforward. Footpaths are paved, offering plenty of seating and generally offering a clear path of travel. Melbourne’s character-filled laneways are narrower and more difficult to negotiate but are worth a visit for interesting architecture, great cafés and shopping.

Improved street access
The Melbourne City Council has improved street access for wheelchairs, prams and people with mobility difficulties by ensuring crossovers or kerb ramps are in place at nearly all intersections.

City intersections are normally equipped with audio pedestrian crossing signals and directional Tactile Ground Surface Indicators (tactile tiles or TGSI). TGSIs identify tram stops along Swanston Street and its major intersections: Flinders, Collins, Bourke, Lonsdale and La Trobe streets.

Negotiating the city
The city’s topography comprises a general fall from the north towards the south leading down to the Yarra River – the highest point is La Trobe Street and Russell Street and the lowest point along Flinders Street. Gradients in the main shopping and entertainment precincts around the Bourke Street Mall (the centre of the city) are not significant until you move outside the Mall, east or west along Bourke Street or north along Swanston Street.

When moving around the city remember the numbering system for street addresses commences with the low numbers at Flinders Street  for streets running north-south, and rising as you head north.  For east–west streets, the numbers start at Spring Street and increase as you head west.

Parking around town
Disability Parking Permits may be obtained by residents of the City of Melbourne with significant ambulatory difficulties or intellectual disabilities, under the Statewide Disabled Person's Parking Scheme. Disabled City Access Permits entitle the holder to parking bay time extensions. People who come into the city for work, study, medical appointments or for entertainment, may seek the permit by applying online at www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/permits.
 
The Statewide Disabled Person’s Parking Scheme entitles a person holding a blue, category one disability parking permit to park in: 

• Bays marked with a wheelchair symbol for fee payable (if applicable), shown on the parking sign or road marking
• Ordinary parking bays for twice the time limit indicated on the parking sign upon payment of an initial parking fee, if applicable.

Mobility and access maps
The Melbourne CBD Mobility Map identifies the smoothest and least interrupted path of travel along city streets and includes the locations of accessible toilets, on-street accessible parking spaces and accessible commercial car parks, accessible pay phones and public TTY phones. Copies are available at Melbourne Town Hall or the Victorian Visitor Information Centre.