Last month I found myself in Maidstone near the new tram depot under construction in Hampstead Road.
This depot will be home to the new G class trams, which will initially run on routes 82 and 57, both of which pass nearby. The depot will connect to them by a short connecting track along Hampstead and Williamson Roads.
From the street, there’s not much to see of the depot – nor will there be, given the access road is quite long. The Engage Victoria web site has a diagram showing the proposed layout, including stabling for up to 60 trams, a tram wash, a test track, staff parking, and more.
Next door they’re also building an ambulance station.
It all seems to make sense, and the tram track connection has already been built, with the section on Hampstead Road having dedicated tram lanes.
But there is one problem. Public transport users are also pedestrians.
And the work they’ve done compromises pedestrian access in the area.
For instance, the intersection at Hampstead, Wests and Williamson Roads has been rebuilt to incorporate the new tram lanes… but with only pedestrian crossings on only 3 of the 4 sides.
The previous iteration of the intersection had a crossing on all 4 sides. And the PDF diagram showing the area implied that would still be the case.
This intersection is a stone’s throw from the huge Highpoint shopping centre, a Quest hotel/serviced apartment block, an apartment building with (it looks like) more coming soon in the immediate vicinity, and there are also existing homes and businesses nearby.
This area is not just the boundary of Maidstone and Maribyrnong; it’s also effectively the suburban frontier between tram land and car land. Wouldn’t you think they’d want to be making it as easy and safe as possible for people to walk places?
Just east of the intersection – where some trams will turn north from Williamson Road along the tram reserved track towards Raleigh Road, pedestrians are now supposed to wait for a green man to cross the tram tracks. Previously they could cross whenever it was safe.
Okay, so you can see why they might have done this to improve safety.
But given most of the time there won’t be a tram, and the parallel road traffic will be able to go, did they provide an automatic green man?
No, of course they didn’t. You have to press a button and wait. (Sorry, I was so grumpy about it that I neglected to notice how long you wait. It didn’t seem to be instant when I tried it, but it should be.)
Demanding that people press a button and wait in a scenario like this means that many of them won’t, they’ll just cross. So is this actually safer? Doubtful.
Also: Given on this section of Williamson Road, there are tram and bus stops in both directions, did they provide a crossing at these traffic lights for the tram junction? No, of course they didn’t.
You’ll have to brave the traffic or walk 60 metres to the intersection, and 60 metres back. So we know what will happen – most will just chance it and cross the road directly. (It was quiet when I was there, but this road gets significant traffic at times.)
People coming from the homes south west of the intersection and wanting a westbound tram or bus will need to use three crossings in lieu of the missing one.
One other observation: there seem to be two distinct designs of sign warning drivers to stop for passengers boarding trams.
- The new one (in Williamson Road) features a tram that looks like a bus with a pantograph… in other words a trolleybus. But trolleybuses can normally pull into the kerb. Hopefully motorists recognise it for what it’s meant to be.
- The older design (seen in Ballarat Road) at least looks like a tram (specifically a C class, I suppose).
In conclusion: Don’t get me wrong – the project to provide a new depot and new trams is a very good one. It’ll be great to see it completed and the new trams running.
But they should have tried a bit harder to maintain or even improve the local pedestrian connections, rather than making it harder for people to get around on foot, including when accessing trams and buses.
3 replies on “Walking in Maidstone”
VicRoads and YarraTrams always have competing priorities and pedestrians are a tertiary consideration. Cyclists don’t even rate unless local councils step in and advocate. The State Department of Transport should be representative of all stakeholders (using that term in the most appropriate and non-bureaucratic sense here), the Department should have a head of each of them with equal powers and biases to object/change/propose outcomes.
As for the Green Man, should they be less gendered đ˝ j.k. Buttons should either be made automatic on every high use intersection, or have the area monitor pedestrian activity instead of manual presses, which rarely get used.
Similar happened at Craigieburn Station when they built more bus stops on Potter St. A wide path providing pedestrian access (and informally cycling access) to along Potter St (and further along to a section of Hume Hwy (Sydney Rd)) was replaced with a narrower path with bus stop shelters, poles and sharp turns in the way.
You raise very good points.
Basically, if the things put in place to “help” pedestrians (and cyclists, for that matter) are quite onerous, then people will find ways to avoid them.