Categories
transport

William Street — too much space for cars?

Heading south along William Street in morning peak hour, fighting for space on the street, are pedestrians (predominantly coming out of Flagstaff station), trams, cyclists and motorists. How many of each? Tram route 55 gets a tram about every 4 minutes in peak hour. The May 2012 PTV load survey said that each tram carries  ... [More]

Categories
Politics and activism transport

As a pedestrian, I hate streets with only one footpath

The Greens are traditionally strong on sustainable transport issues, but one of the local candidates for council raised my hackles with this comment: Do we really need footpaths on both sides of the street, in every street in Tucker Ward? There are plenty of places without footpaths or footpaths just on one side. This would  ... [More]

Categories
Melbourne

Councils give warnings about overhanging trees blocking footpaths – why not parked cars?

From the City of Glen Eira web site: Property owners are responsible for keeping trees and shrubs under control and trimmed back to ensure pedestrian safety and clear sightlines for drivers. … If a Council notice is sent requesting that trees or shrubs be trimmed, the work must be completed within 14 days. … Property  ... [More]

Categories
Melbourne transport

The new Swanston Street superstops – do they work?

Last week the first of the new Swanston Street tram superstops opened. On Monday I went down at lunchtime to have a look, and came across Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, City of Melbourne planner Rob Adams, and Yarra Trams’ Michel Masson all down there having a look, and talking to the media about it. Robert  ... [More]

Categories
driving

Who’s meant to give way?

The law says that motorists turning into a street must give way to pedestrians crossing that street. The law also says that motorists turning in or out of a private property (such as a carpark) must give way to pedestrians. So why does the signage always imply it’s the pedestrian that should be the one  ... [More]

Categories
transport

No choice: at Fountain Gate, the car is king

The Westfield Fountain Gate web site’s advice for getting there by public transport has a list of the buses that serve the centre (the list being out of date — the 826 and 794 don’t exist anymore and the 839 and 840 no longer go there) and notes it’s a fifteen minute walk from Narre  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Bottom of the foodchain

I’ve been sitting on this blog post for a while now. Haven’t had time to refine it as much as I’d like, but it’s time to just get it out. We probably don’t need footpath reports on the radio… …but we do need more consideration of pedestrians. I think people would jaywalk less, and I  ... [More]

Categories
transport

How about some wider footpaths?

There are around 70,000 parking spaces in Melbourne’s CBD [source], and cars are a minority access mode. So don’t you think they could forfeit a few street parking spaces in the “Little” streets so some narrow footpaths could be widened? (Little Lonsdale Street looking towards William Street. The truck was legally parked.) For instance, Little  ... [More]